The Braces Are On!

Braces: Before and After

(If you haven't been following along with our orthodontics journey, you can read the first and second posts)

Last week I wrote a quick update about Mr. J and his palate expander. We had the appointment to assess how well it had worked, and the orthodontist was extremely pleased. He gave us the go ahead to have the braces put on.

We ended up getting an appointment 2 days later - so not much of a wait (this was great).  It did mean leaving camp for 2 hours in the middle of the day, but that was better than waiting almost 4 weeks.

I am not sure how Mr. J was feeling leading up to it, he just wanted to get it over with.  I know that my children are much more co-operative when I am not with them, so I opted to wait in the waiting room rather than be with him (I knew the hygienist would come get me if it was needed).

When Mr. J came out to get me, he smiled to show me his new gear - and he had chosen blue and red elastics.  He was pretty happy with his choice.

I was a little worried how he would handle the tenderness/pain afterwards, so I made sure to give him some tylenol before his appointment, and a dose of advil 2 hours after. We continued alternating between the 2 for the first 48 hours, and then on the 3rd day he was good with 2 doses of advil and that was it.

It took him a few days to get used to having them on his teeth but he is doing great. He is not too happy with the extra time it takes for brushing and cleaning the braces, but he is doing pretty well.