expand yo mouth

At Britton' s dentist appointment at the end of February, I pointed out how the teeth on either side of the upper front teeth hadn't come in yet.  She lost these teeth a while back, and there just didn't seem to be enough room for them to come in.  Her dentist said that there were two schools of thought - either let the teeth do what they will do and fix it with braces later, or intervene orthodontically now.  He suggested we look into options now, and after speaking with the orthodontist, I'm so glad we did.

It turns out that Britton has a cross bite, and on top of that she has crowding.  Those teeth (officially #7 and #10) will not come in well on their own, and would result in expansion surgery when she's older.  By getting an expander now (to wear for the next three months), Britton will only have to wear braces for a year or so when she's 11 or 12.  A no-brainer, and luckily Britton was very excited about getting an expander!

Excited until that day actually came (Friday).  Britton has been battling a horrible cold and ear infection all week, and having the hygienist tell you to "just breathe through your nose" doesn't help you out when you physically can't do that.  She toughed it out and even the orthodontist complimented her on being a fantastic patient!  

The expander is in now, and I have to adjust it every night.  It was relatively painless to put in (other than the fact that they had to dry off her teeth to put on the adhesive which put her into coughing fits), and Britton had the usual drooling and difficulty talking.  But what was fine to deal with yesterday is wearing on her today.  It will take days for her to adjust to the expander and learn to speak more clearly.  She's worn down by the cold and the expander and all the changes that came with it, and she tearfully admitted to me tonight that she wishes she never had it put in.  Time has different meaning to a child, and telling her everything will be fine in a few days doesn't really make her feel better now.  So I told her that every day would be better than the day before, and she seemed better.

I'm ridiculously proud of how she's handling all of this, and I know this relatively short inconvenience and uncomfortableness will be well worth it in the end.  The daughter of a lady I work with just had her third expansion surgery and she told me how incredibly difficult the recovery is.  Knowing that we can prevent that, and shorten Britton's time in braces, makes this worth it, even if Britton doesn't know that now.