Orthodontia Ho!

It has finally started. I was pondering back in January how much Sarah's mouth would cost me...and now I know.

Actually, I only know what PHASE 1 will cost me. Yes folks, this is going to be a multi-phase process.

We went in on Monday and she had a bunch of molds and x-rays done. Her top jaw was too small for the smallest mold they had, so it was difficult for them to get a good imprint. While we were there, they went ahead and put in the spacers.

She has been whining ever since.

I keep thinking that if having some rubberbands wrapped around her teeth is going to be this painful for her, what is it going to be like when the palette expander is put in a couple weeks from now? Heaven help us all!

Anyway, she has been blessed with what they call a cross-bite. Basically, her lower jaw is growing faster than her upper jaw and that is a bad thing. It is the likely cause of the headaches that seem to plague her. The good news is that once her bite is corrected, the headaches will probably go away. The bad news is that correcting the bite will take a long time.

The palette expander is going to hang out in her mouth for the next four or five years or so and then she will get braces for a couple years. I suspect that the orthodontist and I will become best buds. The funny thing about her orthodontist is that he looks suspiciously like Smilin' Bob from the Enzyte commercials. I can't seem to get over that.