I have 5 kids and consider myself fortunate that I have only paid for braces for 1 of the kids so far. My youngest son probably needed braces, but never got them. He was born with too many teeth in his mouth and had to have several extracted including the one growing from the roof of his mouth. Something like this, but only one extra tooth in the roof of his mouth, not a whole second set of choppers. Yikes!
Geez, you could go broke just buying toothpaste for that mouth, but you might be able to chew your food twice as fast. Anyway, my son never got braces for several reasons:
- I am cheap.
- He was playing sports that required mouthguards.
- He didn’t want them.
- I am cheap.
Now my wife tells me our youngest daughter who is 11 needs braces. I immediately began spewing reasons why she didn’t need them. And then I did a complete 180 degree flip-flop after I heard this …
She had a boyfriend. And so I began the chant … Braces, Braces, Braces! I had something in mind like this …
Yes, that would work perfectly. But then, she broke up with him. She tells us he was too needy. What guy isn’t? I immediately jumped off the braces bandwagon once I heard the boyfriend was history.
However, she’s pretty and I think this will be the first in a long line of boyfriends who’s heart she will break, so I’m considering jumping back on the braces train. Maybe my daughter would like more subtle headgear in a nice color?
That one looks like it should work for 10 years until she’s 21.
Jim Flanigan Looks at the World 