Annabelle's Dental Gear

Annabelle has had a growing-up week!!!

She turned 7 in June and has sucked her thumb everyday since about 3 weeks old. That's 361 weeks of thumb sucking. And not just at night either, in the car to in school to during sports practice, her thumb has been practically stuck in her mouth. Last year at one of her dental checkups the dentist said "appliances would not work till she was ready to stop". Well 6 months later he agreed with me and said we need to do something before her teeth grow straight instead of down. So we chatted and agreed on mouth gear. This will remind her when the thumb starts to go in that "oh, I can't do that anymore"! She has been worried about the way it will feel. She was worried about missing the last football game. But after it was in and she realized no pain she was already running and jumping around and having a great time tonight at football practice(for Mathew, her season is over because of the gear).

Here is the timeline and a few pictures.

Sept. 25th 6mo cleaning, agreed on problem and remedy so impressions were made.

Oct. 16th dentist cancelled appt

Oct. 20th spacers put in

Oct. 22nd gear put on

Excited to be at the dentist.

Spacers

Gear

This is Annabelle's bite, see the gap from thumb sucking.

First smile with gear in!

She is doing good with it. I just have to remember it is like braces for all the food limitations!! So this stays on 6 months, which is both for getting the teeth to move around and its a good amount of time to forget the thumb sucking habits!

Rachel and Annabelle