Since he'd seen us last, Sweet Pea had four baby teeth removed in order to buy time for all her adult teeth to try to find room in her very small jaw. He was pleased with how her teeth are coming along so far, but warned me that there will still be a lot of overcrowding in her jaw as her adult teeth come in. But there's nothing we can do about it now -- we just have to wait and see.
But CC and Little Man, on the other hand, have some BIG changes coming.
CC has more of her adult teeth now, and the overcrowding is very apparent. The orthodontist said he has rarely seen a mouth so overcrowded. There's literally nowhere else for teeth to go, and she already has some adult teeth growing out of her gums sideways for lack of room. So although he is usually very conservative, he advised us to have four of CC's adult teeth pulled out -- an upper and a lower on each side. CC is pretty nervous about it, but we'll go to the same dentist who was so wonderful with Sweet Pea.
And last but not least, Little Man's finger-sucking habit is creating real problems in his mouth. It's pretty critical that we get him to stop as soon as possible, but at home we've tried everything: rewards, reminders, bad-tasting stuff, a sleeve that won't let him bend his elbow, and a chewable necklace to put in his mouth instead. Nothing has worked. But the orthodontist is concerned that as his bones solidify with age, and as his teeth get more and more out of alignment, eventually braces won't be enough to fix his teeth and he'll need surgery.
So next month, Little Man will have a dental device installed. It'll have three metal loops on the roof of his mouth to prevent him from sucking on his fingers, but you won't really be able to see it when you look at him. At the same time, it will expand his side teeth back to where they should be (they've narrowed due to the constant soft suction from his cheeks when he sucks on his fingers).
And so it begins.
1 comment:
Holy crap.
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