This was the question my ten year old posed to me just this last week. I felt terrible that I could not give him an honest answer. Up until a few days prior to Friday he had been excited about getting his braces. I knew I should have asked the Restorative Dentist in Sacramento so I can give him a good insight about it. Why? I have no idea but he was excited. The closer it got to Friday the less excited he became. Initially he was suppose to go to school for half of a day on Friday I was going to pick him up at 12 and take him to the dentist for a cleaning and then to get his braces up on. However I could tell Thursday night that he was really starting to get anxious so I decided to just keep him home the whole day (which of course he did not argue with).
As we were waiting in the dentist office he asked me again, “Is it going to hurt to get my braces on?”. I refused to lie to him because the honest truth was I just didn’t know. I had to tell him just that, that I didn’t know but we would talk to the orthodontist before they did anything. He went in for his cleaning and ten minutes later the hygienist came out to get me. She said he doesn’t want his teeth cleaned because if he doesn’t get them clean then he doesn’t have to have braces put on. (Sounds logical I guess to a ten year old) So Honey and I went back to see him and he was in tears. Honey was trying to hug him and make him feel better and it just broke my heart because I didn’t know what to tell him. We finally convinced him to allow the hygienist to clean his teeth. (You would have thought she was poking him with needles as much as he groaned).
Just to give you an idea, the poor kid has been through the ringer when it comes to the dentist with teeth pulled, cavities filled, and a spacer inserted. (He got those genes from my side of the family) They wanted to do a root canal but ended up pulling them instead (they were only his baby teeth.) Anyway he finished up with the hygienist and we headed over to ortho. The girl there told him that what she was going to do was not going to hurt at all. She was going to paint his teeth to help the braces stick. The dentist would come in and put on the braces, then they would put in the wire and he would be done.
As soon as she said “it wasn’t going to hurt” you could visibly see the change in his posture and demeanor. Honey and I waited for him in the lobby and when he was done he came out with a huge smile. He said to me, “Just so you know mom. Getting braces does not hurt!”. He is extremely proud of his braces, I can only assume it is because he LOVES attention. He says it is because he loves the “color”! He is able to change the color each time he visits. He went with black and white which was a little change up from his original choice of black and pink (real men where pink you know).
He was told that his teeth would probably be pretty sore later that night and a lot worse on Saturday. Nicky said NOPE they don’t hurt at all. Well, he said they kinda did just a little bit but not enough to really noticed. I was really quite surprised that he had no complaints. Let me take that back, his biggest complaint is that he can’t eat Airheads and Laffy Taffy anymore (YEAH! Score one for Mom-no more candy!).
So kids the answer to the question “Do Braces Hurt?”, according to my ten year old, “Not one Bit!”
