Smile and Say Cheese!

The kidlets are growing up, and it's time to examine orthodontia. Unlike when I was a kid (yes, yes, the T. Rexs all had headgear, and you don't even want to hear how hard it was for them to put it on, with those little arms), braces happen really really early. Like second grade for some kids I know. So the fact that my kidlets are in 4th and 6th grade makes their upcoming introduction to the world of braces seem a bit tardy.

Fortunately, that is not the case. Like me, my kids have remarkably slow growing teeth, and there is very little that the doctor wants to do now. A couple of months of an expander for the Bunny, to help her upper arch grow wide enough for all her teeth, a couple of baby teeth extracted for the Pony, to give her adult canines the room they need to come in straight. Then nothing else for nearly a year.

So, I gotta say YEA! Because I went through a TON of orthodontic mauling, and it looks like the kidlets will escape that.

Yes, I had 4 permanent teeth pulled because my jaw was too small. I had braces from 11th grade to college. I wore headgear for a horrible period of time--it was hard to sleep with that stuff on. I had mandibular advancement surgery--the technical term for jaw surgery to correct an overbite, which required surgery to move my jaw forward, and then eight weeks of my teeth wired together with a retainer between my teeth. The retainer covered most of my teeth, so I couldn't even use the hospital's "liquid diet" because I couldn't get ANYTHING with any mass between the spaces at my gum line. I can't even tell you how much weight I lost. I couldn't talk either. It was a bitch of a time.

But! I now have great teeth! Really great teeth! My last dentist appointment, the hygenist couldn't stop admiring my teeth. "You really have beautiful teeth" she said, at least five times.

Even at the consultation for the kidlets, the assistant admired my magnificent smile. "Great teeth, your smile is really beautiful" she said.

So, Dad and Mom--I think you deserve to hear the compliments, since you had to PAY FOR IT ALL!