Let me back a minute. We went to the dentist last week and had a shock. Dor needed three more fillings and a crown. What. The. Hell. So after explaining to the dentist (who was new and who freaking rocks, by the way) that I was expecting to come in for a sealant (you know, the stuff they use a paintbrush to brush on) and not major work, I was just a bit surprised and I don’t like dental surprises. So he examines his teeth, counts his fillings and crowns, takes an extra x-ray and tells me that we do indeed need three more fillings and a crown. I ask them not to use the nitrous b/c Dor reacts badly too it, and just use the novocain and we’re off. Two of the fillings were nothing and he didn’t even numb that side of his mouth. Actually, all three may have been nothing, but they had to numb for the crown, so one of the fillings was numbed as well. Unfortunately one of the crowns is where a spacer was, so he tried not to fuck up the space, and did an OK job of it.

We went from the dentist to the orthodontist and he got his bottom brackets put on but had new spacers put on top. It was a busy dental day. We dropped D off at school with instructions that if he isn’t feeling well to tell them and I’ll come get him. All was fine except for the brackets tearing up his cheeks and his gums are swollen over his back teeth.

We went to the orthodontist this morning to get his palate expander, headgear and lip bumper. Oy.

The headgear is for at home only. 10 – 12 hours a day, so he can almost put it on at bed time and have that be that. We were also told he can skip it for sleepovers and stuff, so it’s not life or death. I never had headgear, so I didn’t know a thing about it.

The expander gets turned every other day and is a marked improvement over the one I had 20some years ago. Mine covered my entire palate and was a pain to clean. His is just the metal and while he is having trouble talking right now, and swallowing, once he gets used to it, it will be way better than full coverage. Mine was also turned every freaking day.

The lip bumper can also come out, but shouldn’t. It’s helping to expand the lower jaw (if I understood correctly) and give the tongue more room. I opted not to have braces on the bottom, so I didn’t have that either. New experience!

So the boy is miserable and that sucks because Malachai goes back in a few weeks to finish his x-rays and start this mess and Dorian is gonna be all whiny about it. I hope he puts on a good face about it, b/c Mal *really* needs this work done, or we’re looking at surgeries to correct his problems.