As you can see from Jon’s preceding post (and BTW, I was at the appointment along with Daddy!), as of last Thursday we have started down the long journey into orthodontics. And I mean loooong. Dr. Dagys sent us home with a helpful booklet to use to try to explain to Jon (and ourselves!) what will have to be done to fix his teeth and jaws. She checked off the pages that were relevent for us, and as she kept checking more and more sections I started to mentally hyperventilate. Peter, by contrast, was absolutely unflappable, since he figured Jon’s mouth was just like his was (i.e. a train wreck), so he knew what to expect!
Pretty much everything that could need fixing needs fixing: Overbite (overlap of front top and bottom teeth); overjet (protruding front teeth); extremely crowded and overlapping teeth (to the point that Jon’s 6-year molars haven’t fully erupted); unusually high, narrow palate (causing a lot of the overcrowding). Fixing his mouth is not just cosmetic; if he wants to keep his teeth through adulthood we’ll have to do something about them now.
This is problematic since we also have to take into account Jon’s understanding and tolerance of these procedures. Anything that will interfere with him being able to concentrate on schoolwork, etc. is out, which may limit us somewhat. He likely won’t be a good candidate for removable appliances, since he’ll be constantly toying with them. He may have to be sedated for any really invasive procedures (e.g. teeth extraction), though maybe laughing gas will work. Jon getting a filling was a horror show enough for us—we’d rather not repeat it. Even getting a panoramic x-ray is difficult, if not impossible, because Jon either moves too much or freaks at the strange noises from the machine.
But Dr. Dagys is very caring and cognizant of the problems, so we’re hopefully off to a good start!