My children have braces.  12yos began with a spacer, finally lost most his teeth last summer, and apparently the new ones are finally in.  That means we get to begin the next phase of the program.  Ouch to the pocketbook!

14yd began her full treatment 1 1/2 years ago.  With her SI  and motor planning issues, she has persevered like a champ.  I'll never forget the first day when she had her "before" pictures done.  They gave her these tools to pull her mouth wide open and show only the teeth.  She was getting a bit emotional so I teased her by saying that was a picture to send grandma!

I cannot believe how gorgeous her mouth looks now!  She gets bridges now to narrow them up I guess.  Yesterday she got hooks and rubber bands to work on the jaw alignment.  For 30 minutes she struggled to get a rubber on a hook on the back tooth and then on to the front, on each side of the mouth.  With her motor planning issues, and not being able to clearly see the hook, she struggled getting the rubber band hooked.  Finally one did and she didn't loop it to the front so it went boing!  She hung in there and I had to give her an A+ for effort. 

However the tech had to finally hook them up herself and as we were leaving dd broke down into tears. (SI-overwhelmed) The tech was shocked and I had to mouth that she gets this way.  Any talking about it in front of her would have made it worse.  I cheerfully handed her her things, got my bill for ds' teeth that I  can work on, and we headed out.  That gave her time to compose herself.  So far, she is doing well in getting them on and off.  As we left, the tech gave me a little doo dad and apparently that was a big help to dd.  I *think* she got everything hooked up!  At least it looked good to me.  I felt in back of her mouth and that hook was teeny tiny!  So when she went to bed I gave her an A+ for accomplishment.  

Sigh...what we go through for a Mona Lisa smile!  I first saw this picture at the orthodontist's office. We are studying Leonardo da Vinci now so I thought this was appropriate.  LOL