Teeth story, the early years.

When you adopt a child, it's no different than when a baby is born.  No matter what the age of the child is when they are 'born' into your family, as soon as that child is placed in your hands and you have a moment alone with them, you go over them thoroughly and take inventory.  Fingers?  10. Toes?  10.  2 eyes, a nose, and 2 ears. 2 arms, check.  2 legs, check.

When a child is 9 months old, though, it's hard to check everything, because they are a bit more mobile than a newborn infant is!  So, before you can check inside the mouth... crawling?  yep!  Standing?  yep.  Scaling furniture hanging on for dear life?  Oh, yeah.  Walking?  No, thank God, I will get to witness her first steps! (which I did, when she was 11 months old!)

Then, I felt inside her mouth, with those perfectly full lips, and felt some teeth.  4 of them.  2 on top and 2 on the bottom.  And she bit me!  Perfect.  They work!  And when she gave me her first smile, there they were.  Perfect.

And all her perfectly chicklet type teeth came in, one after another over the next year and a half, bringing with each one, it seemed, an ear infection!  They were so white and beautiful.  All in a row.  Nice and straight.

When she turned 5, her cousin Maisie was turning 6 and started losing her teeth.  Sophie couldn't wait for her teeth to get loose and have a visit from the Tooth Fairy (ah, the beginning of the Fairy syndrome!).

However, Sophie's teeth decided that her teeth story would be different.  Her baby teeth had settled in for the long haul.  It made no difference that her adult teeth were sprouting behind them, they were staying put.  Those first 4 baby teeth that she came to me with, all needed to be pulled coaxed out, so there was room for her adult teeth to come in and assume their rightful place.  (Not all at once, but one at a time!)

Then the teeth next to them had the same issue. 

The teeth would get loose.  But just never get to the point that you could pull them out.  Out of the 8 teeth that she's 'lost', only one fell out with some help from Sophie.  All the others had to be plucked out after having some loosening gel applied to them.

Now, the way the teeth came in, however, has been very um... er... uh... creative.  They didn't just come up or drop down nice and straight.  They came in at right angles and other unmeasurable angles.  And with some spaces between them.  Some were slightly behind and some were further in front.

We asked the dentist if this was evidence that braces would be in her future.  We were told that it was too soon to tell.  Then there was talk of 'crowding' and the possibility of needing to pull teeth when all of her adult teeth came in when she was 12.  sigh.

This year, it seems that some of Sophie's friends have gotten retainers on their way to correcting their crooked teeth.  Sophie mentioned how cool it would be to be able to have a retainer like they have.  Seems that they even have flavored retainers these days!  I told her that she most likely would have braces when she got older and THEN she'd get a retainer, to hold things in place after her teeth had shifted to their final position.

Well, Sophie went for a teeth cleaning 3 weeks ago and the dentist poked around after the hygienist was done.  After a few minutes, she said that she wanted the orthodontist to take a look.  It seemed that Sophie's eye tooth on the top had come in far enough back that when she bit down, it was behind her lower teeth.  Not where it should be.  It needed to be encouraged to move forward.

The orthodontist came in and said there was something that could be done.

It needed a .... retainer.  Now.

You've never seen a little girl's eyes light up and the biggest smile cross her face.  I said to the Orthodontist, "You've made her day!"  He said that he'd never seen that reaction to that news before.

So they took impressions and pictures of her mouth from every which way and all the time, she could not stop smiling at me. 

She wanted a blueberry flavored retainer.  The orthodontist said that his lab didn't have that flavor, but how about bubble gum?  No.  What color did she want?  Pink?  No.  Clear.  Sparkles?  Ok.  Silver. 

So an unflavored,  clear retainer with silver sparkles was ordered and it would be ready in 3 weeks.

Yesterday was the big day.  My ex took her, as I was having big problems at work and needed to be in early.  Also, Sophie had a dermatologist appointment after school, so I would need to leave work early to take her to that.

They called me when they got out of the dentist office.  Sophie was very upset.  The retainer made her gag.  It hurt.  She couldn't swallow.  Her spit was taking over her mouth. 

Nothing like the anticipation of something so wonderful to be crushed with the reality that not only was it going to be painful, but it would practically suffocate you!  The orthodontist had suggested that she not try wearing it until after school, when she could drool in private!

I picked her up after school and she was proudly carrying the retainer in it's special case.  She opened it up to show me (in all it's sparkly glory!) and then wanted to show it to some of her friends before we headed out. 

As soon as we got into the car, she popped it in her mouth.  I told her to just relax, breath and swallow gently.  She did.  I asked if she were able to talk.  She mumbled something I couldn't understand.  I just nodded and thought that perhaps the next 6 months might be very quiet ones!  (The retainer has to be in her mouth at all times except when she's eating or brushing her teeth)

But soon, she got the hang of speaking and then she said something that involved the letter S!  We both started laughing, cuz she sounded so ridiculous!  I told her to say "Suffering Succotash" and she did and we laughed til we were practically crying.  All the way to the dermatologist she said as many s words as possible!

It's been 24 hours now and so far, she is having no problems wearing it and hasn't lost it.   Her mouth is a little sore when she does take it out to eat, but a little Motrin is helping to take the edge off. 

She looks so cute with it, I can't stand it.

I wonder what the next chapter of her teeth story will be.

Comments

[Tina-cious.com]

I remember DESPERATELY wanting braces as a kid b/c my friends had them.

Hell, I still do. LOL

[Deborah]

I'm glad she's adjusting nicely.

[kraftykay]

How cute! I love that her retainer has sparkles.

[PixieFlute]

I wanted braces so badly when I was a kid. I think I was the only kid around that didn't need them.

[san diego teeth whitening]

That's cool i think having a braces is nice idea. :-)

by: florence