We survived the first day of school pretty unscathed. After school I drove the little one over to the orthodontist to try one more time to get the retainer installed in her mouth. I tell you this orthodontist is something I have never seen before. There is staff everywhere and the waiting room was full when we got there. When are name was call an we moved to the exam room all six dental chairs where full with teens and preteens except of course the little one who stood out not only because of her school uniform but also because of her age. I guess they don't get a lot of 9 year old in there.
The little one was not so nervous this time around. She had forgotten about the appointment which was probably a good thing, as she did stress herself over it. We were in the office for over an hour, getting the retainer installed (yeah it fit) having the latest dentist (Dr. Shane) look in her mouth. Then I was taught how to use some tool to slowly spread her mouth wider. (yuck!!!) Then there was the whole 'how to' on brushing the teeth, flossing, using the Christmas tree pokey thing, and this other thing to massage the gums. And they want this done four times a day!
When we finally got home the husband had some sausage on the BBQ cooking as well as he had made some rice. But the little one was not up to eating much and the sausage was to hard for her. So I made her a peanut butter banana sandwich, which I had to cut up into little bite size pieces. For the rest of the week she is on a soft food diet while she gets used to her retainer. As I was making her lunch for tomorrow it felt like she was a toddler again as I cut up everything in to little don't chock sizes.
With the retainer now in her mouth, we can't for the life of us understand a single word she is saying. The little one has always been a soft talker and was in speech therapy for 4 years when she was young. So you can imagine just how frustrating it is, I can't normally hear her, nor can I usually understand what she is saying. Now, FORGET IT. Unless she writes it down I don't stand a chance of communicating with her.
Its gonna be a long year of "what did she say? "I don't understand you"
I am so happy that the installation went well. It sounds like a very similar procedure to which my daughter had when she was 8 years old. It takes them a while but the talking will becom much clearer. The unfortunate part is that the tool that you will be using to adjust the retainer does cause them discomfort almost everytime until their mouth adjusts. You can look forward to when you are told that you don't have to use that adjustment key any longer. I think that it was for the first few months only, if memory recally. Good luck and giver her lots of extra hugs and kisses.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sunshine, I used the adjustment key thing just a minute ago and she seems ok with that so far. The good thing is at this point we only need to use it for 12 days! When we go back to see the orthodontist in December they will make another assesment. I will try to blog about my first day tomorrow night as I am going to a tax seminar tonight. Hopefully to better understand the GST/PST soon to be HST stuff.
ReplyDeletehey there, the older one had the expander, too! I used to feel like something out of medevial times when I made the adjustments. He only needed to be adjusted for 14 days.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, how did the first day go????