Monday, May 11, 2009

Lindsey's Retainer

Lindsey had her little dental retainer glued to her mouth for about 3 weeks or so, that widened her mouth enough to fix the cross bite she had that they were trying to fix. They fitted her for a retainer. The orthodontist asked Lindsey what color of retainer she wanted and she picked out a polka-dot retainer.

When it was time to go get the retainer, Lindsey was sick throwing up so I had to call and cancel our appointment. When we went back in at the beginning of the week, the retainer was really snug. Then Lindsey lost her retainer for a few days then when we found it, it wasn't fitting anymore. We went back in to see if we could get another one. So the Ortho said he would make another one, since he remembered it was really snug before.

We get another one, this time it is a striped one. We have it for a few weeks, go to Washington with it... not a problem. Then one night we go to find it and Lindsey doesn't know where it is. We look all over, we look in the bathrooms, on the counters in the kitchen, in her bedroom all over the place, I emptied her drawers and shook out every piece of clothing in case it had fallen into any of her constant open drawers, looked around her bed... Robert had already looked in her room with no luck either. It was no where to be found.

I decided I needed to probably call and get a new one, afraid that all her work would go back to the way it was and we would have to do the whole process over again with the little "paper clip" looking device in her mouth to correct her teeth alignment.

That night Robert is doing dishes, cleans the sick out, runs the disposal... I hear this horrible grinding noise, I tell Robert, "sounds like there is a fork or a spoon in there." He turns the disposal back off, reaches in there, "Nope, it is Lindsey's retainer!" It didn't handle that so well.

Back to the orthodontist again, to get yet ANOTHER retainer. This time he tells me there will be a $75 fee for the retainer. Yes, I figured we would be buying this one... I almost ask can I get a discount if we do 2 at this time just in case. Lindsey this time gets a green sparkle retainer. Although she had a really wiggly tooth that made her retainer not fit right, so she had to pull her tooth out. (which came out on Sat. night) I hope this is the last one for her until the doctor decides she needs a new one that he will pay for.

After many direct discussions with Lindsey she is doing better now at putting her retainer in the right place and keeping it safe. She no longer puts it on her plate at breakfast time.

The first one is too small, the second one is broken, and the third one is just right! (not to mention we have a silver sparkle one for Emily as well, but she keeps hers pretty safe, most the time anyway.)

2 comments:

** Adrian ** said...

I can relate to this post!! I've broken a few different retainers, too. . . that's why my teeth are so crooked. I didn't ever get a new one when my last one broke. :( Tell the girls not to put them in their pockets while they eat. That's how my last one got broken. If they didn't get a plastic container for them I'd suggest getting one...I wish I'd gotten one for mine---then maybe my teeth would look better now 'cause my retainer wouldn't have broken in my pocket! Good Luck!!

PS...I wish my retainers had been as fancy as those! They look awesome!!

Jamie said...

I don't know how I missed this post!!!
do I have retainer stories for you!!!!!!!!

Carly was terrible with hers and broke/lost about 3 too. It was very frustrating. I ended up making a little drawstring bag for Rachel to wear aroudn her neck to school because she had to wear her palate spreader all day and only take it out to eat. I just knew she's lose it in the trash cans and the bag did the trick.

anyhoo... it's a pain to get used to remembering where it is all the time. I hope the problems are over

oh yeah.. Carly totally got me on april fools during this time. She planned with mark. They called the dentist and asked if they had any broken retainers she could have and Mark drove her down to pick it up and she comes to me on April fools with this broken retainer inher hand and a sad sad look on her face. I hit the roof and then she started laughing "gotcha!!!" I was fairly impressed with all the planning. They totally got me.