This time I tried a new approach. I didn't talk about being scared. I didn't leave room for discomfort. I told him he was a big boy, almost 5 years old, and it was time to get his teeth cleaned. The end. When he would dither, I would firmly, without emotion, tell him he was doing it. He was a big boy now. The end. And it worked! He was leery at the beginning, so I picked his butt up and put him in the chair. We pointed out the TV mounted on the ceiling and it was smooth sailing from there on out. Whew. I am so relieved.
The dentist also said, as he has been saying for years, that we needed to think about taking Brother to the orthodontist. I figured as much. I had braces and Brother's teeth when he was little are a lot like mine were. But due to complications due to moving, I started getting my teeth fixed and then in the middle, the braces came off to be put back on when I was 12 or 13. They really hurt, you know. I was a giant baby about it even when I was a teenager and I worry that 10 is too young to handle it. Brother says he wants to wait until he is in high school, but I can't help but think that he might actually want to have them over and done with by then. (Mine came off the day before 10th grade, which I thought was awesome.) But there is also an issue of cost. Jeez! I thought $3000-4000. But looks like the median price in my area is somewhere around $6000+. I had no idea it went up so much.
Do your kids need braces? What is your master plan?
6 comments:
$6,000?! Yikes!
Luckily, Lisa and Bart won't need them (according to the dentist). The jury is still out on Maggie. Neither Homer nor I had them, although I wish I had, at least on my lower teeth - they're a little crowded and wonky. Homer's teeth are perfect, except for a small gap between his front two teeth, which I actully love.
Ugh I am already stressing about braces. I didn't need them and my husband didn't have them even though he should have. So far Boo's baby teeth are straight but Lord knows what's gonna come in behind those.
I would definitely think that he would be super glad the braces are off by high school instead of waiting unitl high school to get them.
I had braces for almost 4 years while D's teeth are nearly perfect and did not need them. However, with 4 children, I have no doubts that at least SOME of them will need braces.
I got mine off right before my freshman year in high school and it was nice to have it over with by then.
My boys still have their baby teeth, but from the x-rays of my three-year-old it is very, very clear that his adult teeth are partying sideways in his gums and he'll need a LOT of orthodontia. I got braces when I was just shy of 11, and I didn't think that was too young. (But yes, it hurt a lot and my mom had heart palpitations when I had to get teeth pulled beforehand--so maybe not the tooth-pulling part?)
Rob has started on braces ($6300 OMG). We took him in for a consultation when he was about 10, I think, and they said his teeth weren't quite ready: he had to lose two more and have two more grow in, something like that. So they had him come back a year later, and then they said he was ready, and we just signed the contract on the spot and he had his molds done that very day. We had three things that influenced our now-or-later decision:
1. Very lucky timing: we were just paying off a vehicle, so that monthly amount was temporarily available (KNOCKING ON WOOD KNOCKING ON WOOD, CAR PLEASE DON'T CONK OUT).
2. The orthodontist said with one of Rob's issues (narrow palate and some other small-jaw-size thing), they can do WAY MORE if they can "harness the power of the growth spurt": they get their expander stuff in place just as the jaw starts to change ANYWAY in adolescence, and then they can make much more progress than they could if they started later on. Many times it means they don't have to pull adult teeth (which is often the solution for the narrow palate/jaw thing), because they can make enough room for them.
3. I remembered having my braces early, and how it made me feel like an awesome cool teenager to get them on when I was ten, but then by the time I actually WAS a teenager I was really glad I didn't have them anymore! Guys might not care about that as much, though, or not as EARLY as girls care.
My only concern is that your teeth continue to move throughout your life. I know a few people who had braces as a kid and also later as an adult. Not that you can put off getting them forever but it stinks to go through it twice. I got braces when I was 34 which means I was a much bigger baby about the pain/discomfort than I would have been as a kid, I think.
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