Gum Surgery and Braces

 It's been an exciting month for Julia.  Several weeks ago we were told that she'd be needing to get moving on exposing her adult teeth that were still under the gums and above other adult teeth that were below them.  This would involve numbing the gums on both sides of the upper part of her mouth and cutting them open to expose the teeth.  We thought this meant that the gums would be cut open a slit.  Didn't think it through much.  When it came time for the gum surgery Julia wanted me to stay with her so I held her hand throughout.  She was awake during it and feeling good.  As good as she could be.  Dr. Kachepa (who is amazing) cut open the gums and then continued to cut.  Turned out that it wasn't just a slit that exposed the tooth - all of the tissue in front of the tooth, on the sides of it and under it needed to be removed.  For both teeth.  Her teeth are beautiful!!

She was a total trooper about it.  Her mouth was sore for a few days, but then she was eager and ready for the next step of getting braces on.

Dr. Kachepa began by putting braces on her top teeth first.  They are on all of her teeth with extensions up to each tooth that was exposed from the surgery.  The teeth are being pulled down into place where the gaps are currently open between other teeth.  A few weeks in and it looks like it's working... slowly but surely.

A week later the bottom braces were added.  It didn't take long for Julia to ask how much longer she has to endure the braces.  It's been a painful few weeks and hasn't been tons of fun.  But once the initial pain wore off she's gotten used to them and feeling pretty good.