Headgear

On Wednesday Ian went to the Ortho and had his appliances put in his mouth. Well he only had one appliance put in...his expander. With this expander he will have headgear to go with it. This is something we are doing to work his upper jaw to get even with his lower jaw and make sure his teeth meet for a better bite. To do this expander it had to be fitted to his mouth and then cemented in his mouth. This expander has hooks on it that will have rubber bands attached to it, which he will then attach to his reverse head gear. All in hopes of expanding his mouth and bringing out his upper jaw. This will take a year and a half and he needs to wear it 14-16 hours a day. How realistic that is I don't know but as long as he's at home and not eating he'll be wearing this.

So here is Ian in the dentist chair...I can't remember if they have already cemented in the expander or not...but seriously when did this kid get so long? He's ultra cool with the shades on!Getting the headgear slightly fitted to his head...the Orthodontist will fit it more properly to his head. Tonight will be the first run of a few hours with his head gear on. Oh and we also have to widen his expander every day for 14 days. I will tell you right now that's an experience! Making sure everything looks like it should and the chin part moves like it should while he's talking. Thankfully it comes in blue and not just pink. All in all Ian did just fine. He was a little nervous but after they started I think he realized it wasn't going to be bad like having his teeth pulled. Right now he's having to learn to eat with something huge in his mouth and the amount of saliva his mouth is producing is amazing. His speech is a little impeded but that's to be expected, in about a week or so he should be eating and talking like normal.

I'm slightly jealous of Ian getting all this work done on his teeth, I have wanted straight teeth for as long as I can remember. My time will come soon...