Hello, braces.

Well, yesterday was pretty stressful for me. I toke Amanda to Lander for a visit to the orthodontist....I was under the impression that it would be a longer visit, but not all afternoon. We started the appointment at 12:30 and didn't finish until 4:30. And if you hadn't guessed by now, she now has braces. We weren't sure that it would happen as she still had/has a few baby teeth that she needs to lose, but they did it. As they were putting them on, I had to stay in the waiting room because the sights and sounds of them working brought back too many bad memories. I can totally understand where she is headed, as I went down that road too. Although she is going to have it easier than I did. She won't have any teeth pulled, but the 3 baby ones that we are still waiting to fall out----they are just going to help them out. She will probably have to wear the for about 18 months, but the average is usually 12......they aren't going to pull them into position as fast because she has small roots on some of her teeth that if they pull them too hard it would damage the roots. She also doesn't have the bands all the way around her molars---they have just put brackets on them......for those of you former braces wearers you know exactly what I mean----for those of you who aren't the backets are ones that are glued to the front of the teeth where bands were metal sleeves that went all the way around the tooth and they usually made you bite them onto the tooth to push them on. But we are using the adage----No Pain, No Gain. We have to think about the gain that we will get for the pain we are experiencing right now.

This also brings to mind all the names that were thrown at a braces wearer (feel free to add to this list with your own)---brace face, tinsel tooth/mouth, railroad tracks, metal mouth........But I think that she will be just fine.