Sam had to have braces and headgear put on today. The orthodontist said that he only uses headgear in extreme cases now. Sam is an extreme case. This headgear is reverse pull. Meaning it will pull his top out while pushing against his bottom jaw to keep it from growing too fast. It's not super awesome.
He has bottom braces and he has a retainer thing in the top of his mouth. The headgear attaches to the retainer thing with rubber bands and it opens a little more each day to widen his upper jaw. It's about an 1/8 inch thick and there's about a 1/4 inch space between it and the roof of his mouth. Because of the retainer thing, his tongue can't touch the roof of his mouth and he's having trouble talking, swallowing, and eating anything that isn't small enough to slide between the retainer and the roof of his mouth. His gag reflex is working overtime today. It's been horrible.
I hope he figures this thing out and how to eat with it or he'll be eating pudding, jello, rice, and ice cream 3 meals a day for the next 4-6 months.... His biggest concern is that his out-loud reading words per minute is going to decline drastically. :)
This is only phase 1....
