Daily Life for Princess is now divided into many little segments of taking out and putting rubber bands, cutting food into little bites, brushing-flossing-rinsing and repeating, repeating, repeating.
How’s she doing? She’s doing pretty good. She misses gum. She’s already tired of cutting things into little bites and she’s already planning a “No More Braces” dinner for the day she gets her braces off chock-full of favorite foods she can’t eat right now.. nevermind that date is 15 months in the future!
Overall she’s doing well, her mouth is adjusting. She’s become a pro at getting her rubber band on and off, she’s (mostly) complying with the frequent and diligent cleaning and we can already tell that her bottom gums are reacting (remember the bottom wires are literally pushing her teeth back down into her gums/jaw because they grew up much too tall without the upper teeth in the right place to stop them.) Her lower gums are slightly red and slightly swollen and she said she can tell they’re moving because they’re a little tender when she pushes on them with her tongue. So yay! That means progress has begun!
We’re trying to taking pictures every week so we can watch the progress but we’re doing a terrible job at it. =p Oh well, they may not be every week but at least we’ll be able to watch the changes happen slowly over time, right?
One of the things I did to see how my teeth were moving was to bite into a piece of cheese & look at the bite marks. It seems silly, but you can really see a difference as the teeth shift!
Also, a word of caution – it’s great to look ahead to the day the braces come off, but she’ll be sore that day. No sense planning extra-chewy things or corn on the cob or anything until a few days later.