Brace Day

Before

After Well the day finally arrived "Braces". We were scheduled to be at the orthodontist by 9:45am this morning to embark on her new metal journey. It took about 2 1/2 hours to get her all bonded down and wired up. For any of you 'ole school' brace faces you know this is a far cry from the length of time it took us to have our braces "installed". Back in my day braces consisted of a full metal band that went around the entire tooth, not the small Chiclets gum size bracket they bond to the front of kids teeth today.

Our daughter asked me how long it took for my doctor to put on my braces. Her orthodontist and I both laughed. When we went for braces it was an all day affair, which consisted of no less than (6) hours where a orthodontist sat perched in a chair using a "thumping" tool to push the braces band up and over your tooth. When it was all said and done you didn't know what hurt worse your teeth or your head from all that pounding!

Our daughter choose hot pink and lime green brace brackets. I wondered about that color combination but to my surprise it doesn't look bad at all. When I had braces they only came in one color choice "stylish gun metal gray", but today kids have the option of changing their brace brackets every (6) weeks and they have a rainbow of colors to choose from.

So tonight she is a little sore but nothing Motrin hasn't been able to handle. We anticipate she will be quite sore tomorrow, I can see a lot of grits, mash potatoes, sherbet and jello in her immediate future.

As to be expected she has called all of her friends and paid visit to the neighbors. I have some really great candid shots of her mouth in full stretch, but I promised I wouldn't post those to the blog....I wouldn't want her to "die" of embarrassment. Remember when the only thing you had to embarrassed about was being called brace face or metal mouth and not your mother posting pictures from your orthodontic close-ups...my how times have changed!