Look at That Smile!

Luke had an orthodontist appointment this morning. The doctor said he didn't have to wear his headgear any more! Luke was really crushed to hear this, but I managed to console him. Then the doctor started talking about phase 2 . . .

I had been quite happy with Luke's smile, especially considering where he was when we started! But it turns out the the $1300 we spent was only on the TOP part of Luke's mouth. His lower jaw is also narrow. And there are 2 teeth fully formed and waiting to emerge--with absolutely no room for them to do so. You can clearly see them on x-rays! If you don't know they are lurking down there, then his bottom teeth look great too--all nice and lined up!

So phase 2 of the operation involves braces to move the bottom teeth out of the way to let these 2 teeth come up in peace. I don't recall mention of another expander, but I could be wrong. Otherwise, the danger is that they will become impacted and require surgery. Without taking any off for insurance, this will cost another $3700. Sooooo . . . now Bob just has to find a job with good dental insurance, LOL. Actually, even if he had stayed active duty, since the military dental insurance also paid $1300 for the first phase (1/2 of it), then they would only have paid $200 for this. Each person only gets $1500 total for orthodontic care under the United Concordia dental plan. No real loss there!

And once again, Nathan's need for an expander and braces because of a crossbite moves down to the bottom of the priority pile. His mouth just doesn't seem too bad! Nice, wide jaw--plenty of room for teeth!

Orthodontic Update

Luke had not one, but two orthodontic appointments yesterday. At the first one, he got his braces and his expander taken off. Yay! He kept saying how weird it was to feel his gums and the top of his mouth. I don't think any of us will miss the sucking sound he would make to try to clear out food that got stuck up in the expander, LOL. I still can't believe the difference that 6 months of the expander, plus a few months of braces, made in his mouth. Wow.

While he was there in the morning, he had impressions made to fit him for a retainer that he will mainly wear at home and at night. The orthodontist also came out to talk to me and tell me that he also needs to wear a head thing to help his lower jaw grow forward, since it is really small, and his teeth are not lined up properly. He asked me if I thought Luke would wear it, and I said he would probably wear whatever we told him he had to wear. Luke needs to wear the head gear for 14 hours, most of which will be at night while he's sleeping. This is the good thing about homeschooling--Luke seems totally unaware that there might be any sort of stigma against orthodontic appliances. I was a bit worried that he would be really self-conscious and not want to wear the thing, but last night he didn't really seem to care. He wore it for about an hour and a hlaf, while watching a movie. We have to work up to the 14 hours, and he did say it was uncomfortable after awhile. I hope he can sleep with it! I'm not sure that a picture will be forthcoming, but we'll see.

When we went back for our afternoon appointment, Luke picked up his new retainer. I don't know if he just only needs a small one, or if retainer technology has really come a long way since I was in junior high, but it looks nothing like what I remember people wearing! Those were these huge things with a big pink palate part, and wires everywhere. His is clear plastic with no wires, and it is not noticeable at all. He's just supposed to wear that at home, not out, which should be easy. I'm not sure how long he'll have to wear these things. We go back next week to check on the progress.

A brave new world . . .

We entered a new world yesterday . . . the world of orthodontia. We had a consult with the only orthodontist who accepts the Tricare dental plan anywhere near us, and fortunately he and his whole office were very nice. The problem is that Luke has (forgive me if I get too technical) a "very narrow mouth". I guess this goes along with his narrow feet? On the x-ray we could see that his teeth are stacked up 3 deep in places, with the permanent ones struggling to find places to come up. One of his top teeth has erupted WAY up high in his gum, so you can't even see it unless he smiles really big.

So the first order of business is an expander on the top of his mouth. After some preliminary appointments, he'll have the device put in Aug. 11. Then I'll have a key, and I'll twist it every night to expand the thing for several months. That should open up some room up top, and hopefully things will start to right themselves. He'll have to have braces then to bring the high tooth down, and the front 2 teeth up a bit.

On the bottom, he'll need to have a few baby teeth pulled. We'll probably do that in the next few weeks. He will need braces down there as well. All this stuff involving his mouth before all his permanent teeth come in is "phase 1", which does not inspire confidence that our foray into orthodontia will be brief, LOL. Hopefully all this work will allow the rest of his permanent teeth to come in not too crookedly. "Phase 1" will cost us about $1300, which could be worse, that's for sure. Of course, there are probably at least 2 other kids who share Luke's narrow mouth, and I'm not sure that Nathan and the other 2 like him won't need some kind of braces when they get a little older. At least he doesn't need anything right now!