Well it’s looking like it’s gonna cost about 7 - 8 grand to get little Sean fixed up over a few years. After they did the full assessment with xrays, photos and moulds they realized that his jaw on the bottom is not keeping up with the top. They also feel that his upper jaw is too narrow. These are thanks to my genetics because that is exactly my problem. Where it gets complicated is he inherited the huge ass chicklet teeth from his Father’s side of the family. Big teeth + small mouth = big problem.
The treatment plan that we are probably going to follow will be 6 months of an appliance that hooks up to a couple of teeth on each side of the top jaw with a bar between them. On this bar is a small screw that has a special key. He would have to turn the key a quarter turn each day for six months. This will spread the upper jaw out enough to accommodate his top teeth and let the braces move the teeth into place.
He would get a month break and then the braces would go on. He would only need maybe two teeth pulled on the bottom as that is where there is a lot of the crowding. After a year of braces they want to give him jaw surgery to slice a Z shaped cut into the jaw on each side and slide the bone forward and secure with pins. The spaces would be filled in with bone growth. This will address his recessed chin and ensure that his lips will meet. He would then continue to wear the braces for another year or so, then the retainer for six months daily, cut back to a few times (at night) a week for pretty much ever unless he is willing to allow a bit of shift back in his teeth.
There is the possibility to do it only with braces but it could take a year or so longer and it will NOT fix his recessed jaw problem, nor would it fix the fact his lips don’t meet.
We are going to meet with the maxillofacial surgeon at some point in the near future to discuss this and figure out what approach to take. Sean is leaning towards the surgery one, because he wants everything to be fixed up for good. I don’t blame him on this. Of course as his Father has joint custody I tried to call him but he’s not home, so I’ve written him an email to lay out the options and he will have his input. I am hoping he will support Sean and what he wants to do. Sean wanted to get things moving right away, wanted to get the device on right away. I explained that we had best talk to the surgeon first to decide if that’s really what we want to do because there is no turning back once the spreading device is on. The GOOD news is this surgeon is one of, if not the best in North America.
To cheer Sean up I took him to breakfast at the IHOP. Bacon cures a lot of ills in a meat loving child. He was quite chipper once he ate I bought him some gum. He’s going to be limited on gum and chewy candy so he’s going to OD on it before this all comes down.
I told him I’m going to take pictures of his progress, not for public viewing but more for him to look back at the changes that he will be going through. He’s signed a release at the Orthodontist too for him to be a ‘model’ if you like, for them to document his case and use it for lectures and to demonstrate treatment to other future patients in their office. They said he’s a perfect example of a ‘before’… and will be a perfect ‘after’ for them. They do a stop motion demo of the teeth moving over time which is really cool.
Posted by americanuck
