Maggie meets, charms the orthodontist

[celticdragonfly]

Back story - I have a very small jaw, and required a lot of early extractions of baby teeth, and later extractions of my adult premolars, braces, and surgical removal of my wisdom teeth before they could erupt. I've been looking at Maggie's jaw, as she's lost her first two baby teeth and had the first two adult teeth start coming in, and realized oh dear, she has inherited Mama's jaw. So I discussed it with our dentist when she saw him a couple of months ago, and he agreed she ought to see an orthodontist to make plans for the future - and told me some of the wonderful new things they can do that are much better than when I was a child.

We took Maggie to meet the orthodontist today. She was very good about it, cooperated beautifully with the x-rays and the photographs. As usual, she effortlessly charmed them. They thought she was adorable, especially in her pink cowgirl boots.

Yes, she has a small jaw, like Mama's. Commiseration with the lady doing the initial consult that yes, that perfect babyteeth smile actually means there isn't room for adult teeth. Discussion of cool options they have nowadays, that actually encourage the jaw to widen up and grow more bone! She probably won't have to deal with the nasty extractions I did at all.

Meeting the actual orthodontist, more discussion of options. Boils down to she needs her 6 year molars in before they can do anything. But yes, very good that we're looking at things now. Come back in one year.

And here's a cute t-shirt for her, and a folder with a printout of her pictures. Slightly distressing to think that yes, orthodontists can afford to do that, and someday we will be contributing to that proportionately.

Comments

Maggie would be upset . . .

[rlseiver.livejournal.com]

They thought she was adorable, especially in her pink cowboy boots.

Those are cowgirl boots! If you don't believe me, just ask her. She corrected me often enough in Illinois ;-)

Re: Maggie would be upset . . .

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

You are indeed correct. I will edit the post.

They wanted to know if she'd gotten them for Christmas. No, she said, then explained about Halloween. And told them about her pink guns, and pink "holders", and the pink hat, and the pink belt.

speaking of teeth

[the-blue-fenix.livejournal.com]

My little boy lost his first baby tooth (lower front & center) yesterday. Zero trauma; it had been loose a few days and he didn't even notice it was gone until his dad pointed it out. No sign of the tooth, he may have swallowed it.

He behaved well for the regular dentist a month or so ago. No orthodontic issues raised, so maybe he'll get his dad's teeth (no fixes at all) instead of mine (death by overbite until they were worked on, serious crowding).

His dentist wants to put a sealant on each permanent tooth as it comes in, to cut cavity risk even further. Anybody gone through this who can comment on effectiveness/price/drawbacks of the process?

He's had zero cavities so far. Our well water comes through limestone layers and has therapeutic doses of fluoride all by itself, which may be a factor.

Re: speaking of teeth

[bkseiver.livejournal.com]

Sealant is your friend. Step up and say, "Yes, please!" Even my husband got it as an adult, because his teeth have a (natural) tendency to pits. The sealant keeps those from forming cavities. A VERY good thing. Now, if we can just break him of chewing ice...

Re: speaking of teeth

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

They do? I thought Dad was the one I got the hard teeth from *as well as* the small jaw, and that your side of the family got cavities easily? I didn't get any until the braces came off.

I'd been told sealant was a moot point for adults. Hm.

Chewing ice seems to be hopelessly genetic. I swear, I'd broken the habit pretty well - partially because the freezer was set so cold they were too hard - and the kids started doing it, without ever seeing me do it.

I may ask the dentist about sealants when I see him next. Which is going to be annoying anyway. Darn it, nothing in my mouth hurt at all until I went back in for the cleaning - then an area of my mouth got sores apparently from stress, possibly from the stress of the cleaning - and then they did that dental work and now I swear all my lower jaw hurts all the time.

Re: speaking of teeth

[rlseiver.livejournal.com]

Yes, Dad was the one you got the hard teeth from, *as well as* the small jaw - however, the sealant still helps. (Of course, I don't have a peer-reviewed double-blind study of 1000 randomly selected patients to prove that - just single-blindly believing what the dentist tells me.)