And Another One

Her teeth are dropping like flies around here!

 

Dropping Like Flies

We are losing teeth like crazy in our house right now. Once Carter starts to feel a tooth even remotely loose, he's working that thing left and right to get it out. Now that he knows MONEY is involved, why wait for the tooth to fall out on its own? Right?

 

 

I know, let's all go ahead and sing the "All I want for Christmas....." song, just to get it out of our systems.  Done?  Good.  He has two more teeth loose on the bottom.  Not sure how this kid is going to be able to eat Christmas dinner or goodies! 

 

On the same day, I also lost a tooth. I finally asked the orthodontist what he was going to do about my bottom jaw, which had started to float out a little bit from all the straightening. This has created a little bit of an open bite, with an accompanying lisp. Very small, no one but me really notices it. Not sure how he didn't anticipate this quite a while back, but hey, let's not pretend I'm the orthodontist here. I had two options - live with the lisp forever. Ok, that wasn't ever an option. Second option was to remove a bottom front tooth to create enough room to pull the teeth back in to where they need to be. NOT what I wanted to hear. This process has been worst case scenario from the get-go. The very last thing I wanted to do was have yet another procedure done. But that's what happened. We did more impressions of my teeth and decided tooth #25 was coming out. Another gap, front and center, to close up. Because the first one just wasn't fun enough.

 

Before and after:

 

As you can see, I will now have an odd number of teeth on the bottom. Fortunately for me, I suppose, I have full lips, so you don't even see my bottom teeth when I talk or smile. So, unless I literally point out to someone that I have one less tooth on the bottom (after the gap closes, of course), no one will ever know. They will be straight, that's all that matters.

 

The pain level with this procedure actually rivals the big surgery back in May, due to one big change.  Back in May, and this summer when we were closing the gap, I only had chain anchors on the two top front teeth.  Right now, I have chain anchors on every single bottom tooth, molars included.  So we are doing some major movement right now, which makes the pain intense. Enough to keep me awake the other night, and trust me, nothing interrupts my sleep. Work has been interesting because the pain has made me incredibly grouchy. I have been trying to keep my office door closed so I don't have to interact with other people. Of course, I still get asked "does it hurt to talk?" Yes, yes it does. And they proceed to sit down and talk to me. Awesome, guys. Thanks.

 

So here we are, closing yet another gap. This one is smaller than the one from this summer, so I really don't think it's going to take that long. And this time, I really hope this is the last ball of fun for the braces adventure. The "adventure" is quickly evolving into what I would call a "shit storm" and I'm not too thrilled.

The brushing adventure continues....

The guest bathroom has pretty much been designated as Carter's bathroom. Granted, I haven't full blown decorated it with a monkey shower curtain (there is a bathroom set at Target I have had my eyes on), but all his bath stuff and toothbrush/holder are permanent fixtures. Unfortunately, we don't have a stepladder tall enough to get Carter up to the mirror....so he gets to stand on the counter in the meantime. Not exactly the safest option, but we are both always in there with him....one supervising, one taking pictures. Nonetheless, there is adult supervision at all times.

Carter really enjoys brushing his teeth (for now). I'm sure this will change in a year or so when he realizes that brushing isn't fun anymore. It's a chore. But a part of life, nonetheless.

For now? He embraces it. Personally, I think he's just too enamored with that little boy in the mirror who comes out to play every night when it's time to brush. Hey, whatever gets it done, right?

Carter is now obsessed with re-wetting his toothbrush 38 times during one brushing session. As long as it keeps him brushing those pearly whites, I'm fine with it.

What HE isn't fine with is when brushing time is over and the toothbrush gets put away out of reach. Let me tell ya, he is NOT ok with that. Very uncool, mom.

Practice Makes Perfect

We bought Carter a new tooth brush a couple weeks ago. A little more fancy than the one that came with the baby kit. I think it may have Elmo on it. Nonetheless, we have developed a good schedule for brushing all of his 16 teeth.....it's a good habit to start anyway. Though it seems to be harder to keep him focused on the task at hand......that, and he really loves that boy in the mirror!

There's that boy in the mirror!
He's pretty fond of him......even gives him kisses too!

He kissed back!

Ok, back to what we're here for.

Or, we can be distracted by the lights.

Focus, my child.

Teeth!

That's right. Check 'em out. There are two. Bottom, center. Teething hasn't been that horrible, actually. I know - people are sick of hearing about what a good baby we have. He did just end a fight with a double ear infection, and that was the worst. However, he's back to this smiling baby again.