T has been in braces a LONG time!! She had one set several years ago for about a year and a half. And we knew it was a temporary fix. Then she got her second set...which included some crazy contraptions going on in her mouth! She had an appliance to move her jaw...we called it her "shock absorbers". It was...interesting! I felt true pity for her the day she got that appliance on. When she was about a year into her 2-year treatment plan, we got the orders to Germany. Which meant a new (Army) orthodontist. He removed her "shock absorbers" and put in a "lisp enhancer" as T called it. It effected her speech, her ability to swallow a pill, even her ability to eat certain foods. This stayed in the entire time! After almost 2-years of treatment here in Germany, we had the orthodontist remove her braces, before we return to the States. After 6 months of promising "maybe next month", we simply decided that he was never going to get them quite right. And she didn't want to return to the States in braces and move to another orthodontist, and possibly even longer treatment.
So we let her make the decision to remove them, even though they weren't exactly "finished". She is happy with them, and she says constantly how nice it is to NOT have braces anymore!
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| Before the final appointment... |
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| After the final appointment... |
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| And the first thing she wanted to eat after getting them off?? PEANUTS!! We went straight to the commissary after the appointment, and she broke into the bag on the way home. She was one extremely happy girl! |
