Thursday, October 31, 2013

"I've never seen anything like that."

That's not what you want the dental hygienist to say.

"Immediate referral to an orthodontist.  Give me a call and tell me what he says he's going to do.  I have no idea what he'll do."

These are things you just don't want to hear at the dentist office.

Rachael has been through this before.  Lily was put into braces in May and she is in 2nd grade now.  She feels my pain.

Don't get me wrong.  We knew that she would need braces.  Dr. Rick told me that when she was three.  "Normally, I tell parents that we need to wait and see, but I'm telling you that she will definitely need braces."

Nice.

What's the big deal?  Well, you have 4 teeth along the bottom with the fence post of eye teeth on either side.  K has three across the middle with eye teeth on the sides.  The 4th tooth is back behind an eye tooth and a regular bottom tooth (I didn't go to dental school, so pardon me if I'm giving the wrong tooth reference) and coming up, causing pain.

We'll be visiting one of my customers here on November 22 at the bright and early time of 7 AM.  The good news is that the consultation is no charge and they take a payment plan.

That's awesome since I hear that dental insurance covers very little of it.

Grand.

Is this the worst thing in the world?  Nah.  When the hygienist was stunned that I wasn't bent out of shape about it, I told her that it is what it is.  I said that it isn't a cosmetic need that could be dismissed as nice, but not absolutely necessary.  Bless her heart, we've known that braces were coming down the pike.  She'll have beautifully straight teeth when we're done-- when she is 50.  ;)

4 comments:

Rach said...

I was in braces by the end of fourth grade. We're surviving it. It's all good. Lil thinks she's hot stuff and K will be the cool kid that got her braces before everyone else. :oP

Michelle said...

Is the eye tooth that has that 4th tooth and regular tooth behind it still a baby tooth? I wonder if the 4th tooth is just going to push that one out and be there in it's place? Or will they have to do surgery to take that 4th tooth out and let the regular tooth come up? I feel your pain on the braces; Kayla will need them at some point (although the dentist did say it was strictly cosmetic and if she didn't get them it probably wouldn't affect anything) but right now she's waiting for all her permanent teeth to come in so we don't have to do it in phases.

Bailey's Leaf said...

Michelle,

The teeth involved are all permanent teeth. No baby teeth left. The permanent front flat-topped tooth is coming in behind a permanent flat-topped tooth and an eye tooth. We have no idea what the orthodontist will do and the dentist couldn't even hazard a guess. He's so curious that he wants me to phone with a report. He is writing a letter to Dr. M just to give him some background. She will be a project and I can tell you that it is not cosmetic. (Mine weren't either.) I am going to see if there is any type of funding that K qualifies for due to her birth status and whatnot. There may not be, but it can't hurt to check it out.

Bailey's Leaf said...

PS. No baby teeth left in the front. Sorry. There are other baby teeth still in her mouth.