And
Yesterday we found out we are starting down the "orthodontic's road of no return." Little Lance needs orthodontic work. His two incisors are impacted necessitating early orthodontic intervention in order to avoid surgery (the incisors are the teeth on either side of the 2 front teeth - his are not coming down). So, we'll start with the expander - which sounds
absolutely BARBARIC to me... They put this metal contraption on his upper back teeth and each night Mark or I (READ: MARK) will have to crank it further apart to literally stretch his upper palate wider... Amazingly enough, though, his palate actually splits cells and new cells are made and new bone grows to fill in the stretched space.... Pretty gruesome... if you ask me... Gruesome but interesting - if it weren't my little 8 year old going through it!Then we'll go to temporary braces, then a full set.
The whole process time wise will be a few years..... Price wise: you don't even want to know!! But, we're getting his teeth ready for the most important picture of his life: his wedding picture.. That's our inspiration... A long road but worth it in the end.
Interestingly, studies show that breastfed babies' palates are more perfectly formed because of the breastfeeding's natural physiological spreading of the palate by the breast tissue..... And, Lance was my longest breastfeeder at 1 and a half years.... I wonder if it would have been worse had he not breastfed?
2 comments:
My husband, all of his siblings and my nieces have gone through this process. My sister-in-law reminds me of the cost all the time. I keep praying "Dear Lord, please don't let little Sarah Grace get Mark's palate. Amen" haha!
And your husband and all of his relatives survived.... It just sounds horrible.... My hubby had braces (not sure if he did the expander or not)... But I was totally surprised by the whole process and what was involved....
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