(This picture is from our trip to Memphis a couple weeks earlier)
I brought Covey into the Orthodontist on Tuesday to get Braces put on his teeth. It started out pretty good. He got a new t-shirt from them, and learned how to go brush his teeth right away when he gets there. They also gave him a rewards card where he can earn points to redeem for gift cards if he has good hygiene etc. Once he got back to put on the braces he started to get nervous. He looked at me and silently mouthed the words “I’m Scared”. To which, being the good mom I am, I said “What’s that Covey? You’re ready for a shot now?” I think the lady working on him thought I was crazy to say a thing like that, but Covey got a big grin. He got his braces on and picked out red rubber bands to hold the wire in place. The front tooth was so far back that they really had to push the wire into place, and then it came out and rested on the baby tooth next to it. The orthodontist said that it was fine and that it would not hurt his tooth at all to have it rest there. We finished up and left the office.
On the way to bring him back to school Covey started to eat a peanut butter sandwich. All of a sudden I heard him yell, and then start crying saying “Mom, it hurts. Something happened. Something slipped. It hurts mom, it hurts.” I thought maybe one of the back brackets hadn’t glued on right and had popped off. I pulled over the car and then climbed out to look at his mouth. The wire that had been leaning on the baby tooth had been pushed down by the sandwich and was wrapping around the bottom corner of his tooth. I turned around and brought him back to the orthodontist. By the time we got there the wire had finished moving and was completely behind the tooth instead of in front of it. The orthodontist added an extra bracket to the baby tooth to help stabilize the wire until his teeth get more in place. I felt bad though because in order to put the extra bracket on, they needed to take the wire off. When the removed the rubber bands Covey burst into tears. He had already worn the braces long enough that the little pressure they put on his teeth hurt.
I am amazed at how quickly his tooth is moving forward now. He was hurting a lot the first couple days but is doing much better now. His main complaint is that they had to block his back teeth so that he can’t close his mouth all the way. (So that the tooth can move in front of the bottom teeth) It makes it a bit more annoying to chew his food. I’m sure all of this is making him really look forward to having braces again as a teenager. (Just look at his bottom teeth… He is going to need them)