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Tristin has a beautiful smile. His teeth are very straight, but he has been complaining that his lower teeth feel crowded sometimes. At his last dental appointment, his dentist recommended an orthodontic consultation, but only after I told her I was concerned. Today, we visited the orthodontist she recommended. Here is what she found:

Dental Class II right side (this means the molars on his right side are slightly gaping in the bite). Dental Class I left side (this means these molars meet up as they ought to). There is an excessive vertical overlap of the front teeth. The upper teeth are ahead of the lower teeth 1-2mm when he has his teeth together (1-2mm is excessive?). There is a slight amount of crowding of the upper and lower teeth. The center line of the lower two teeth is shifted to the right. The upper and lower center lines are off by 2mm or less. There is enamel wear on the upper and lower front teeth due to the overlap. The upper and lower jaws relate normally to each other. The outline of his facial profile is balanced.

This just doesn't sound that bad to me. So, can anyone tell me why they recommended braces for 1 1/2-2 years, for a total of $4900?

I also presented a question to the orthodontist. I had braces for a couple of years, and had a retainer for a year or two at night. I also had an upper and a lower cemented retainer. The upper stayed on a couple of years, and the lower stayed on for 10 years. When the lower was removed, the teeth migrated to their previous crowding. I asked her what is going to prevent this from happening to Tristin, as well. She told me that studies done 10-15 years ago showed that this happens with 80% of orthodontic patients. The bones and gums are programmed to shift teeth forward. As I was in this 80% group, Tristin probably would be, too. The solution? Wear a retainer at night for life.

So, if I'm getting this right, we can pay $4900, and then replace and/or maintain retainers for the rest of Tristin's life. If he should ever get sick of wearing his retainer, we lose the entire investment. Can anyone tell me why I should even consider this?

Let me also say that orthodontists have a way with assuming that you are going to go along with their recommendations. They start going over whether the child wants ceramic or metal braces on the top teeth, and that they will cost an extra $200 on the bottom, and make the child think that this is all a done deal. The child says that he would probably have to take the cheaper option, at which point you are grateful that your son recognizes that finances are an issue here, and you interject that this is all contingent on whether or not the finances will work out at all. They act as though you are ready to shell out the money without hesitation, and when they spring the $4900 cost on you and you tell them that you don't think you can find that kind of money in your budget, they look confused. Then they tell you that they can work with you on payment plans. They also tell you that they have already discounted their services by $200 because you have other children that will probably need orthodontia, as well. At this point, you tearfull explain that it is just not in the budget, leave the office, wiping away the tears of guilt you have from not being able to afford something as necessary as orthodontia for straight teeth, and then apologize to your 13-year-old in the car while tears stream down your cheeks, explaining that it just isn't in the budget, and maybe if Dad's new company takes off, or maybe if his current company starts giving out bonuses again someday, if they even survive the recession, or maybe if the tree in the back yard starts growing greenbacks...

Let me see...Tristin's teeth are the straightest of all of our children's teeth. Seven children times $5000 (probably more, with the other children's teeth being worse) equals $35000+.

I think I'll start saving now for Benjamin's orthodontic treatments. They are inevitable, as his teeth are actually crooked. In the meantime, unless I hear a really good reason to shell out this kind of money for each of my children's straight teeth, I think I'll pass. And I refuse to feel guilty about it any more.

Appreciate the Good Times

I have a friend from high school who has breast cancer. She doesn't have a family history of breast cancer, and is extremely young for getting the disease - just 33 years old. She noticed a lump one day and had it checked out. It was found to be pre-cancerous, but they also scanned the other breast, and found a 1.5cm lump that was cancerous. It was only stage one cancer, luckily, but she had to have a mastectomy. Now she's going through chemo, just in case it has spread at all.

My friend has a very supportive husband (her high school sweetheart, also a friend of mine) and two little boys. This has been a trying experience for her, but she is very resilient, and I am confident she will pull through it.

The thing learned from this is - do your monthly breast exams. It is worth it.

MyPlate

This spring I got frustrated with my waist to hip ratio. Two factors weighted into this. First, I finally made the pants and jacket that Merle gave me the pattern & materials for at Christmas, and found that my hips and waist did not even come close to the same size on the pattern, which made making the pants a little difficult. The problem was that my waist was almost the same measurement as my hips, and that meant that they were three sizes apart. The second frustration was that all of my jeans and khakis were baggy in the hips and rear, yet tight in the waist. They just weren't comfortable.

My solution was to find a calorie-counting web site. MyPlate is a free food diary that I found. It has you enter in how much weight you'd like to lose per week, and then tells you how many calories you can have each day to meet that goal. Then, you easily enter in everything you eat, and it lets you know how many calories you have left. When I say you easily enter in what you eat, I mean it. It has nutritional facts entered in on almost everything you eat, like brand name store bought items, generics, even restaurant food, and calculates the calories for you. I highly recommend it to anyone with daily access to the internet. If you can get on more frequently, it will work even better for you, as then you don't just review what you ate, but will have that tool to tell you how much more you can have in a day.

I stuck with it for about 10 days, which was enough to get a good handle on how much I can eat each day. I was a little surprised at first, because I found I was eating about 350 extra calories per day. After a few days, I was able to stay with the plan, and was able to lose those extra pounds. I also found that when I ate in a restaurant, I went seriously over.

The next time I weighed myself, which was about 3 weeks later, I had lost 5 lbs. My jeans are now fitting nicely, except for my pair of low-rise jeans, which are falling off of me now. They were already loose, but now I think I'll just get rid of them.

I found that cutting down on calories makes you hungry at first. But once you know how many calories the foods you eat have in them, you can make healthier choices, and you won't be hungry any more, both because your stomach gets used to less, and because you get the knowledge you need to start eating lower calorie foods that will fill you up. Eating more frequently also helps, somehow.

Bye-Bye Binkey

Okay, we normally call it a nukie, but I thought the alliteration was worth the deviation.

Katie has been without the nuk for most of the past week. I had been taking them away each time I got her up from bed and storing them in her crib, but she figured out how to get them out of there. Then, I placed them in a basket on her dresser, but she climbed up it and dumped the basket to get to them. So, when neither of them could be found, we went without. It wasn't so bad this time. Meaning she did go to sleep with minimal fuss.

There was one day last week when Dallin found one in his bedroom and gave it to her after she'd been without for three days. She walked around with it for a while and wouldn't let me take it away, but then she wanted a snack and gave it to me later, and I hid it on top of the fridge. She hasn't had it since. Yay!

Brandon's Crossing-Over

Brandon crossed over from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts at our May Pack Meeting. He earned his Arrow of Light, the highest rank in Cub Scouting, and the only rank award that carries over to the Boy Scout uniform. Way to go, Brandon! On to Eagle you go!

Ben's Birthday

Ben turned eight on May 23rd. His party was last Saturday. He had a few friends over for pizza, games, a pinata, cake & ice cream.

The pinata is always the most exciting part for the kids. Unfortunately, this pinata, purchased at Target, was very lousy. The head got knocked off first. It was filled with paper, which explains why I couldn't fit much candy in the dumb thing.

They did enjoy playing with the head, though.

We went through all the children twice, and still couldn't bust it open.

We probably should have used string, not twine, as on the second round the twine broke frequently.Eventually, I pulled the paper out of the head, and they were able to get a few pieces of candy with each hit. They eventually enlisted the help of the older brothers. I'm not sure which one took the final whack, but it just wasn't very impressive.

So, the moral of the story is not to buy a pinata from Target. Next time, I'll go to Party America, where I have bought them in the past.