Ethan’s expander

So poor Ethan lost his teeth way too early, which then forced even more baby teeth out way ahead of schedule. Now they are too spaced out for permanent teeth to come in straight. This is partly because his little mouth is well, too little still. He has been going to the orthodontist since Dec. 2009, at 6 yrs old! But our first 3 visits were spaced 6 months apart, he was just checking to see if he would need early treatment. Last Dec. it was determined that he would need it this coming summer, he said he would want to do after school was out so he had summer time to get used to it all.

He was outfitted with an expander on July 12, this is the first phase of treatment. Our appt was originally on June 7, but that got changed when the dr decided to go on vacation. I was upset over that, since E is so little, I really wanted him to get going with this at the start of summer break. He got impressions made, which didn’t freak him out at all. We paid our downpayment of $1388 (yikes!) and they made his custom expander.

He did so great! He didn’t seem nervous at all and it was cute that they let him wear sunglasses.

Dr attached the expander to his 2 back teeth with some heavy duty glue. 

Here she is picking away the extra glue from the sides.

At one point she told him to lay still with his hands to his sides and to not move his feet. I noticed he would swing his feet some, as almost a calming affect, which he probably didn’t realize he was doing.

We have to crank this little hole back that feels like you are tightening it, but you are basically expanding his teeth apart!  We have to crank it twice a day. Trent does the morning shift, of course, and I thought I would handle the night one. I think I have done it a total of 3 times now in almost 2 weeks.

He was told he needed to brush his teeth well after everytime he ate and to be sure to scrub the sides of the expander. He was really good at brushing like that the first oh, 3 days. I was so surprised by it all. They gave his a special toothpaste to use at night. He is doing good to adhering to the list of foods he can and cannot eat. They gave us a nice magnetic listing of no-no foods and drinks. No pop, which he only gets when we go to fast foods places anyways.

He had his 2nd appt last Tues. and the just checked everything out. His next appt is Monday and I’ll take him, I think that would be the end of the ‘adjusting’. He will wear the expander for another month.

It is crazy how much of noticeable gap is between his 2 front teeth now. So much you can stick a french fry it there!

Then in Sept. he gets braces on his 4 front teeth. The braces will tighten up those way spaced out teeth. Hoping it will all work out and then allow for those canine to come in straight and in line with the newly created space. I think he will still wear the expander with the braces for a bit.