Day 196
My nine year old has a retainer; or rather she had a retainer until last week. You can see where I am going with this. I went out of town for work for a few days and left my kids with the super sitter. Well, super sitter took them to some sort of harvest festival complete with traditional harvest foods like–pizza? And apparently the retainer got sacrificed to the gods of the crops or tomato sauce, and is no more.
Personally, I think the kid is a little young to have a retainer. It is actually the tail end of some larger dental procedure designed to correct her bite while her palate is still malleable. Or the orthodontist was giving the pediatric dentist kickbacks for referrals; I’m not sure which.
We still have the case, just not the retainer
The original retainer (which she had approximately one month) was included in the price of a larger orthodontia “package” we had prepaid prior to The Simple Year. Subsequent retainers would have to be purchased.
So, I called the orthodontist’s office and asked how necessary the retainer was in this process, could we do without it? One thing I am finding is that when I explain about the whole not purchasing thing I often get good suggestions I hadn’t thought of before. So, I described The Simple Year in great detail- I thought.
Instead, suddenly, her voice got all gooey and in a conspiratorial tone, she offered to put me on a payment plan.
“No, that is not what I meant….oh never mind.”
So chalking it up to health and welfare, I begrudgingly set an appointment. I told my daughter she was going to have to do some chores to help “work off” the cost of the retainer. Plus, I had this vague notion that it would give her motivation to keep track of the new one.
The first chore, I told her, would be raking leaves later that week.
The next day we arrived home at dusk and, as if on cue, there was my neighbor raking the leaves in my front yard. When I got out of the car, she rushed forward, and with excessive cheerfulness said, “I’m going to rake your leaves and he’s going to cut your front yard.” She said gesturing to her husband who appeared to be doing his best to look invisible on the other side of the yard.
“OK, thanks, but…well my daughter lost her retainer,” I said.
“In the yard?” she questioned in a confused voice.
Then I spent some time explaining the situation, which I do a lot of these days– explaining, and called her off her altruistic undertaking.
Maybe not the simplest path, but it is the one that I felt the best.
Hmm…my son needs one of the same retainers and I also wonder if it’s worth it or just some scam to make braces last 5 years instead of 2. 🙂 Good luck – not sure if this would work for this sort of retainer but there is a site online where you can get a “duplicate” for like $99 – http://www.dental-lab-direct.com/?gclid=CLe7qMmxsLMCFexFMgodggcAIg – might be worth looking into cause I know my 9 year old would lose his retainer on a bi-monthly basis.
Isn’t it strange that those appliances are called retainers when they are never retained very long by the wearer…I went through several myself when I had braces (yes….they had braces back in the dark ages 🙂 By the way, I could buy her one for Christmas…
I totally understand your plight! As a former kid who lost her retainer and had a mother who could not afford a new one (therefore I was done), I had a lot of movement in my teeth over the years. To the point that now at 42 I am going through two years of braces for the second time. So, I recommend replacing the retainer, in the long run it may be far less costly for you both. Interestingly for my own daughter she has a permanent retainer behind the bottom teeth (as will I) and only wears her top retainer at night. The recommendation now is that the retainers be worn periodically for the rest of their lives to prevent movement. At least that is the guidance from our Orthodontist.
I’ve just stumbled across your blog, and I am very intrigued. I have often thought that we could go a year without buying anything–even as minimalists, we have so much stuff that it’s ridiculous!
How frustrating about the retainer though. I’m so hoping that our Jelly Bean won’t ever need orthodontics…
(P.S. Thanks for blog rolling me. 😉 )
My daughter did the two rounds of braces with a retainer in between thing. It’s a lot, but it’s less than her dad had to do. He didn’t start braces until he was 12 (she started at 9) and he wore them until he joined the Army at 18 – his orthodontist wasn’t really ready to take them off yet, but it was a requirement. He also had to have surgery to lengthen his jaw. Yikes. He does admit, though, that he might have avoided that had he been better about wearing his headgear. While not wearing the retainer might not lead to surgery, I think it’s safe to call it a medical need.