When she was a baby I really, really hoped that she had been fortunate enough to inherit John's side of the family's genes for good jaw alignment and an uncrowded, teeth-proportional-to-the-size-of-head, orthodontic-free dental future. I know, I dream big. She inherited my genes instead.
When we went for an orthodontic consult a few months ago, the doctor sat me down and spelled out for me the plan for the first stage of work, which will take 2 years. Erin got upper and lower expanders a few weeks later and now about 6 weeks following that, it was time for headgear as well.
Boy, this brings back memories. Mercifully, I couldn't find any pictures of myself wearing this thing, but I had it from age 10 - 15 and they haven't changed a bit since then. Picture Erin with longer, blonder, straighter hair, and that was me.
I know it's not such a big deal. She's in good company in sporting this new hardware:
So far she doesn't mind wearing it, but it's only been a day. It's still rather novel. Unlike me, she doesn't have to wear it to school. She just has to wear it as much as possible outside of school. And there are benefits to starting younger. Whereas I had mine for years, she'll be able to correct the same problem in less than a year, potentially. Just in time for Allison to get one.
No comments:
Post a Comment