Mrs. Furious ... Recipes, Rants & Reality: 8:42 PM

Thursday, February 13, 2014

8:42 PM

11 comments:

julie said...: Jack's teeth are nearly perfect as well. There is a very small gap between 2 teeth. The orthodontist said he had no other issues so braces would be for the gap (and it is small, not noticable.) Tom said no braces then. Jack is so logical about things in life (to a fault at times I might add…I think he, too, has a bit of aspie thing going on) and totally was like 'there is no reason for me to have braces' and being a sort of 'typical' boy, could care less about his appearance (I'm sure he'd care if it was something more noticable.)

Yet, I still look at his teeth & wonder if we are doing the right thing. But like you mentioned about back in the day (for us that was the 70's and 80's), not everyone automatically got braces. I was the only one out of the four kids in my family. My siblings teeth were 'straight enough'…I was missing teeth, so it was problem. And I remember when my braces came off, the orthodontist actually talked me out of getting a retainer for my bottom teeth event though there was a small gap still…he said, "really, you want to make your father pay for one. No one sees your bottom teeth." I find that hysterical when you think of today's orthodontists who certainly would NEVER say such a thing. And I grew up in a very wealthy community so it's not like the orthodontist was being mindful of finances for his patients.

But the guy was right…I could care less about the small gap in bottom teeth…you can't see it. BUT that said, I was obsessive about making sure the small gap between my front teeth stayed closed…which it didn't so as an adult I went back to the orthodontist (obviously not the same guy, he is long dead), and they did some thing where I wore these clear retainer things & then put a small metal thing behind the teeth to keep them together. Amusingly to me, this orthodontist practice was pushing me heavily to get braces to 'fix' the small gap between those bottom teeth I mentioned before. All for cosmetic reasons. I swear it is SMALL. I'm not like sporting a tooth-sized gap.

Tom spent 10 years in braces (from 12 to 22…wth?…now that I type that, that seems unbelievable. How is that even possible? Did he have fucking monster teeth that needed to be completely refurbished? Sadly, we will never know because I don't really care enough to find out.) So yeah, he has issues with orthodontists.

I'm perplexed about this whole decade of braces. Did a few years go by that his parents forgot to take him to orthodontist and he just lived life with the metal on his teeth (remember back in those days there was not an option of clear or different colors…plain old metal only)??

Anyway, I guess I should go back to folding laundry & emptying the dishwasher. This was a nice diversion. Apparently I had a lot on my mind regarding teeth.; February 15, 2014 at 10:46 AM
julie said...: Holy crap, this was like a blog entry.; February 15, 2014 at 10:46 AM
Mrs Furious said...: Julie,
haha... I love the blog entry comments! Kid has two slight issues... her right upper front tooth is SLIGHTLY crooked. The other is that I guess she has a SLIGHT overbite. I'm sure in another decade no one would have done shit about it. I mean they are straighter than mine and I had braces! Her baby teeth mouth had lots of space between the teeth and the dentist told me that bodes well for their being enough room for them to come in. Baby's mouth is a horror show. Mine was too so I'm not surprised. I had to have my mouth widened... and I bet she will too. My tooth pet peeve is that my orthodontist never fully straightened my bottom teeth... one of the front two bottom teeth slightly overlaps the other. WTF? I mean, it was like that when they took the braces off. Weird. So that has moved a tiny bit, but like you said... bottom teeth... no one sees it. Mr F's bottom teeth are terrible because of his wisdom teeth coming in and ruining them. I do kind of want to get his fixed...; February 15, 2014 at 10:57 AM
Brenda said...: Okay, I didn't read your tags the first time, but I was totally thinking how perfect Kid's teeth were! Baby's mouth is just like Kevin's. He ended up having braces in 1st-2nd grade, and then they were off, and now he has them for round two, but they should hopefully be off before the summer. I blame the binky. He has tongue thrust (I think because of the bink) so when he talks/eats he is always pushing on his front teeth with his tongue. Not really sure all the orthodontic procedures will stick with him because of it. At his last appt., the ortho said there was just a slight tweak he wanted to make to Kev's bottom teeth, because he is a perfectionist. I think that's the new way of orthodonture. I don't know, I did the whole braces/retainer thing and my bottom teeth did not stay straight.
Um, I have to say to Julie that Tom having 10 years of braces, through his entire youth and college?? That seems kinda crazy. I hope he has a perfect smile now!; February 15, 2014 at 11:23 AM
Mrs Furious said...: Brenda,
um... yes... binky issues. She is a hard core pacie lover and we are STILL trying to get rid of it, she still uses it to fall asleep. I have even offered her $20/night to go without it... no takers. We have a very lenient dentist (she's a mom!). And I guess I figure better now, than growing up to be a smoker because you didn't get through your oral comfort needs when it was non-carcinogenic!; February 15, 2014 at 11:31 AM
julie said...: M.'s teeth are going to be hardcore work to fix. He is missing 7 adult teeth. Some of those don't matter because they are molars in the back that can stay in apparently. We were supposed to start the work last summer, but after the year we had, there was no way that was going to happen. I couldn't get him to school so I wasn't hopeful that he'd go to the orthodontist.

Brenda, EXACTLY…Tom had braces all through those formative years. No wonder he is so suspicious of orthodontists!

Jack has no structural issues, just this slight space.

I had braces for a few years & my teeth certainly did not come out of that perfect. I was missing teeth and they got pulled so there were big gaps to bring together.

Regarding the binkies, I actually thoroughly researched online if there pacifiers made for older children, teens and adults. I even considered buying one for M. The pacifier (aka 'meemee' in our house…that's what M called it) was MUCH loved by us all. When the kids were little, a mom I knew whose father was a dentist said her father said don't take away the pacifier. It's much easier to fix the teeth than the soul.; February 15, 2014 at 12:06 PM
Mrs Furious said...: "It's much easier to fix the teeth than the soul. "

I love it. So true.; February 15, 2014 at 12:13 PM
Brenda said...: I agree. Eric gave his up voluntarily shortly after Kevin was born. Kevin definitely used his much longer, but it was certainly never the biggest worry we've had with him :); February 15, 2014 at 2:36 PM
julie said...: Kevin definitely used his much longer, but it was certainly never the biggest worry we've had with him :)
Oh yeah, you know I relate!; February 15, 2014 at 3:55 PM
Kellie said...: Oh Mrs. F, I knew I loved you. Everyone thought I was nuts for not taking my daughters paci, but I insisted when she was ready she would give it up. One night when she was in kindergarten she sat it on her bedside table and that was the end of it…well, except for my gloating. ;) I sucked my thumb until I was 11 and I figured at least the paci can't be with them 24/7. I'm glad your dentist is nice about it bec ours was not. They were constantly telling her she would have bunny teeth. I finally smiled really big at her and said I sucked my thumb for 11 years and never had braces. My teeth are perfectly straight and my dentist says he has never seen a more perfect bite….she took my hint then and hushed, but we never went back. My kid, my decision thank you very much.; February 15, 2014 at 10:20 PM
Mrs Furious said...: Kellie,
Kid had her pacie until she was in 1st grade... so 6/7ish. Our dentist in Asheville was crazy about it and said she'd need extra orthodontics and to have her mouth reshaped... NOT! Her teeth are great. Zero problems and the orthodontist keeps turning us away and postponing braces. Our dentist here basically said it is not an issue until their permanent teeth come in. And I also sucked my thumb and have always felt the same way about that, a pacie is in her bed & in her mouth for what an hour? then it falls out. If she sucked her thumb she would be sucking that thing ALL the time and you can't take it away. At a certain point she won't need it. And if she does?! What's the big deal? I've never seen an adult with a pacie... so I refuse to get to riled up about it. :); February 15, 2014 at 11:05 PM

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)