Making our first appointment...

From Mama:

On January 24, I went by Great Smiles to make Emmeline's first orthodontic appointment. I honestly didn't even plan on going in, but something that day reminded me that Dr. Thomas, Emmeline's dentist, had asked me to take Emmeline for an orthodontic consultation. He was pretty insistent about it, actually. You see, Emmeline's top right smaller incisor (nicknamed, The Wiggler) has been loose for about a year. It wiggles and wiggles and then gets set again, only to start that up after a week or a month. We LOVE Dr. Thomas, and I don't think he wanted to be the one to tell us that Emmeline was headed for an appliance, so I am so glad I heeded his advice on seeking an ortho consult.

On January 24th at Great Smiles, Gina, the office manager, set up the time for our next visit. She looked at a photo of Emmeline and could immediately see her cross bite. I honestly had never noticed it before. You won't believe me, but I thought that was just the way she smiled - sort of crooked, but I was wrong.

After ballet class that afternoon, we dropped back by Great Smiles and sure enough, with Gina there to point it out, I could see it. Gina had Emmeline smile with her jaws together and there it was, plain as day. As she explained it to us, your top jaw should fit over your bottom jaw like a shoe box lid. Emmeline's do not fit together that way, so she has nowhere to rest her teeth together. Here smile is about half-a-tooth off. This has led to her grinding her molars, as well as pushing her tongue forward. Both of these actions are involuntary and are just her body's way of trying to find a place to settle.

We set up our appointment for the next Tuesday, the 31st, right before ballet class.  We'll share more about that one soon.