Z.'s braces came off this afternoon which is very exciting for all of us! The braces were pre-orthodontia, she'll be getting them put back on once all her baby teeth are gone and her full grown teeth have grown in. A. took her for her appt. and waited for her in the waiting room and she came out without a smile but with a huge scowl on her face saying "another adult lied to me". Well, no one every mentioned to us, nor did A. nor I even think about it, but she needs to wear a retainer for the next 1 to 2 years till her regular braces are put on.
Of course it makes sense when you think about it, otherwise things are going to move around, especially since there are spaces where the 4 baby teeth were pulled and the full grown teeth haven't grown in yet. But it would have been nice if someone might of mentioned it so we could have prepared her. A. said something to them and they just looked at him and said, of course she needs a retainer. Whatever!
The part that has her really upset is the lisp it causes when she speaks. She's embarrassed to go to school tomorrow and talk funny (well, if this snow turns into ice she may not have to worry about that tomorrow). It will get better in a few days as she gets used to it, in fact I have already noticed an improvement as she practices talking. However she's not really had the retainer on much since she's been home tonight since the reward for all the good behavior she's shown in enduring all this orthodontia at 9 years old is some really bad for your teeth bubble gum and a sticky rice crispy treat from Whole Foods for dessert tonight.
Sigh, we're all feeling like the poor kid is going to be wearing braces for the rest of her childhood in one form or another (which is probably pretty accurate when you consider this retainer, the next braces and then a couple more years of a retainer after that). To a 9 year old the prospect of having really nice teeth afterwards is not really an enticement. Of course it's all A.'s and my fault since she inherited her mess of a mouth from the two of us, who in our day didn't get pre-orthodontia, they just yanked out 4 or 6 full grown teeth on each of us.
Well, hopefully she'll adjust to this as well as she did to wearing the braces. This is better than the braces because at least she can take it out to eat sticky food, but the concern is her losing it (I myself threw out my retainer in jr. high school with my lunch one day and it was never replaced which explains why my teeth are crooked). The orthodontist recommends they don't take it out away from home to guard against this, but I suspect that compliance will be hard. I wonder how many retainers we will have to pay for before this is over!
1 comment:
It may take a while for the odd talking to go away. It took Rhiannon a few months to speak totally normally with her retainers in. As a result, she often mumbled at school because she was embarrassed about it. I think it has improved now. At home she doesn't mumble as much, anyway, and she is much easier to understand.
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