My oldest child needs braces. Poor guy, he inherited not only my good looks, but my crooked, crooked teeth. Granted, now my teeth are not crooked. But it took four longs years of braces to fix that. And now, he's facing life with braces and he is none too happy about it.
Knowing how long I had mine, and the palate expander, and other various contaptions (luckily, I never had head gear), I knew his braces prognosis was not going to be particularly pretty. And, it wasn't. To the tune of over $5,000.00 not pretty.
As luck would have it, our dental plan has no orthodontic insurance. Great.
Oh, and have I mentioned the oral surgery he needs?
Yes, he needs to have several teeth extracted, one tooth chained to gently yet forcefully "guide" it to it's rightful, natural position in his mouth. Sounds lovely, doesn't it. And last but not least, he may or may not have a bone cyst in the back part of his lower jaw. Could it get any better?
Supposedly insurance covers the oral surgery. We'll see. Dubious would be a good adjective for my thoughts about that.
The only upside to oral surgery is he would be under for the procedure. I wonder if they'd be willing to put me under too, just a little? It might dull the physical and financial pain I am going to have to endure.
My son does not understand that by getting braces put on, I am really doing him a favor. Even if it costs me a small fortune. He keeps trying to do ME a favor and tell me he doesn't need braces. But that really wouldn't be doing him a favor.
Someday he will thank me. Someday he will understand that I am willingly inflicting pain on him for the next (possibly) four years because I love him and want the best for him. Someday he will appreciate how his dad and I willingly inflicted (serious) pain on our finances to give him a beautiful smile.
And now I am going to start saving for when my last child, who also is a carbon copy of me, needs braces. Cause I know she will.
Lucky me.
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