Braces....

 After we got home from our great Christmas trip, we took Corben to the orthodontist.  It's a really nice office, just like their dentist.  They took me on a tour (I guess, cause they knew we'd be there a lot!) and it's fancy shmancy.  They have video games in the hall, and in the waiting room.  Each of the dental chairs has an  iTouch connected to it, so the kids can have something to do while they get their work done.  (Although, I imagine seeing the game would be difficult when you are in the dental position...).  Anyway, this appointment was mostly to see how serious it was, and whether or not teeth needed to be pulled.  Well, it is pretty bad.

 They took special x-rays, and photographs so the orthodontist could see all areas of his mouth.

 I had to get a shot, I mean come on!

After he had the shots taken, we were taken to a room where we were able to discuss the treatment options for Corben.  This is what they had to say.  His mouth is too crowded on the bottom.  He has several teeth needing to come in, but there is no room, and if we leave it, they'll grow in behind other teeth, which isn't good.  He also has an extremely bad overbite.  Also, his bottom teeth, hit the back upper portion of his top teeth in such a way, that it actually forces his bottom jaw back, instead of letting it move forward.  This will eventually force him to require jaw surgery..... IF, we don't do the preemptive orthodontic treatment.  Which is, braces, lots and lots of braces, oh, and we have to pull a bunch of teeth.  Poor kid.

All these things are going to be in Corben's mouth.  He already went in and got some spacers between his back teeth.  They're hoping to move his molars back, which will start to create more room at the front.  They'll also have the wire there to start pushing his teeth forward, and a palatial expander (I think that's what it is) that will also help to make room in his mouth.  He'll have the full on braces on the top to start helping with the overbite.  They will also put rubber bands on the top and bottom that will pull the top jaw back, and the bottom jaw forward.  It will take a month to get all this on, and then hopefully, by the time we move again (possibly 8-9 months from now) these things will have done a good enough job that they can take them off.  If not, they'll still take them off, but make  him some special retainers until we get him to another orthodontist.    When this is all done, he'll go through a second stage of braces that will focus solely on straightening the teeth.  They call this a two phase orthodontic treatment.  I was surprised to learn, you can have kids as young as 6 doing this!  Had I known that, I probably would have started this a bit earlier, however, as is, he should be done with all this by Jr. High, and that makes me happy for him, cause we all know what Jr. High and High school are like!