KitKat's Chompers

For years now, Minda and I have been wanting to get Kitkat's teeth fixed. She has misaligned teeth or "snaggle" teeth that we feared may be causing her to be self-conscious or unnecessarily reserved when smiling or laughing. Thankfully she laughs heartily whenever she feels like it. Her teeth are what's expected of the family genes, big and strong... so much so, that dentists often turn down the request to have them extracted. And often, their professional opinion is to leave them be. So as Kitkat was growing, more and more teeth crowded in, pushing some out of alignment.

This year, after most of her baby teeth had fallen out and replaced with permanent ones, is the ideal time for her to have braces put in to line up her pearly whites. Many times in the past years, we've diverted funds intended for her braces to other expenditure deemed more immediate, and so her braces had to wait. Well, the good Lord has finally given us the funds to push through with what has been planned years ago. So off to the dentist she went, accompanied by her mom (I had to stay home with the younger kids).

After initially examining her teeth, the doctor remarked that her teeth shows she was going to be a big woman when she's fully grown, and that she still has a couple of baby teeth that needs to be extracted before the appliances can be put in. The doctor made a cast of her teeth for posterity (or horror flashback) and for better analysis and comparison after the braces have done their job. Her teeth were cleaned and then fitted with the braces.

There's tolerable discomfort, Kitkat says. Which is expected since the teeth are being pulled into alignment. But only her top teeth were initially fitted. She was instructed to come again a few days after (when she has adjusted to the discomfort) to have her bottom teeth fitted with braces as well. She was given medicine (included in the fee), and was told to come in every three weeks for the next one and a half years. She'll also receive retainers (included in the fee) when her braces come out.

For the first few days, Kitkat has complained of discomfort, rubbing of the wire ends inside her mouth, difficulty biting down, and she even started drooling while sleeping (hahaha). She never did before, so it was a little funny even for her. I told her, that's the price of beautiful teeth. Well, she's willing to go through it and we're happy for her for it. Pretty soon she'll be beaming in her selfies and will be more self-confident than ever before.