Sam's New Smile

Samantha got braces at the start of 5th grade and got them off right after she graduated from 6th grade.

Her last brace face smile.

Drum roll.

👏👏👏👏👏👏

A+ result!

Samantha Gets Braces!

Samantha got the green light for braces just before summer last year but we opted to wait until right before school started so that we could have our summer vacation and summer camps braces-free and kick off 5th grade with some shiny new hardware. 

The last time we'd see this smile. 

I actually don't think they were that bad. But Samantha has been going to the orthodontist since she was pretty little because she had teeth crowding so she had teeth pulled, a spacer and a wire for her bottom teeth all before braces so they've been working on them for several years before this next step. 

We LOVE our orthodontists, Dr. White and Dr. Grube. They sent Thatcher and I out for free coffee while they got to work on Sam. And they've also been VERY generous with all their extra attention they've given Thatcher who isn't quite a patient yet but has been looked at by the doctors several times for all his teeth catastrophes. 

Remember this one? He's had several more teeth accidents since then and chipped front teeth to show for it. 😬 The good news is that throughout all the skateboard, baseball and biking accidents, he has such big gaps in his teeth that all his adult teeth seem to be falling into place much better than expected. 

Brace Face, Tin Grin, Metal Mouth and all, I think she looks pretty cute with braces. 

A painful first few days but she's almost now had them for a year and only has one more year to go. She also had a palette expander for six months that has already been removed and has widened her smile so nicely. She'll be metal-free before junior high!