Braces, Braces, Braces

Back in 2017 Miss Gabby got her braces.  It is amazing when I look back on her smile before to see just how far she has come her teeth have moved!  She had been very discouraged by the way her teeth were twisted.  She is about 20 months into the (very approximately 36 month) process.  Yay!  Over halfway!  Her bite is responding well to the rubber bands being used to shift it.

Katie started with a spacer at the same time as Gabby's braces and moved on to braces at the end of the summer of 2018.  She had the shock joy of one of the younger girls from our AHG troop popping in while she was there, mouth open to have brackets applied and telling her how odd she looked with the spreader in her mouth.  Poor gal!  She is only expecting to wear her braces for two years, so she may finish up around the same time as Gabby.

We love our orthodontist.  We've followed this lady all over creation.  We first met her at a practice near our church.  She was great and told us, "Not yet," on braces.  That is so nice to hear, when someone is not necessarily working in their own best interest.  We found out she left that practice, and through some whispering, we found that she had gone a little further away, but still a drive-able distance, so we followed her to her new practice.  There she told us that Gabby would need those long term braces, but in the long run it was better to do that, to save a tooth she would loose without them, but not have the expense of putting them on twice.  We heard she was opening up her own practice, back closer to home (for her and us).  She was just going to do it on her day off to start, until she built up her patient base.  As we started in the other place, we intended to stick with it, but they got wind of her extra curricular orthodonting and decided to let her go, so we followed her to her temporary spot, in a dentist's office on their day off and in the evenings after they closed (what a great plan for everyone--they got rent for the time they weren't using the space and she could start work before her office space was open).  Now we've followed her to her very own office.  We're excited for her.

And then in November, I got braces too.  I'd been warned that due to wear, if I didn't fix my teeth through braces, I would eventually loose teeth.  My smile never bothered me, as my top teeth have been fairly straight, but those bottom ones are tight and twisty.  First she started on just the top, moving them out of the way a bit, trying to prevent putting bumpers on my teeth.  That didn't work out, so when she added my bottom brackets and wire last week, I got bumpers so I don't accidentally knock off my bottom brackets.  Then one of the bumpers came off, so I got another bumper on Monday!  I also got torture devices springs to make room on the wire, between my teeth, to get my canines attached.  She gave me the ceramic brackets on top, for the same prices as traditional metal ones, to make it less obvious that I'm wearing braces at forty.  And she gave us the friends and family discount.  Did I mention we love this lady?

Ellie asked to see the new braces (the bottom brackets are metal, as ceramic will damage the enamel on the back of your teeth as they touch, plus the springs make for a lot of metal).  She deemed them 'scary.' So there is that.  Ha!