Expander check-up...

Emmeline had an appointment yesterday at Great Smiles. She saw Dr. Weissman who showed her photos of how her palate used to look, and then compared those to what Emmeline looks like currently.

After her examination, she realized that Emmeline was going to need to continue the expansion for 10 additional turns, once her original 20 are complete. Miss Friend took it in stride, of course! See this video for her thoughts on the matter!

 We love Dr. Weissman. Coincidentally, she was my little brother's orthodontist as well. She remembers Seth, and is always interested to hear how he's doing (and if he's still wearing his retainer).

Emmeline is doing so well with the expander, and the tongue crib, too. She has maintained a wonderful attitude, and I think that is making all the difference. We haven't been posting much the past week because flu and strep overtook the Glenn household. We will get back to regularly scheduled programming now that we are almost recovered!

The expander goes in...

From Emmeline:
Hi! I got my palate expander and it felt weird.

The glue taste really really nasty. My spacer had broken and they put another one in for 20 minutes. While I waited for that to work I went to the Tot Lot and swung.

They gave me this cool mold of my mouth that I get to keep!

The expander went in okay the second try. If you think a spacer might be messed up or broken, tell your parent so they can take you to have it fixed. I had to help push it onto my tooth by biting on a stick which was okay.

But it's in and I have a milkshake.

They let my mom turn it the first time in the office today. Only 19 more turns to go!

Also, it's hard to talk. Watch my video and you'll see.

(From Mama: There's a picture above of the technician showing my how to get the key in there and turn the apparatus. I was very glad that I got to practice with it out of her mouth, as well as turn it after they put it in while I was at the office so that I could see how to do that! Also, I totally have Emmeline's tooth sculpture on my desk at work. It is kinda cool and creepy to have a mold of your kid's smile staring back at you. All in all, it was a very painless visit today. Emmeline is having a little trouble talking, and I'll be interested to hear how dinner goes. I'm at work, so David will be handling the mashed potatoes tonight! We hope to post tomorrow!)

Emmeline's Second Appointment - XRays, Spacers and Scans

I got there and I was called to the back room and they took pictures of my smile and inside my mouth. I had to hold my lip back with a plastic thing and hold a mirror in my mouth (which hurt a little) so they could see all of my teeth. 

They scanned inside my mouth with a wand. And I had to hold my mouth open for a while. They did this instead of making a mold of my mouth. I'm glad I didn't have to do that. And they took some other pictures of me and got X-rays of my mouth.

I saw Dr. Weisman today. She put my spacers in. Those will make the space for my palate expander to go around my teeth. Everyone was really nice. Even the people who weren't helping me. And they gave me a shirt. And the next time I go there and I wear that shirt I get a prize.

It hurt when they put the spacers in but it stopped after a few minutes. Hope you aren't nervous. This appointment wasn't too bad for me. I hope it's okay for you too.

-Emmeline

(This appointment took place on 2/7. It will take about 2 weeks for the palate expander to be created using the digital scan of Emmeline's mouth. Our appointment for that to be placed is on 2/23. -Mama)

Emmeline's First Appointment - Consultation

From Mama:

On January 31, I took Emmeline to Great Smiles for her consultation. That day, we saw Dr. Savage. She looked at her smile and the shape of her mouth. It was immediately apparent that Dr. Savage saw the need for a palate expander. She showed me and Emmeline how "off" her bite was, and also explained that she saw evidence of her grinding her molars and that she was pushing her front teeth out with her tongue because of her tongue thrust. Basically, nothing fit together right in Emmeline's mouth, so she was grinding around and pushing her tongue forward to make it more comfortable.

Dr. Savage took her time explaining, to me and to Emmeline, what our next steps would be. We would have an appointment for them to take measurements, photographs and x-rays of Emmeline's mouth. At that appointment, they would place spacers between her molars to give room for her palate expander. Gina explained the financial plans to me, which gave options on paying the remaining balance after our insurance coverage.

We left feeling good about Emmeline's care and the plans moving forward.

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.