Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Think she's excited??

I took McKinley to her first orthodontic appointment last Tuesday. She has been begging for braces since 5th grade. Over the last year though, when friends started complaining about the pain from theirs, she has been back peddling. But our dentist is not changing his mind.

That found us at one of the most fun offices I've ever seen. A video room, a game room, fun decorations, and staff that was all dressed in bedlam shirts for the upcoming football game. I was amused at every turn. Until the final price was settled on. $6380. Yikes. For teeth that don't really look that bad! Apparently most of that is for the device that will move her bottom jaw forward. She's been my child for almost 14 years and until I saw her profile picture I didn't realize her jaws were different. Go figure.

Since that appointment she has started getting excited again. This happened at lunch on Friday.

Yes, that would be a countdown to the very hours and 'minuets' until she's in braces.

Apparently the excitement interrupted her good spelling gene.

We'll work on that. Probably when she's sitting at a meal with us not eating. Reagan listened carefully to the list of foods McKinley couldn't have and has already started saying, "You can't eat that. Well, in a few more days."

Glad I don't have to worry about keeping track of that!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

My daughter has a palate expander, braces, and head gear, which she gets off in January. She started with all that stuff last spring. They plan on taking the stuff off/out of her mouth & giving her a few months break before putting braces back on. This will also give my bank account a break before we start round 2. (I try not to think about it.) The head gear was to pull her bottom jaw back (underbite). Thankfully she only wears it at home (I can't imagine trying to get a 12 year old to wear it in public.) I bought carnation instant breakfasts when she first had the expander put in so I felt she was getting some nutrition. My husband shudders when she has those for breakfast. I think it reminds him of diet drinks like slimfast. She's not real crazy about them now that she's not as sore, so that's a good thing. = )

I didn't realize how bad her teeth were until I saw the profile xray, either. Her back teeth had a one inch gap when her jaws were shut (didn't touch at all). No wonder she had problems eating steak! =)

I bet the excitement will wear off quickly. My daughter was excited too, but can't wait for them to come off!

Rachel
in snowy North Dakota

manda said...

Oh my word! I can't wait to read more about this. My almost 9yr old daughter's teeth and jaw are so screwy that we started some orthodontic work about 4 months ago with a spacer. We have a couple years until the big B's. I am anxious to get the low down from someone going through it. I assume you can do a payment plan??

Cozyflier said...

Well, we went through it with Chris and Tyler! Amelia has been begging for braces for 2 years too! Kev cringes at the mention of it.

We were discussing it 2 nights ago!! I think the reason they are so expensive is because the offices are so 'fun'. The Dr's here have big parties for the kids and have limos to pick up the kids from school for appointments!

Heaven help us!

And yes, I remember the list of foods you couldn't eat and having teeth so sore, you couldn't eat.

Hugs,
C