An Answer to Becca's Question

So, Becca asked a question about Jamie's teeth, making the comment that she didn't mean to be rude, but she didn't see why he needed braces on the bottom. You're not being rude, Becca, you're being inquisitive. To answer your question, if you look closely at the pictures in this post, you'll see that his bottom teeth are shifted about 3 mm to the left of his mouth (his left, your right)out of alignment with his top teeth. This has caused all the teeth on the left side of his mouth to be out of alignment with the top teeth. This in turn means his bite is off, which causes his teeth to grind together, triggering headaches, toothaches, and could cause premature wearing down of his teeth and breakage. In the pictures of the inside of his mouth from the orthodontist's website, his teeth don't fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, more like the points hit exactly on the points of his top teeth, and they aren't supposed to do that.

Jamie's teeth from the front. See how the bottom teeth are not properly aligned with the top?

Jamie's teeth on the right side of his mouth. See how they line up perfectly? Just like a jigsaw puzzle, they way they are supposed to line up.

Jamie's left side of his mouth. Wait a minute! What's this? What are all those gaps doing there? Why are the points resting on each other? That's not supposed to happen, and can cause lots of problems!


To fix this, all of his bottom teeth need to be in braces to be sure that they are lined up properly. There's a chance his chronic migraines could be far less frequent after his bite gets straightened out. His top teeth, of course, are crooked as all heck, as can be seen from the pictures. Also, if you look closely, you can see that his top front four teeth stick out at an angle; what may be harder to notice is that his bottom teeth also go out at an angle, just a lesser angle than the top teeth.

See? His teeth poke out at an angle.

By now, you should know more about my kid's orthodontia then you probably ever wanted to know. Sorry about that! (Actually, I'm not. I like to answer questions thoroughly. LOL!)

Brief Update

Once again, I'm in a hurry and don't really have time for an in-depth post, but I want to bring my loyal readers (all 10 of you) up to speed on what's going on in S.A. So here goes:

1. Becca, Tom and Christopher arrived late Saturday night/early Sunday morning after a long drive and a few mishaps along the way. I'm SOOOOO excited to see Becca! It's been something like 13 years since we last saw each other!
2. Jamie and Christopher are getting along great, and got to have a premature Easter egg hunt in the back yard on Sunday. This allowed the kids to have fun and the adults that had been driving for two days to unwind.
3. My degree plan at TWU now officially states that I am 12 credits shy of graduating. WOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4. I've been pushing really hard, trying to earn high enough marks in my classes to graduate cum laude, but I don't think it will happen. I think I may be a few points shy, but really close. However, I'm trying not to be disappointed; I think the fact that a single mother working full-time and going to school is graduating at all is cause to celebrate. But there's still this little tiny bit of me that is sad that I won't be able to claim graduation with honors.
5. Jamie got accepted into an interactive media magnet middle school! He had applied to two (both on the same campus) - one dealing mainly with computers and media (graphic design, web page design, student news broadcasts, etc.) and one dealing with science (building and launching rockets, chemistry, aerospace design, etc.). He's really excited, but is eagerly awaiting word from the science magnet school before making a decision. I'm VERY proud of him!
6. Jamie's report card came out this week, and he brought all of his grades back up to his normal range (in one case, this involved raising a grade more than 30 points!) He is more like his old self, and seems to be working through the issues he had with Papaw's death, and the trauma of everything. Did I mention I'm proud of my boy? I did? Well, I'll say it again - I'm proud of my boy!
7. I've scheduled Jamie's appointment to get his braces on for this June. Dad's house is sold, and I have the money now to pay for it all at once (you get a discount). To keep me from spending it, and to allow it to make some money (a very little) in the mean time, I put it into a risk-free CD at my bank to allow it to earn some interest between now and June. Once he gets them on, I'll be sure to post a picture so you guys can see him in all his metal glory. :-)

Okay, it's after midnight and I have to be at work early tomorrow so I can get off work early. I must say good night now!