Jack's Braces!

On Thursday June 8th Jack got braces!!! 

He's our first kiddo that has needed braces and we have actually known about this since his very first dentist visit. The kids pediatric dentist noticed right away how small Jack's mouth was and how his teeth had absolutely no gaps between them. We've just been waiting for his 8 front baby teeth to fully grow in as well as his 6 year molars. 

At his consultation the Orthodontist talked about how Jack has numerous issues going on. First off his upper teeth come out too far. They also cover up too much of his lower teeth. Then there's the issue of one of his lower adult teeth coming up behind the other three lower adult teeth. One of the ladies really had me worried that the insurance wasn't going to cover his braces. The total was almost $5000.00!!! We would of course figured out a way to pay for it since this is super important for Jack, but it would have been very difficult. A couple days after his consultation I just prayed that God would go before the paperwork and really soften the hearts of the people that would be looking at his file and that they would see how he really needed this and it wasn't in fact trivial. After I gave it to God I just completely stopped worrying about it. About 5 weeks later I got a call from the Orthodontist office saying that the insurance approved everything 100%!!! Praise the Lord!!!! 

Jack got what's called stage 1 braces. Only the top 4 and bottom 4 are going to have braces. 

In Jack's case he only has 3 teeth with braces on the bottom. Once those three teeth get moved over enough then they will put a brace on that fourth tooth that grew in behind the other three and they'll start pulling it forward. 

Jack chose red for the color of his bands. His next appointment will be in 6 weeks. So far he hasn't complained about his teeth being sore except once when I was flossing his teeth and I accidentally push on them. Speaking of flossing...talk about a pain in the tushie! Just a couple days ago I went on Amazon and bought a really nice water pick on sale for $40...it was normally $120 and had great reviews. That thing is a mess to use...water everywhere...but it's made getting out all the gunk much easier. 

This picture was taken 4 days after Jack got his braces on and look at those two front teeth! There is a gap there! Those two teeth were seriously smushed together....look at the first picture on this post. I can't believe the difference after just a few days. Crazy!!! Plus this kid hasn't been screaming out in pain. He has always had the highest pain tolerance of any of the kids. Just amazes me! 

I'm so excited to see Jack's teeth move more and more into place.