A smile is worth a thousand words...

Or a few thousand dollars! ;)

Bella and I spent most of Thursday morning at the Orthodontist as she began her "phased orthodontics". After the girls last 6 months visit to the dentist, we left with a referral and strong recommendation to get Bella in as soon as possible. As the Orthodontist told us at her consultation, she has "big beautiful teeth and little tiny mouth". As her baby teeth have fallen out and permanent ones come in there is just not enough room and they have begun to twist and turn in an attempt to find a spot in her little mouth.

With that we've entered Phase 1...approximately 18 months of spacers...on top and bottom. They took the impressions they needed at her initial consultation and on Thursday she had a permanent spacer cemented to her top teeth and a removable one put on the bottom. The orthodontist will adjust the top one at her appointments, but we adjust the bottom one once a week at home. The idea is to start at a young enough age where they can actually move her jaw. Her jaw bone is still pliable enough that they should be able to create a significant amount of room over the next year and a half or so that her teeth will actually fit. After she is done with this, she gets braces on. With doing it in 2 phases, the hope is that her braces will only have to be on for about 12 months. If everything goes according to plan her teeth will be right where they are supposed to be before she starts high school!

The Orthodontist warned us that she would be very sore for about a week...sore enough that she probably wouldn't want to eat. By Friday morning she was laying in my lap on the couch crying because her teeth hurt so bad. Even knowing that it's for her benefit, it's still so hard to see your kids in pain. :( We stocked up on soft foods and she's been doing a good job and eating what she can. She went to a sleepover birthday party last night and I think the distraction was probably good for her. She ended up having a 4 day weekend with a snow day on Friday and holiday on Monday, so by the time she goes back to school on Tuesday she should be feeling some relief.

For some reason all of this makes the fact that she is growing up so quickly all that much more real. We couldn't be more pleased with the young lady she is growing in to, but it's still a little heart breaking to see it all happening so quickly. Yesterday afternoon she came downstairs and said, "when the baby is 10, I will be 19!" Andy and I just looked at each other and shook our head as the reality of her statement hit us. Bella will be 9 in a few short months and it's gone by so incredibly fast!

Braces...bras...and boys...I don't think I'm ready! ;)