brace face

Back in the day, no one got braces until they were in junior high...but today they start much, MUCH earlier! Ashtyn got his braces put on in early May, just after turning 9. Ash has a very small mouth and his dentist and orthodontist are hoping that if they start "phase one" of braces early enough they won't need to pull any teeth or do as much extensive work later. Ash was excited to get his braces on but mommy and daddy were nervous simply because we knew what pain awaited Ash in the hours and days to come. Ugh. You never forget that feeling.

Ash was a trooper and did GREAT getting his braces on! There was a even a small thunderstorm passing through during the time he was in the dentists chair (that dropped some hail!) and he was STILL brave! Ash thought the sunglasses were really cool!

As I said earlier, while Ash was having his braces put on a thunderstorm passed through town and dropped some pretty good sized hail. The room you have dental work done in is simply a large room with dental chairs facing a wall of windows and patient after patient lined up in the chairs with no walls inbetween. There are preteens, parents and dental hygienists everywhere! Well...one of the hygienists, working on the patient next to us, had recently moved to Oklahoma from the northern part of the country and still wasn't used to tornadoes, thunderstorms or even hail! She was very intrigued by it all and asked a lot of questions. At one point, while she was inbetween working on patients, she even snuck outside and was gathering hail, showing it to us through the window with a big smile as if we too had never seen such a thing! Ha! It was hysterical to watch and honestly I think helped calm Ashtyn's nerves over both the braces AND the storm to see someone else so excited to see hail with their own eyes!

Ash chose the color green for his braces and was proud to show them off when he was done! As we suspected, and as the dentist warned, Ash was in pretty significant pain within an hour or two. He cried quite a bit but did great and made it through those first few days of movement until his teeth started feeling normal again. Now we're anticipating Ashtyn's next appointment, in just a couple of weeks, when he will have them tightened again and we will start all over. I'm not sure if the next time will be better or worse...now that Ashtyn knows what to expect too.

Braces look good on him if I do say so myself!