Luke's teeth

Luke's left upper incisor was only about half way into his mouth, but was overlapping behind the lower tooth.  A quick trip to the orthodontist and he has a new retainer pushing that tooth forward.  After just a few days it's overlapping correctly, and he'll wear the retainer for a couple months so things can stabilize.  He'll need more work later, but at least this acute problem will be corrected.  The upper tooth can push the lower tooth right out of it's socket if you don't correct this overlap issue!

There were a few surprising things about getting the retainer for Luke, who is not quite 7 yet.  Luke was looking forward to getting the retainer even though we were upfront about the fact that his mouth would be sore for a few days.  I was also surprised to realize that his friends are jealous of his retainer! 

We also had Emmett looked at by the orthodontist, and his teeth are "mature" for his age (read: ready for braces even though he's only 10).  Emmett is now *looking forward* to getting braces!?!  I suppose I was looking forward to it when I was young, but that was because I was embarrassed about my teeth.  Emmett's teeth look good but have some functional issues to correct.

In the first couple days when his teeth were sore, Luke complained some.  My initial reaction was to explain why it was so important to wear the retainer.  After about the second time he said, "I know!" and I realized he wasn't asking to take the retainer out, he was just in pain and looking for some sympathy, so that's what I started offering.  We're past the pain part now and just have a couple months of the annoyance of removing the retainer for every meal and snack.

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Thanks, Emmett.