UGH!
Yesterday I took a impromptu trip to our dentist when Emily began crying about something in her tooth and I could see redness but couldn't seem to do anything to help her. A short drive, a long wait and 2 x-rays later showed that she didn't in fact have anything stuck in her scratched and bleeding gum, but something much worse. The technical jargon escapes memory, but what I'm left with is a basic impression that thousands of dollars will be necessary to correct the problem of what I can only call: crooked jaw, crooked teeth, cross bite, confusion. Her bite is so off center, so misaligned that she apparently chipped one tooth when she bit down and it hit the bottom tooth. Then when she instinctively tried to correct that bite she caused a small tear in her gum line. The good news (a silver lining?) is that with improvements in dentistry she wont require surgery, but can be fitted with some contraption that lengthens the jaw when you turn a key. Can you believe that? That was the extent of the good news. Some time later we walk out with referrals, follow -up appointments and the advice of my dentist to start a orthodontic fund for my children ASAP, 'cause we're gonna need it. Apparently unless you are willing to give up the kids college fund or take out a second mortgage you have little in the way of options when it comes to paying for the astronomical costs of fitting and maintaining braces, headgear's and contraptions with keys. Just when the student loans got paid off too. DAMN! I'm getting a headache just thinking about this.
And I remember when I thought the worse thing about braces was smiling with metal teeth.
1 comment:
Oh poor Emily, that sounds so painful! Its not her fault this happened, and be careful not to mention anything like that to her. She's got a long and painful road ahead and thinking mommy's mad at her will only make things much worse.
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