The Orthodontist

I never had braces. It's not because I didn't need them. I just didn't want them. Since I was a big thumb-sucker when I was little, my mom wanted me to get braces. She told my dentist. He said I didn't need them. So I listened to my dentist and told my mom, I didn't need them.

Fast forward to today, my mom continues to remind me that I should have gotten braces but oh.. c'est-la-vie. I didn't want them because I was scared to get them. I did not want to deal with the uncomfortableness/pain of wearing them for long months on end and how it would make me look. Yes, I was a chicken. When I was little, getting braces was not the norm. Now kids and adults are getting them all the time.

Emily saw the orthodontist at age 8. Apparently that is the age when your child should start seeing the orthodontist. Something about checking their bite, jaw and how their teeth are coming in. Thankfully, she doesn't need anything done until all her permanent teeth come in. Then if she does get braces, it'll be for cosmetic purposes only. (Like me.)

Getting braces seems like the 'in' thing to do now for kids. They all have braces. It's rare to see a kid without braces. My 8-year old nephew just got braces. Apparently he has a cross bite and under bite. The braces will fix all of that supposedly. 

Hannah is 8 years old and her dentist told me, "It's time for Hannah to see the orthodontist."  He's concerned with her two front teeth which are coming straight down on top of her bottom two teeth and that her unseen permanent teeth are humongous which concerns him in regards to spacing in her mouth. Plus she has a huge gap in between her two front teeth. Now mind you, she has only 'lost' 6 baby teeth. I say 'lost' because she really has never lost any teeth. They were all extracted by the dentist.

Check out Hannah's panoramic x-ray of her mouth. She still has tons of baby teeth still there and her permanents are enormous.

Hannah's visit to the orthodontist was very worrisome... for me. You see, I was afraid of all the work that she will need to endure to fix the teeth problems. She already gets hysterical whenever we go get her teeth cleaned at the dentist. How will she react when she has to get all this serious, painful, uncomfortable orthodontic work done in her tiny mouth? (You can see where she gets her anxiety from.) Knowing her, I know that she will be traumatized by the experience. That's just who she is right now.

So we go and get our first consultation and I brace for the worst. I guess God knew how much Hannah could handle and He answered our prayers. Our orthodontist, Dr. Chun, said that she doesn't need any work done right now. In fact, her two front teeth are not coming directly on top of her bottom teeth. If she relaxes her jaw, the teeth come right over it. And when she loses the rest of her baby teeth, the permanent teeth will come right it. Apparently she has a lot of spacing between her baby teeth (never really needed to floss really) so it'll work itself out. Now if she had had baby teeth that were very close together, then it would be a problem. So Yay! Nothing to be done until she goes back in one-year for another 'consultation'! Dr. Chun is THE best orthodontist out there, in my opinion. She explained to us, in laymen terms, what was happening with Hannah's teeth.

Whew... what a relief. But now since Emily has all her permanent teeth, she'll see Dr. Chun this summer. We'll see what she says for her!