If you remember in February, we went to see the orthodontist recommended by our regular pediatric dentist, and made a plan for Dominic to get braces. None of us had any confidence that Dominic would be able to actually tolerate the sensation of having braces placed on his teeth. Knowing that there would be a period of time that involved much discomfort, we scheduled the braces placement for the day before spring break. That day was today. The entire city was shut down due to a surprise spring blizzard this morning. So while we had plans to pull Dominic out of school for the day for this – turns out there was no school. We took Dominic to the orthodontist on the northside of the city and had his braces placed. We had taken some very calming music with us, dosed him with an anti-inflammatory painkiller before the procedure, and crossed fingers and toes. When we got there the headphones for The music we had prepared didn't work so I ran across the parking lot to the Ace Hardware and bought a new pair. We just went for it. And Dominic has his top braces on. He picked the color red for the rubber bands which is adorable. Maybe red is his favorite color – I still don't know what that is. We along with the orthodontist were absolutely dumbfounded at how well Dominic did. When I mentioned that we were going to try this I caveated that with the statement that the orthodontist had agreed to allow us as many times as we need to get them placed. None of us thought that he was going to allow us to do it on the first try. So we are ecstatic about the success. The orthodontist said that as well as he did today, we should consider placing the lower braces which we haven't even discussed doing, so that the orthodontist could better expand his upper palate. We will likely schedule the lower braces placement in six weeks when we go back for our first wire change.
We told Dominic that every time he eats he has to brush his teeth. So as we finished up getting his braces, he announced he was hungry. We got him home, fed him the very nice soft turkey salad I had ready and shortly there after he came running up to me screaming "mommy brush the teeth", so he got it.
I absolutely credit all of the ion cleanse by AMD foot baths for getting us to a place where the nutrition Dominic needed could be assimilated by his body. And where that nutrition could pave the way for such a sensory child to allow this kind of work in his mouth.
Now this evening - he is in pain. Hopefully it will be short lived.
