Braces

BEFORE smile.

They first took out the spreaders that were between his back molars to make room for his appliance. This nifty device is called a "spreader." It is going to spread his upper jaw apart at the suture to make his pallette wider to make more room for his teeth ... and so his crossbite will correct.

This funny lookin' things are cheek spreaders. (Lots of spreading going on here.) You gotta make sure the teeth are nice and dry before you start gluing things on.

This was the coolest picture for Robert to see later. The fancy shmacy blue light is to cure the glue behind the brackets.

Then the appliance got glued in the same way (blue light and all); next came rubber bands and wires and springs, oh my!

And here is the AFTER smile. (He chose four different colored rubber bands to make his braces different colors.)

After the space between the two front teeth is closed up, there will be room for the other teeth (I don't remember if they are the lateral incisors or the canines) to finally come down. When they do, he'll get brackets put on those two teeth also.

The trick to not having Robert puke and cry and worry and cling and have the other patrons whisper to one another, "What are they doing to him?", was to have the assistant write down EVERY SINGLE STEP for me to go over with him individually prior to the appointment. Whew! Then it was no problem ... old hat ... no puke. (Of which we were all grateful.)

Also, not feeding him banana pancakes right before the appointment helped.