Things didn't develop perfectly during my first pregnancy. Through the wonders of a nutrient-dense diet, my daughter Alina was able to survive in the womb with a half-sized placenta, yet we are still working on a few of the problems that resulted from her being nutrient-starved in the womb.
My daughter has a very fine bone structure. Ever since she was an infant, we struggled with her having a poor appetite and poor weight gain. Early on, I became concerned that her baby teeth were crowded. There was just enough space for all of her baby teeth, but there was no extra space at all.
I kept hoping that, through eating a nutrient-dense diet, my daughter's palate and jaw would grow larger to accommodate her adult teeth. Through classical homeopathy, we have been able to correct the imbalances in my daughter's appetite and weight gain, but one thing that hasn't changed is the size of her palate and jaw. You can see in these recent pictures that her jaw structure is very different from her little brother's (and his head is larger than hers despite the fact that he is 3 years younger).
Alina age 7, Ian age 4: You can see that my daughter's baby teeth fit very tightly in her mouth, while her brother has space between all of his teeth.
My daughter started losing her baby teeth last year. Her new adult teeth will not fit into the spaces left by her baby teeth. Alina has lost three baby teeth so far, and only two adult teeth have emerged. The third baby tooth she lost was not lost due to pressure from a tooth that was ready to emerge in that location. Rather, it was lost due to pressure from an emerging neighboring tooth that will not fit in the space left by the baby tooth.
Yup, she needs orthodontics! And she now has her first orthodontic appliance.
In upcoming posts, I am excited to share with you what I've learned about orthodontic options, why we're not using conventional braces, and how we are actually encouraging my daughter's jaw to grow to accommodate her adult teeth.
Here are comments from when this article was originally published on my old blog.