Big Boy Teeth

The time has come to deal with Talmage's big boy teeth.  He has a small mouth and doesn't have room for his adult teeth to come in.  We were faced with a few options.  Do nothing now and let the teeth come down and have to extract 4 teeth to make room to straighten it all out as a teenager... or, start with expanders and braces now to make room for those adult teeth so hopefully no extractions.  We went with the treatment now, even though he may have to be retreated once his teeth all come in.  

Here are the before pictures to see some of the issues with his bite.  

The upper teeth completely cover the lower teeth when he smiles... not good.  This creates a closed bite.

Here you can see the deep bite that his uppers are covering the lowers.  You can also see the crowding with the turned top tooth.

His lower adult teeth don't even have room to come up because there is just not enough space.

After he got all of the appliances put in I took pictures to see what he gets to enjoy for the next year or so.  

Here is his lower expander.  It's removable and I adjust it every week to keep his mouth moving. 

Here is the upper expander on the roof of his mouth.  The Dr. adjusts this one.  You can also see the braces on his front four teeth. 

He was such a good sport about it all and he hasn't even been in much pain.  Let's just hope this year goes by fast and that he doesn't have to be retreated.  

The sad part about this whole thing is that Talmage had no idea that his mouth had problems before we took him in and explained why he needs braces.  Then he stopped smiling with his teeth for pictures (not that he did that much anyway) and he thinks it's about his crooked teeth.  Yes, it is, but just to be sure there is room for all the adult teeth, not just to fix the ones he has now.  Oh the joy of understanding our bodies and how to help them while they are young and moldable.  

I'm sure he will thank us later, even if he thought a year was a long time to have braces ;)