Christine had her first visit with the orthodontist today! She will be getting her braces in a few weeks. WOW! We learned a lot in that consultation visit: Overbite, which we knew. A few crooked teeth, which we knew. New news is that she has what they call a lateral tongue thrust, which means that when she swallows, her tongue pushes to the sides of her molars pushing those teeth out. Who knew? I guess this is what the dentist was telling us about last time she had her cleaning. So while she has her braces, she will need to go to a speech therapist to learn how to swallow differently. She freaked out when he said that. We were walking out to the car and she told me she "WILL NOT" go to a speech therapist. She talks just fine, swallows just fine and we will be wasting our money to take her to one because she will not get out of the car. (yes, 14 years old...) I dropped her off at road show practice and when I got home Duff called his sister, Jan, who has a masters in speech therapy and practices at LDS hospital. So we got all the scoop from her and it is a no-brainer. A few exercises to practice and it makes all the difference in the world. I think she felt better about it when we told her. We're going to have Jan talk with her. She loves her Aunt Jan.Oh, and can I just mention: thank goodness for dental insurance!
1 comment:
Tanner just got his, too! Brittany had the speech therapy for her tongue thrust and it was very painless and not too hard. I have to say, she still has the tongue thrust, just maybe not as bad. She does better if she practices the exercises.
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