Monday, February 08, 2010

Hannah, Re-Activated

Hannah's new orthodontia

As you may remember from last spring, Hannah has been wearing an activator to correct her jaw misalignment. She has been very diligent about wearing it, and the orthodontist has declared herself pleased with the results. We were kind of expecting that she would be going into braces soon, but the ortho thinks she can fix everything without them. The jaw is now in the right position, and all that is left to do is pull one or two teeth that had been growing from too high in her gum down into position. So Hannah got a new activator, pictured above, that is designed to do just that. It is grape kool-aid colored and fused into one piece, meaning that instead of two parts that attach separately to her upper and lower teeth, her teeth slide in and out of the wires attached to the single piece that just sits in her mouth. The first two nights she had it in, she managed to spit it out during the night and found it on the floor. Mmm... if there is anything I want to put in my mouth in the middle of the night, it is a chunk of plastic and metal wires that has been lying on the floor in a 12-year-old's room. Glad it was her and not me.

Now I guess I had better get her in to the regular dentist for a cleaning. I was waiting until we found out if she would need to have all her teeth sealed in preparation for braces, but that doesn't seem to be in the plans anymore.

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