Metal Mouth

We have officially entered the world of orthodontics for our children.  And believe it or not, it began with the youngest of the bunch.  This summer when Luca lost a baby tooth we immediately saw there was no gum left for the adult tooth to drop in.  Our dentist advised us to get an orthodonist's consult as soon as we could.  So with our extended stay in the States that is what we did.

Poor Luca, he has an upper jaw that is super small and narrow.  Not only that, but his pallet is more narrow than his nasal passage way and his tongue cannot rest on the roof of his mouth.  No wonder he has a lysp!  He functionally just cannot pronounce certain sounds.  And this could all be a major factor in contributing to his eating difficulties and texture extremes as it is hard to retrieve food from the cavernous roof of his mouth or chew well.  The x-rays showed his teeth stacked on top of each other with nowhere to go on top.  It all started to make sense to us when we saw what should be a normal mouth.

For the past 3 weeks we have been trekking to and from the orthodontist to get x-rays, impressions made, spacers replaced multiple times as they broke or got pulled off when he snuck a piece of gum and fitted for expanders.  The doctor said he could expand both the upper and lower jaw at the same time in order to complete the process before we leave for Italy, although, this is not normally practiced for the comfort of the child.  However, we do have one tough kid and he is a fantastic patient--so proud of Luca and for being so brave!

Assisting in making the puddy for his mouth impressions

Yesterday both expanders were placed in his mouth.  We have to crank the upper appliance twice a day and the lower twice a week.  The goal is to expand his upper jaw by 1cm in three weeks for new bone to grow.  Yikes!  Jonathan and I made a deal, that he would do the key turning and I would do the cleaning.  Sounds totally fair to me!

Not quite sure what to think

Pray for Luca that he will soon adjust especially to eating.  He is a bit sore right now and food gets stuck up above his expander when eating.  Being a texture boy, that really bothers him to the point he doesn't want to eat much.  Jell-O and yogurt cannot sustain him over the next few months!  Last night when he was eating bread he kept insisting that we "crank it", as if the cranking would get the food out. He has a super soaker that washes out the food--hopefully I can figure out a way to not drench ourselves everytime with that tool!  Pray also that this process will prevent future orthodontic work, because we have two more kids in line with their own unique issues.  There goes the college fund!