She Takes A Lickin' and Keeps On Tickin'

Many of you know of Summer's dental woes. Her little mouth is just too small for her teeth. A trip to our friendly neighborhood orthodontist confirmed our suspicions. Her top jaw is 20 mm. smaller than her bottom jaw. So, in order to preserve as many of her permanent teeth as we can, we have decided to go ahead and get started with some early orthodontics.

Today marks the end of Phase 1 of Phase 1 - extractions. Last week Dr. Bill the dentist removed one of her eyeteeth which was already loose, and one of her canines that still had a half inch long root! I almost lost it. She was a total trooper. Not even a whimper. She walked out of his office smiling around the bloody gauze hanging out of her mouth for her trip to the treasure box. Today was more of the same, although I handled it better this time by looking out the window instead. Today a top front tooth and her other bottom canine came out. The carbocaine they gave her in her upper lip caused it to really swell and for a while there she looked like she was sprouting a beak. She thought it was HILARIOUS! 5 minutes later she had another mouthful of bloody gauze and skipped to the treasure box. The next phase of Phase 1 starts next week where her orthodontist will place spacers in to preserve the spaces created by the extractions.

Icing her "fat lips". Thank you so much Aunt Syndee for the ice pack!

Still one of the most beautiful smiles I've ever seen!