Brace yourself, son

Today was not one of my finest mothering moments. Sam had an orthodontist appointment, a follow-up to his getting spacers last week. The office said he would be getting bands and a headgear (remember headgears? I can't believe we haven't progressed orthodontically enough to come up with a better solution than those torture devices). I was a bit fuzzy about the details of the appointment but told Sam he was getting bands around his back teeth where the headgear would be attached.

He came out of the appointment just under an hour later with a betrayed look in his eyes. He opened his mouth and showed me the source of his displeasure: braces! What?! Somehow I had missed the idea that he would have brackets across his top teeth. Worse, I hadn't prepared Sam AT ALL for the possibility. He managed to make it through the little braces indoctrination session with the dental assistant (what not to eat, how to brush, the scared-straight pictures of gross mouths who didn't take the hygeine advice) but the minute his feet hit the blacktop of the parking lot, the tears came.

Have you ever heard of a worse surprise? Ever? What a spacey Mom. Oy.

So, of course, he took the rest of the day off from school. To go to lunch. To choose books at the library. To look in the mirror and adjust to a mouth of silver.

Personally, I think he rocks the braces and looks very handsome. And after a bit of talking through it, he's on board for the whole braces thing.

And now for the traditional first-day-of-braces poem, now on its third generation (I had to call my mom to get the complete verse):

Children with braces
Should wear happy faces
Because it is easy to see
That sooner or later
When their teeth are straighter
What good-looking people they'll be!

(Yeah, it didn't make me feel much better when I got braces and it probably didn't help Sam much--since he already IS good looking and all!--but it's part of the circle of life, that poem. The tradition continues.)

Comments

[Lisa-Marie]

Oooh. That does hurt a bit. For both you and Sam.

We all make little blunders. Don't be too hard on yourself. PLUS, you let the kid stay home the rest of the day. YOu should get points for that, at least.

And yes, he is very handsome! Braces and all.

[Laurie]

But, you did remember his appointment. So he definitely outranks Louie.

And of course he's handsome.

[Annie]

Oh, Laurie, so true! thanks for the silver lining: at least I remembered the appointment.

I should clarify that we knew he would eventually need braces but just had no ideas that today (not months and months from now) was the day!

[Bridget]

Oh, poor Sam. It sounds like he made a quick recovery though. He looks great and good for him to get them young so they'll be off before he thinks they're embarrassing. LOVE the braces poem too. So funny.

[andrea]

yeah, um... oops.

[Joanna]

Oh no, that really is a horrible surprise!! For both of you! You must tell him that he really does look great with them - really cute and of course handsome. Not that he'll be impressed with a 35 year old lady telling him he's cute lol!

[diane]

I see many milkshakes in his future.

I'm on my last set of Invisalign trays. I'm so excited.

[Nells-Bells]

i could almost feel spacers being jammed in between my teeth while reading this. braces truly do stink, as we all know. but he will look so handsome, even more so than he does now. ;)

[seven smiles]

Oh my. That would be quite a surprise.

Don't worry.
It will be great fodder when he grows up and maybe blogs a bit himself...

"The day my mother..."

Those make the best stories.
Don't you think?

(My mom doesn't like them.)

[Christie]

Josh was dating a girl in his home ward whose father was a dentist. He went in for a cleaning, and the dentist said, "Do you want bands and brackets?" Josh said sure, not knowing that they were.

Yeah, he walked out of the dentist's office with braces on. We joke about it that the dentist couldn't have a potential son-in-law with bad teeth.

Funny thing is, that girl and her new husband came to our wedding. Guess who had braces on? Yep, the new husband.

[gab]

My mouth hurts just a little now.

[queenieweenie]

that's awesome!

my kids and I just sat and giggled hysterically at the Christmas Twilight!

[calibosmom]

He's so cute, I don't even notice the braces!

[cbentley]

Suddenly Sam looks older and even more handsome! Take it from an old mom, there will be worse things you will find you weren't able to prepare him for. But all in all, you are a very conscientious mom and a deeply caring one. And he knows that. I think it might have helped him (or maybe scared him) to have a grandma who had braces at 60! You're welcome.