Monday, June 30, 2014

Let the Ortho Adventure Begin

Let the Ortho Adventure Begin!

Today we visited Dr. Garcia's office to have impressions made, pictures taken, and spacers put between a few of Rachel's back teeth.


This is Rachel's smile now. Her top two teeth are completely jacked up as a result of her cleft alveolar ridge. We love her no matter what her smile looks like, but we're excited to see how her new smile at the end of this part of the journey. 



Monday, June 02, 2014

An Ortho Consult

Kids can be mean. Kids speak without thinking, truth be told, some adults do the same. We've reached the point in this journey where some kids at school have made fun of Rachel for her teeth and questioned why her teeth are the way they are. Thus, it was time for an orthodontist consult.

After a few phone calls to the office of the Orthodontist we've previously seen at Loma Linda, we  discovered Dr Garcia no longer is accepting patients at Loma Linda School of Dentistry, however, she did have a private practice. 

I called and got an appointment for today. The office is a bit of a drive, but I'm willing to drive to the ends of the earth to get the best possible care when it comes to Rachel and anything to do with her birth defect, especially since Dr. Garcia specializes in cleft children. 

After chatting a bit, and taking an Xray, Dr. Garcia turned to talk to Rachel. She asked Rachel what she would like for her to do, and Rachel broke down in tears asking Dr. G to fix her teeth. :(


And thus that is the plan. We will come back in a few weeks for spacers, and then a week later for braces. These braces will be on about 8-10 months and by the end of this Phase I, her smile will once again look completely different...