Round Two Begins

We started to take Sophie into the Orthodontist when she was about 7 years old. She shortly got an extender that we had to crank each day to push her top jaw out to make it wider. She got braces shortly after and had them for almost 2 years as they prepared her mouth for the bone graft surgery she would need. She had a retainer for about 6 months while we waited for her surgery date. Once she had surgery the retainer no longer fit her mouth and the Maxillofacial surgeon didn't want anything to interfere with her bone graft. That was almost two years ago. 

Sophie hasn't had any orthodontics since that time because the Orthodontist has been waiting for her 12 year molars to come in. Lucky for us they came in before she turned 12.  A few weeks ago, at an appointment with her whole cranial facial team they (the Maxillofacial surgeon, plastic surgeon, and Orthodontist) decided it was time to start round two finally. Over the past two years her beautiful, straight (and expensive) teeth had reverted a bit to their original crocked state. 

Today she got braces again. This time she has brackets on the top and the bottom. 

She is going to have to have an extender put in next week to also help the process along. Wow! does that sound like a lot of metal in one little mouth. We are really hoping to correct her teeth and jaw with orthodontics rather than have to have jaw surgery again.

She has been very positive about the whole experience. She wants to see her teeth straightened. However, she certainly didn't like the spacers (little rubber band like things they placed between some of her teeth) which were placed last week. She took a bit of Tylenol to sleep at night and sampled a lot of popsicles to keep the pain at bay during the day.  I have a feeling I need to stock up on those two things while she goes through this process again. I can see this round is going to be a little more extensive than the first round.