Medeival Torture Devices (for kids!)

I had been meaning to post this weeks ago but just plum forgot. As some of you may know, Jorden had her expander put in her mouth back in May. The expander is a device that will help to widen her jaw. It is glued to her back teeth and a metal plate sits at the top. Every night we had to take a little tiny key, insert it into a little tiny hole that's on the plate, and push back until it stops moving. The turning of the expander is what actually widens her jaw. Not to worry folks! It was completely painless. For a few seconds the expander felt tight around her teeth but otherwise she was fine.

One thing the orthodontist didn't tell us was that since her jaw was being moved her teeth would start to fall out a little faster. She's only had it in about 4 weeks and she's lost 3 teeth. I was assured this was normal.

Jorden did have to adjust to having this in her mouth. The big adjustment was there are now certain things she cannot eat, like popcorn and nuts just to name a few. They told us whatever you can't eat with braces, you can't have with this. And since the plate doesn't sit flush with the roof of her mouth (it's not supposed to), sometimes she can get food particles stuck in there. So it's really important for her to keep her mouth clean. I gotta hand it to Jorden, she's really good about it. She rinses her mouth out after every meal and even after lunch at school. So anyway, here's some pictures of this crazy thing we put in her mouth:

Here's what she looks like with no teeth:

Wait, it's gets crazier. Now that we're done turning it, she now has to wear a facemask every night for at least 4 months. The purpose is to keep her jaw from sliding back into place. Now THIS is the torture device!

Now after you've seen all that and thinking to yourself, "Oh poor Jorden!" I thought I would add this picture in for good measure becaue it's just too darn cute: