Mind Your Own Business

That's what I'd like to tell my dentist, Dr. F! He's a nice guy, and clearly, he means well, but the man is stressing me out! It all started a few months ago when the boys and I went in for our routine cleaning & check-up. Actually, that's not true. It all really started over a year ago when our old dentist, Dr. K, mentioned there was a strong possibility that Jaxon would need headgear in the future to correct his underbite. I only thought that was the "bad" news. However, Dr. K went on to tell me that if the headgear wasn't successful, Jaxon would probably need jaw surgery!

Fast forward from Summer 2010 to the beginning of 2011, and you'll recall that we met with our new dentist, Dr. F, for the first time, and he essentially told me that surgery was pretty much unavoidable for Jaxon because of the severity of his underbite. Yeah, not what I wanted to hear! A few days later, we met with our orthodontist, Dr. O, for the first time, and he basically told us that Jaxon was too young to do anything and a "wait & see" approach was what he would advise at that moment. Of course, one specialist's opinion wasn't good enough for us, and we promptly scheduled an appointment with our orthodontist friend, Dr. B, who practices an hour away from us. Sadly, Dr. B's office is too far away for him to serve as our actual orthodontist, but he's someone who we completely trust to level with us and provide guidance. Thankfully, his advice was to wait a year or so and then fit Jaxon with braces which should resolve the underbite issue.

Now, fast forward from our meeting with Dr. B in February to our scheduled cleaning this summer with our dentist, Dr. F. Again, Dr. F stressed to me the need to get Jaxon fitted with headgear as soon as possible because there's a narrow window to achieve the best results before Jaxon's jaw stops growing, and after the jaw stops growing, surgery will be our only option to correct the underbite. I explained that Dr. O, the orthodontist that Dr. F referred me to, had recommended we wait at least a year before even forming a strategic plan on how to address Jaxon's underbite. Surely, if Dr. F referred us to Dr. O, he trusts his opinion? After all, Dr. O is the specialist. Well, apparently, Dr. F does not agree and urged me to call and reschedule our return visit to Dr. O's office as soon as possible.

That's how we arrive at today's appointment. Dr. O's staff was more than willing to move my second consult visit up by 4 months, if that's what I wanted. Truth be told, it's not what I wanted, but rather what Dr. F made me feel like I needed to do or risk being declared an unfit & uncaring mother that doomed her first-born to unnecessary jaw-breaking surgery! Geez! And, wouldn't you know it, but we were at Dr. O's office today for all of 15 minutes. In that time, he examined Jaxon's bite and then explained that while he appreciates Dr. F's referral, I really need to trust that Jaxon is in good hands with him and that surgery is now looking completely unnecessary, and braces fitted next year should achieve a wonderful result. In short, please stop listening to Dr. F (a.k.a Chicken Little). Whew! Say it with me now..."Woo hoo!" Aside from the fact that braces are ridiculously expensive, I'd say that's great news. Now, I'm off to research the possibilities for a new dentist!