When the eldest was 8 (? 9 maybe? Thereabouts anyway) we ended up at the orthodontist because his mouth was too small -- such that his two front teeth, which had been missing for coming up on two years, would not come in. There was no space.
This started us down the road of the palate expander (gross but effective), a round of braces, a permanent and night time retainer, and the extraction of six baby teeth and I believe two adult teeth. The kid has a small mouth.
The last thing we did was pull four teeth (some of which were adult I believe) and then we were in waiting mode to see what would happen.
Well, what happened was that the gaps kind of closed, but not enough, which means that in March the poor guy is going back into braces (now with rubber bands!) for a year to 18 months.
I'd feel bad for him (I mean, I kind of do) but I had braces four times over my lifetime, the last time when I was in my 30s. So yeah, let's get it all handled now and maybe he won't have to deal with it as an adult.
At this point, it's really all about evening out spacing and making sure his bite works as it should. So it shouldn't be too bad. But he's singularly displeased with the fact that we didn't say no to the whole idea. Ah, youth.
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