Skittles Party!

Last night while many people were wringing their hands waiting for election results, we were busy chowing down on popcorn, skittles, starburst and gummy candy.

 

"Icky yucksters!!" Is probably what most of you are thinking, and typically I'd be right there with you. But last night was special. It was Ella's last opportunity to eat hard, sticky food for quite some time.

Because this morning she got her braces on!

 

This is the next step in her cleft palate repair. Very thankfully her bottom teeth and jaw are darn near perfect so she just needs to have her upper teeth realigned and jaw reshaped.

 

And very thankfully my sweet girl will probably be the best patient her orthodontist has ever had. She's more responsible than I am sometimes! She has already taped her "Don't Eat These Foods" list to her bedroom wall and set up her braces care supplies in the bathroom. I love her so much!

 

Her ortho uses the Damon System which is supposed to be less painful and need fewer adjustments. He isn't on our insurance plan - but - he specializes in cleft repair and is highly recommended by the many, many, *many* people I asked so I would sell my non-vital organs on eBay to afford him if I needed to.

 

These amazing braces will:

~ straighten her wayward tooth that is currently perpendicular to her gumline,

~ expand her gumline, prepping it for a bone graft in a year or so, and

~ reshape her upper jaw so that she doesn't have an underbite anymore.

 

She'll have braces until her late teens/early twenties, but the results will be worth it. The next step after the bone graft is to wait until her mid-teens when she'll get a false tooth but only if she wants it.

 

After that, she'll get a dental implant in her late teens/early 20's because she has a tooth that didn't form in utero - which is very common in cleft palate babies.

 

If you're considering adopting a little cutie with a cleft lip and/or palate and have more questions, please don't hesitate to email me. It's such a manageable special need, and I'm happy to help in any way that I can!