Braces for an Eight Year Old, Update #3

Our eight year old recently had a followup visit with his new orthodontist — for those of you that haven’t been following along, he got braces in January, and a quad helix not long thereafter. We then moved at the beginning of June and had to find a new orthodontist. When I last wrote about this, I mentioned that his old orthodontist thought it was time to remove his braces and quad helix and fit him for a retainer — after just under six months! Needless to say, we were pretty surprised…

We had originally been told that it would take a year and a half to correct his crossbite, and that he might need reverse head gear to correct his underbite. As happy as we were to hear this news, we decided that it would be best to leave his braces on, and to get a second opinion on the backend of our move. After all, we didn’t want him to get the braces put back on if his new ortho disagreed with the old one.

To make a long story short, the new orthodontist agreed with the old one, and our son is now scheduled to have his braces removed later this month (after our new dental insurance kicks in). At that point he’ll be just like me… No braces, but a shiny new retainer. The only downside is that this round of treatment was just to correct his jaw growth, and he’ll be back in braces to fine tune his grin once all of his permanent teeth come in.

See also:
- Braces for an Eight Year Old
- Braces for an Eight Year Old, Update
- Orthodontia and Armpit Farts
- Braces for an Eight Year Old, Update #2
- No More Braces For Our Eight Year Old (For Now)