Brace Yourselves!

Whew! My little Madison has had quite a few days! Last Thursday the school was administering the flu mist to any kids whose moronic, gullible, uninformed parents OK'd it being done. I tried contacting Jimmy before-hand to get his input, but as usual, he didn't answer his phone. The paperwork was due that morning, so I signed my name to it. Little did I know I was agreeing to the administration of a live flu virus to my 8-year-old!

Okay, I'm probably making this sound much more dramatic than it actually was. She was fine until Saturday. It was the day of our block party and Madison kept coming inside to tell me that her head hurt. At first I figured it was just from the heat and all the running around she was doing. Later that night her head was still hurting and she looked pale but was playing with cousin Alexa and still having a good time.

Sunday morning she woke up with a fever of 102! I immediately gave her Tylenol, then after having breakfast and a shower I went out and bought Motrin to give her as well. By the time I got home from the store her fever was almost normal. I gave her the Motrin and the fever never came back. I thought that was pretty damn weird, being that it was fairly high that morning.

I kept her home Monday with all intentions of canceling the appointment she had with the dentist to extract her super numary snaggletooth. What is a super numary you ask? It's an extra damn tooth, that's what it is. An extra tooth that was growing smack dab in the middle of her real two front teeth. Here's a picture of it that I took months ago. We referred to it as her snaggletooth because of the odd, pointy shape.

Would you believe her dentist misdiagnosed this as being a peg lateral... a tooth that was just in the wrong place? It was the orthodontist they recommended us to that said, "No! That is not a peg lateral. That is literally an extra tooth that has no business being in her mouth!"

Here's a scary shot they took at the orthodontist's office last week. I swear, she had just brushed her teeth but you'd never know it looking at this picture!

See that sideways tooth to the left of the snaggle? That's her front tooth that matches the one on the other side of the snaggle. And you'll notice to the right is a tooth that's kind of dangling there? It fell out right after this picture was taken.

Anyway, our pediatrician gave us the go-ahead to have the tooth removed since she was no longer feverish. And wow, this was an adult tooth with a big ol' root on it. She did fabulous though. The dentist told me he was very impressed with her and that she didn't complain at all. Way to go, Madison!


The very next day she had her orthodontist appointment to have braces put on. This is not usually recommended for a kid so young, but because of that huge gap she now had, plus how bad her teeth were growing in, it was now a necessity.

She was supposed to get 4 brackets on the top front teeth, but there were only 3 teeth there (one that hadn't yet grown in) and one of those teeth was not in a good position for a bracket. So, she only got two. The other two brackets will be put on in coming months.

I'm ready!



Let's prep those teeth!

Another one of those scary pictures. The blue stuff is a special cleaner that goes down into the pores of the teeth.


Then the tech put some other stuff on and had to use a blue laser light to completely harden it.



She's prepped and ready for brackets. Here comes the sweet and handsome Dr. Ossi to put those suckers on!



Once that is done, Miss Kim comes back to put in the wire and the bands that will keep the wire in place.



Because of how far apart those two front teeth are, they decided to use the colored bands to span between the two teeth for greater tension. Good idea, maybe, but it looks funny! Shhh... don't tell Madison. I let her know how funky and beautiful it makes her look!






Let me tell you, she's milking the soreness for all it's worth. I even let her stay home again today since she can't chew on anything yet. It's been yogurt, ice cream, soup and mushed-up cottage cheese for her!

Thi$ i$ only pha$e one of her treatment. $ix to 8 month$ of thi$ and then in a couple more year$ $he'll probably need full brace$.

Eh, she's worth it!




Pssst! If you love me, you might love my sister more. Go visit her at Jill's Believe it or Not, and tell her I sent you!