Saturday, April 21, 2012

1 more for braces

Cole's getting braces too. Next month, Cole will have braces put on his lower teeth. His upper two front teeth will be the only ones on top to be treated. The orthodontist said he's basically throwing in the top two brackets to shore up his two front teeth as the rest of his upper jaw is in good shape. No crowds, good alignment, just an overbite. I think it was around 6mm. This guy said the same thing the other guy did 9 months ago. Basically, his lowers are over crowded. And because of that he looks like he has a second row of teeth down there because it pushes them out into a slant. He also has a crossbite, that I wasn't aware of, that has caused the upper molar to come down and shove the lower molar onto it's side....almost totally. It's kind of weird looking. It's no longer a cosmetic need, so we need to put him in braces too. It has been an EXPENSIVE year with 2 in braces and 1 teenager's car. Thank God we spent the first 18 years of our marriage saving! Cole's finally warmed up to the idea of the care required for braces and is ready. The great thing is that the ortho says that by correcting his lowers it will actually bring his over bit in and it should only be about 1/2 the distance. We're still not paying what orthodontist opinion #1 or #2 wanted to charge us for Chase's treatment alone for both boys together, with this guy. He's open to discussion and after 4 opinions in 4 years I learned a lot about what to ask and am SO glad we waited until Chase was 11 1/2 to start him. Some of it corrected on it's own...only his crossbite was really still the problem. Which, cool enough, after just 4 months in braces Chase's crossbite is almost completely fixed. They're missing each other like they should now. Cole has a good jaw/tooth relationship outside the 2 teeth crossbite, so it's only a 12-14 month treatment. If I have them going together I'll have 7 months of overlapping leaving me with very few extra visits for Cole. I asked about Kaelin's little gap while I was there and he said he didn't see a need. YAY! We have at least a few years break before Chelsi and she could be just fine. The teeth don't have to be perfect, just not damaging. 

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