I have a whole lot more to add to this post about Jenna's journey with braces, but it is late and I am tired and so I will have to add all of the details later!! But for now, here are some pictures!
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February 10, 2016
When we went to the dentist a couple of weeks ago he pointed out that Jenna has a severe under-bite and that she should see the Orthodontist as soon as possible to get her jaw corrected while it is still developing. I had never paid attention or noticed it until the dentist pointed it out to me. He said that his wife had the same thing and since it wasn’t corrected until later they had to go in and actually break her jaw to correct her bite. Yikes! So apparently it is recommended to try and get intervention before the suture that separates the top jaw matures fully and becomes fused.
The Orthodontist said that she has an under bite and also a cross bite and that her work is going to be "complicated." She is going to need an expander, head gear, and the whole works -- all while in the first grade, poor thing! At least she won't be required to wear the head gear at school. Although she is sassy and confident enough that she could totally get away with it – and cause the other kids to wish that they were lucky enough to have one too, ha ha! Jared had an expander but he was old enough to turn it himself (with a little key). With Jenna we will have to do it.
When Jenna was laying there and the Orthodontist was explaining all of this to me Jenna said, “I do NOT like what I am hearing!” 😂
February 17, 2016
For Jenna they put in the spacers in preparation for her expander, which they will put in on Monday.
Here is another funny from Jenna. She was hungry after school and I offered her an apple. She said "I can't eat that! I have these things in my mouth and now my teeth are totally useful!!" I laughed and said, "You mean they are useless?"
February 22, 2016
Monday 22: I brought Jenna to the Orthodontist at 9:00 a.m. They put several metal bands on her back teeth until finally finding the right size and made the mold for her expander so that she could get it put on a couple of hours later. She is NOT shy at all and kept trying to complain to whoever would listen about how much she didn’t like it. I checked her back into school even though I would have to pick her up again in one hour and fifteen minutes for her next appointment to get the expander put in.
It wasn’t quite ready yet and so we had to wait a few minutes and Jenna kept complaining about how bored she was. They got the expander put in and said she would have a little lisp for a couple of days while she got used to having something blocking the roof of her mouth. Well, they finished and I couldn’t understand her speech at all! Imagine holding your tongue and trying to talk – that is how she sounded. But Jenna has a flair for the dramatic and I figured she was probably greatly over-exaggerating her lisp. She also kept slurping. Jenna was begging me to take her back to school, but since it was an early out day (SEP’s) there wasn’t enough of the day left to make it worth it.
I had Josh and Jenna’s SEP appointments and I was worried because Jenna would be doing a Chinese Test at the meeting. She couldn’t even speak English, let alone Chinese. Of course I wouldn’t know how “off” she was since I can’t understand Chinese. I explained about the expander and she still got a good score so hopefully they gave her the benefit of the doubt. I went to Josh’s class but Jenna ran off with a friend and I didn’t know where she was. Then I sat down to Josh’s conference and the office calls “Wendy Jensen, will you please come to the office?” It was Jenna – at least she knows what to do!
November 21, 2016:
I took Jenna to the Orthodontist this morning for partial braces. I thought they were going to take the palatal expander out of her mouth but they didn’t. Poor girl has got to be sick of it! Or maybe she is just used to it by now. She has pink and blue rubber bands on her braces. I think she looks cute in them! She has huge gaps in her mouth from all of the teeth they pulled and the braces and rubber-bands help to fill in those gaps. In six weeks she will get head gear that she will wear at night.
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Tuesday, August 1, 2017
Jenna Braces
Jenna just got phase one of her braces off! She is only eight years old, but has been through the process of getting teeth pulled, wearing an expander for a year, having head gear for a few months, and having braces! Her under-bite and cross bite have now been corrected, but she will need another round of braces when she gets older.
I brought her straight from the Orthodontist (Dr. Wayne Christian) to her third grade playgroup, which was at Southwest Dance. There the girls were making crafts, playing games, and getting their faces painted (which is why she has pink flowers across her forehead -- no they didn't paint them on at the Orthodontist's office!)
I brought her straight from the Orthodontist (Dr. Wayne Christian) to her third grade playgroup, which was at Southwest Dance. There the girls were making crafts, playing games, and getting their faces painted (which is why she has pink flowers across her forehead -- no they didn't paint them on at the Orthodontist's office!)
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