No more Metal Mouth!

This was a big day for Kaelan! He finally got his metal appliance, for adjusting his palate, removed! It was put in way back in October 2010, and has been his constant companion since then. The first couple of days were pretty rough because: it hurt, he couldn't talk and food got stuck in the thing over and over again. Chicken especially. Brushing his teeth was an ordeal and took more time. But in my mind it was worth it. We decided to do this procedure because Kaelan had collapsed his palate from sucking on his binky so hard as a baby, and made it so he couldn't bite straight down. Instead he would bite off to the side in a major cross-bite.

The pediatric dentist said we had two options. One was do nothing now and then give him major braces when he was older to correct it, or put in this little metal appliance now. I, of course wanted to do the second option. Get it corrected now. Not only would it be cheaper, but he wouldn't have to deal with it for a decade before it was fixed. It was a no brainer to me. But the dentist really didn't want to do the second option on Kaelan. He was pretty patronizing to me, saying if he put it in, he didn't want me coming back the next day crying that it was hurting my baby and asking him to take it back out. I thought he was crazy to think that I would spend money and then want it removed and I told him so!

When the day came to put it in, it went as smooth as can be. I had warned Kaelan that it might hurt and we had a plan for that. When we sat down and I started to remind him that he needed to hold still even if it hurt and what our plan was, the doctor grabbed my knee and said "You have said the word hurt 3 times, stop" I looked at him and told him that if I didn't prepare this kid before hand and it did hurt, that he would freak, but if he was prepared he would sit still and deal. The doc was skeptical, but when Kaelan just sat there calmly the entire time, squeezing my hand when it hurt, the doctor apologized to me and said that he was impressed I knew my kid so well. I just think that he must have had enough bad experiences, with less that ideal parents, that he had become so jaded towards all parents. Too bad really. He is a great pediatric dentist.

After that first day we went back every two months and checked the progression. It was kind of funny because after our confrontation over the word "hurt" he treated me with great respect and would tell everyone around that this was his amazing patient and amazing parent. It made me laugh. I guess this is the kind of guy that likes it when people push back. Kind of funny.

When the day finally came to get it out, Kaelan was so excited. The dentist, once again told the whole story of me "strong-arming" him into doing this procedure and sticking to my guns, to his assistant (once again they nodded with only a slight rolling of the eyes, since they have heard the story every time we have been in.). He explained to me that since I "made" him do this procedure on Kaelan, he has since done it on four other patients and he had me to thank for getting him back into doing these again. But, he said, he only picks patients like KK. That left me wondering how he could tell..

KK, metal in place:

An interview with KK about his Metal mouth:

Ready for the big pull:

All done! Now KK has a new appliance:

(his reward for being so good, once again!)

No more Metal mouth!

After his dental visit I took Kaelan out to lunch. He wanted "Chinese", so I took him to Noodles and Co. and ordered him Pad Thai with chicken. He was in 7th heaven. At one point, he looked up at me and said "this feels good to me, no metal in my mouth!"

A funny side story:

While we were eating, one of the workers from our restaurant went outside for a smoke. This restaurant is all windows, floor to ceiling, so Kaelan watched him walked over, sit down, and start to smoke. After watching for a few seconds he turned to me and said "You can see that guy's breath, if I go outside you can see my breath too." Then he watched the man a few more seconds and said "Wait, that isn't his breath.....he's blowing on a stick!" Haha!

That completed the day for me!