Adventures in Dental Work

Ellie has a pretty substantial cross bite. We've known it for awhile, but the earliest they will do anything about it is 4.5 years old and really depends on the kid's personality. We hit that magic number and Ellie seemed to be pretty calm at the dentist so we tried it out. She had an appointment to get fitted for the rings that would attach to her molars and have a mold made. During this first appointment, Ellie was amazing. They tried 6 different rings on the first molar and 2 on the second. Ellie was just as relaxed as could be. When we went to take the impression, she had more difficulty. The goo started to gag her and she freaked out a bit. Once we sat her up right that helped with the gag and she calmed down.

And in another appointment they attached the device. This was not as easy as the first appointment. The minute they put the device in she freaked out. I promised her a lot of things to get her to calm down but nothing worked. We ended up giving her some nitrous and that calmed her down just enough for us to work. We got it in and in a matter of minutes she was back to her happy self. I kept my word on all those things I promised - ordered the Elsa (Frozen) doll in the parking lot from my phone on Amazon Prime, we made cookies that week and we also went and had pedicures at a nail salon (a first for Ellie).

This is the device in place

Special lunch date with Dad after appointment

What's more impressive, is that we had to 'turn' the device every night. Ellie did this without issue! She would plop her butt down on the floor every night, open her mouth and tilt her head back for me. Sometimes it was a struggle to get the little 'key' in the hole, but even when it wasn't quick, Ellie was calm.

Unfortunately for us, this all came to an end this week. She had her 2 week check up and determined we needed 10 more turns. And then the device would come out in 4 more months. Jared had done the last few turns while I was gone for the weekend, so when I turned it Monday night I was surprised to see some of the composite that holds the front of the device in place missing. Not sure how it didn't get caught at the appointment, so back she went on Tuesday. What they found out is that the entire device was loose. So they had to take it out completely and reglue it. Except that it wouldn't hold. The device had some issues and ultimately was too loose. Because Ellie had a similar reaction to taking it out and putting it back in this time as she did the first time, the decision was made to just wait a couple more years until she was more comfortable to  remake the device and put it in again.

Although it was a little disappointing to have wasted so much time and effort on this, I am glad that the dentist has her interest in mind instead of financial gain. Additionally, they refunded our payment because it was a device problem and nothing to do with Ellie.