SD has to have braces & headgear
My s daughter is 15 years old (a difficult age at best). Her treatment started with a number of extractions (wisdoms), plates for 6 months, and now has full braces (she hates me for this!!!)
As part of her treatment we were told that she would need to wear a 'reveres-pull' type headgear. She was informed at her last appointment and is now struggling to come to terms with what this will mean for the next 18 or so months of her life.
It was only briefly described to her by the doctor as a type of a headgear. He has told us she would be needed a MINIMUM of 16 hours a day. She has found the picture of the girl on a site under headgear area and she is now desperately worried... as she says it looks like the kid is in some type of a 'mask' which looks painful and humiliating...
My problem is that my wife has delegated this activity to me and my SD is now looking at me being the bad one because Im the one that is insiting she gets fitted with it. She already hates wearing her braces and elastics in he mouth...
Questions, perhaps somone can help on any exprence with othodontic appliance like headgear, braces and masks and how to convince the sd its for her own good.
Thanks
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Comments
HeadGear...
I was an ortho assistant for many years...if she had teet pulled then she will need to wear that head gear to keep those teeth from shifting..if the teeth start shifting to the wrong location then she will be in braces even longer..i had a patient who refused to wear the head gear and he was in braces for almost 6 years...if she will put on her head gear when she gets home from school and wear it all nite then that will get her close to her hours...now we've never had anyone wear their headgear more then 12 hours a day or for longer then 10 months but all doctors are different...just let her know that if those teeth start to move then she will end up with spaces between her front teeth and that will require even more work to get them where they need to be...good luck!!
Wearing them at night
I had this same issue with myself during high school. I had perfectly straight teeth but a bite problem and they made me wear head gear. The best course of action is to wear it at night. I actually learned to sleep in it so that I would only have to wear it a bit before bed and than sleep in it.
The truth is I wouldn't never had worn it at school I probably would have removed it and stuffed it in my locker.
See if she can get use to sleeping in them instead or wearing them at home right after school. It's a bit uncomfortable at first but you get use to it and after awhile you don't even notice them when you are sleeping
The poor kid
I would just keep focusing on the outcome. How much more beautiful she will be. I was freaking 18 with braces and glasses! But getting those braces off that day was magicial. This young girl will really need every boost in the self esteem department she can get.
And you are doing this because you love her. She will realize that.
Yeah...
My SS wears his at night and it's no big deal. It works pretty well for us. And I tell you, I can see a BIG difference now since when we started, and he now is happy about it!
The Orthodontist also told SS that he WAS NOT to wear them to sleep overs.
It was cute.
Man has the intelligence to change his life,
Sometimes, he just fails to use it...
No problem :)
I actually have headgear right now. http://www.orthodontics.org/headgear.jpg (Not me on the picture, but the kid on the picture has the same style of headgear as I have)
All I have to say is that wearing headgear is no big deal! I use it at home and I sleep in it. None of my friends even knows about it
But: 16 hours? That's a lot of time! My orthodontist told me to wear it at least one hour a day + at night... Which means a total amount of around 10 hours a day. But the more, the better!
It may make the treatment
It may make the treatment plan longer, but if she wears the headgear at night for eight hours, she wouldn't have suffer the public humiliation. I worked for an orthodontist for two years and he almost always found a way around using headgear. I think it's actually uncommon to use it now. I hate to suggest this, but it's possible that the headgear could be a reason to charge you or your Dental Plan money. You may want to see if another orthodontist would suggest the same treatment.
My ds had to have headgear
My ds had to have headgear when he was 9 or 10. He wore it at night. Or we tried for 6-6pm at first. It wasnt a huge deal-he didnt love wearing it-but he did. I wouldnt have ever made him wear it to school or a friends house though.