Orthodontic Update, April 2009

I may be boring you but I am so amazed with James' transformation! It's just so interesting how fast his teeth have changed! He first had an expander put on that we turned twice a day over 16 days. You could visibly see his teeth move and his jaw widen. I mean, I know that was the point but I just had no idea that you would see the change so easily! So here is the transformation so far:

Before (June 30th)

16 Days Later

The full view of his teeth after the upper expansion. He was such a trooper with all these contraptions!!!


Braces on to further expand. (Sept 06)

These will stay on for a year and then come off and he'll have a retainer to 'hold' the expansion. When he has all his permanent teeth, he will get braces to straighten. See, quite a process right?

Okay, it's now Mid April and I'm back again to edit this with an update!

Amazing so far . . . (April 20th)

See how they were crazy crowded, then they made all the room with the huge gap between the front teeth by expanding the jaw (with the crank system) and now the braces are moving the teeth where they need to go and closed the front gap, moving the space to the sides for the adult molars that have to come in? Pretty cool stuff right? I've never had braces (want them, may get them, can't decide . . . ) so I have never seen this transformation and am quite impressed. It's only been 10 months!

(Just so you know, I think I will continue to update this post with new pictures and change the date so I don't have to always upload the same pictures over and over so stick this out and in like 5 years this post will have the complete transformation!)

Kiersten