Tyler started the process of getting braces today. This will be what the orthodontist calls phase one. Tyler has a pretty decent crossbite. One side of his top jaw is outside of his bottom jaw, and the other side is on the inside. Where the crossover occurs, his top front tooth is crooked and won’t descend fully because it is pushing on his bottom tooth (instead of going in front of it). So, today he got spacers. We thought he was going in for two, but they ended up putting in four. Poor kid. He went in all *excited* that he was getting braces. The first spacer went in without any problem. The second…not so much. The girl tried and tried and then had to call over the orthodontist. He got the second one in with Tyler whimpering and saying that it hurt. That’s when he decided that we would need to put in the other two spacers. Then it got ugly. Tyler was almost in hysterics. He was crying and bleeding and trying to climb out of the chair. (Why didn’t somebody tell me that this mommy thing was so hard? I just wanted for it not to hurt him. I hate seeing my kids hurt.) We got out of there and came straight home to ibuprofen and ice cream. Now…how do I get him to go back in a week for the next step?

Here’s a pic of the bright blue spacers…. (I warned you…if you don’t like to look at teeth or mouths….back out now!!! *wink* )