Parental Pain

Orthodontia sucks.

I understand that, with my younger son's mouth, letting nature take its course would have resulted in complete disarray and dysfunction.  His teeth came in in rows instead of having the permanent teeth push his baby teeth out.  The words that the Orthodontist used when describing the panoramic x-rays that he took were "train wreck."  Cosmetics aside, there is no way that leaving such things alone would have resulted in my son being able to even eat normally.

This poor kid had to have all but 3 or 4 of his baby teeth extracted at the dentist's office, because they weren't coming out on their own.  When his first permanent molars come in, they immediately put braces on them and on his front eight teeth so that they could put springs in and push everything forward and outward, hoping to make enough room for the rest of his permanent teeth.  He's been wearing braces for years already.

Yesterday, they put on a full set of braces.  He did very well while in the Orthodontist's chair as they removed some of the existing brackets to re-position them.  He sat there, fists clenched, as they put on the rest of the brackets and finally (and a little painfully) put wires through all of the brackets.  As we drove home (via Jamba Juice), I watched the tears run down his face--it's how he relieves stress.

Most of the day yesterday, he wouldn't talk because braces hurt.  He didn't want to move his mouth at all.  I heard him get up a couple of times during the night to take ibuprofen.

Today is his first day of school, and he'll spend the day in pain again.

It's hard for me to watch him hurt.  Even when I know that, in the long run, he'll be glad he went through all of this, it's still heart-wrenching.

I hate it.