Speaking of Orthodontics

As mentioned yesterday, Olivia started her orthodontic journey on Monday, January 7. She got the blue bands that wrap around the back teeth put on. This will make room for them to put on the bands that will anchor her braces next week. She’s going to get the brackets put on the top four teeth next week. These will be used to pull those four teeth together to make room for her canine teeth to come in. One is already trying to make its way in but the other one, the one on the left, is either being stubborn or there just isn’t room.

So we’re making room.

My mom has said several times that braces are going to drive Olivia crazy.

Maybe so, but could we maybe not say that in front of her quite so often? Because even if they do, is that a good enough reason to NOT put them on her? Is that a reason to let her have a bad bite and messed up teeth for the rest of her life?

I get that there are parents out there of kids with 5p- syndrome who choose not to put their kids through orthodontics. I get it. There are a lot of reasons to decide not to go the orthodontic route.

The thing with Olivia is that she’s capable of understand why we’re doing this. We can explain that the tightness and soreness in her mouth is temporary, she’ll endure, we’ll give her medicine to ease the pain and ice cream to numb it and it will be over in a couple of years.

She sucked her thumb until she was four years old. She has an overbite combined with widely spaced teeth. They need to be fixed to fix her bite and make it easier for her to close her mouth. She has chronically chapped lips due to her overbite.

I honestly think it would be unfair and unkind to not put braces on her. We did it for Alyssa for appearances mostly. Sure, there were a few issues with her bite, but nothing like Olivia has. So if we did it for one kid, damn it, we’re doing it for the other.

When we met with the orthodontist back in early December, he said we’re looking at about 30 months of treatment. That’s about what Alyssa had so…yeah, par for the course, right?

Alyssa had to have seven baby teeth pulled before we started braces.

Olivia had five pulled back in July in preparation for braces.

Olivia is a smart, capable kid. She can tell me when she hurts and I can help her deal. This will all be worth it.