Orthodontia and Armpit Farts
As many of you know, our eight year old has braces (and an excess of personality). As it turns out, his orthodontist has come up with a clever way to encourage proper ‘orthodontic care’ on the part of his patients. If a patient makes it to their next appointment with out needing any repairs, then their name is entered in a drawing with a chance to win $50.00. While our little guy is pretty good about taking care of his tin grin, he wasn’t able to enter his name in the drawing during his last appointment due to an amusing mishap.
I was putting the “finishing touches” on his teeth the other night. This entails using a tiny little brush to get in between the brackets. I was working on the outside bracket, getting the brush in good and close and under the wire. Then it happened. As I put the brush under the wire, my son decided to enchant me with a mega armpit fart. As he raised his arm to project the offending honk, he bumped my hand, which gave the tiny toothbrush enough leverage to pop the bracket right off his tooth.
I was stunned! He was shocked! And then the two of us laughed for about 15 minutes straight. Damage to his braces via armpit fart… not even we could believe it. I’m sure this would have qualified as one of the most unique and humorous ways to lose an orthodontic bracket, but we’ll never know. He was too embarrassed to tell his orthodontist how he popped his bracket. I still chuckle when I think about it.
See also:
- Braces for an Eight Year Old
- Braces for an Eight Year Old, Update
- Braces for an Eight Year Old, Update #2
- Braces for an Eight Year Old, Update #3
- No More Braces For Our Eight Year Old (For Now)



Your posts regarding your son’s braces has helped me so much. My 8yr old daughter is startign the process now to correct the spacing of her teeth. She has tiny spaces between all of her teeth, with one perm. tooth that is impacted. Early Intervention was the way to go. if we can correct the spacing the tooth can come in on it’s own. They told us 12 months top’s is what we are probably looking at, but your story give’s me hope that she just may be able to come out of them sooner. What a nice suprise that would be. She is worried about being teased. How did your son handle it emotionally at 8?
Comment by Joelle — Oct 24th 2008 @ 10:36 amThat just made me laugh! I have 4 kids as well and we certainly find humor in many many things! We use the platypus flosser and my son can do it on his own. Give it a try… it might make armpit farts less dangerous!!
Comment by — Mar 24th 2009 @ 4:47 pm