Off

Liv got her braces off today! I remember the day I got mine off! How can it be that she is that age?! It was fairly quick and painless and her teeth look fabulous! Although now she thinks she needs to have them whitened... I told her when her last 2 baby teeth fall out we will do it. :)

Right after they took them off

Putting her permanant retainers in

A pic with Dr. Jorgensen

Gorgeous!

Brace Face

This morning at 6:30 Liv came into our bedroom in tears. Why? Well, yesterday she got her braces on. And while the procedure was quick (45 minutes) and painless the actual straightening of the teeth is not.

In the next 6 weeks the special wire that they put in will pull all of her teeth down from the top and up from the bottom so that they are all even and level. To accomplish this, every night she has to rinse her mouth with hot water or drink something hot. This will tighten up the wire which is heat activated (things have really advanced in the 20 years since I had braces). When she goes back to the orthodontist they will put in wires to do the actual straightening. The whole process will take about 8 months.

I love her smile and can't wait to see the finished product! 

Expanded

Today, after 3 long months, Liv got her expander off! I thought that it was just going to be grinding the cement off and then popping off the expander, but I was wrong! It did start with drilling, but when the assistant (whose first day it was!) went to suction her mouth, she stuck it too far down her throat and gagged her. After recovering from the gagging and then rinsing her mouth, the orthodontist grabbed some big plier things and started to "pop" the expander off. While he was working on getting it out, he kept commenting on how tight it was on her teeth. I figured that he would drill a little more of the cement off and then try again, but he just kept tugging on it. When it finally popped off, Liv let out a little scream and as the orthodontist pulled it out of her mouth there was a TOOTH stuck in it!!! He said that this occasionally happens when a baby tooth gets loose under the expander. Since the tooth wasn't quite ready to come out, she bled and bled and bled! She finally stopped bleeding and they were able to clean the rest of the cement off and send us on our way. When got out to the car Liv broke down and cried. She didn't know why she was crying just that she was scared when it happened and that her mouth hurt. Poor girl!!



Poor unsuspecting Liv ready to get her expander off...

The damage..

She gets a week for her gums to heal and then we will go back and get her braces on. Hopefully that goes a lot smoother!!

Expander

Just before Christmas we took Liv to the orthodontist to see when would be the best time to get her braces. After several x-rays and a consult with the doctor we learned that the sooner we did it the better. The reason being that she still has 13 teeth that need to grow in! 13! Her mouth is so crowded already that there is absolutely no room. So we set up an appointment for the first of the year to get started.

Last week we went in to have her molds done and to have one more look at her teeth. After she got the molds done they gave her a bunch of sticky candy (Starburst, Skittles, Laffy Taffy, etc.) that she wouldn't be able to eat while she has her expander and braces. It was really cute.

That brings us to today. Today we went back again but this time we finally got started. The first step in the process of braces for her is an expander. Which does exactly what the name implies. For the next 3 months it will spread apart all of her teeth so that the 13 that haven't grown in yet can. When those three months are done she will get her braces on. The whole process is only going to take about a year.

 Can you see her white knuckle grip on the chair? She was so nervous that it was going to hurt even though I kept telling her it wouldn't. 

No, she wasn't scared to death. ;) They are drying her teeth to cement the expander in.



All done! And it didn't even hurt!


So now every night for the next 6-8 weeks we will turn that little wheel in the middle of the expander to spread her teeth apart enough for the others to grow in. As we were leaving the doctor told her, "It's like working out. At first you hate it but when you are finished you love the results." :)