So on our way home Friday while driving by the orthodontist’s, we decided to stop in and see if we should get this nagging cut on B’s tongue addressed.  It seemed she was sucking or pushing her palate expander on the roof of her mouth while sleeping and it had put a pretty nasty gash in her tongue.  

Well, our lovely doctor decided that hey, why not get rid of the headgear now?  And after making B anticipate his answer for a good fifteen minutes, he thought it was ok to remove that palate expander now too.  (Envision child joyously celebrating right here).  

The joy was short lived.  This spontaneous appointment rapidly turned bad.  Very bad.  Apparently B had been shoving the brackets and expander up into the gums and when it came time for the supposedly simple removal, she screamed!  My non-crier girl!  It was horrifying.  It was pulling up pieces of her gums.  After a couple minutes of her sobbing and pain, I held her hand tightly and Dr. M used a drill to cut the brackets to loosen them a bit, making it a bit easier to get out. 

Seeing as his daughter is B’s age and he is our next door neighbor and knows B rather well, Dr. M was nearly as distraught as me! Apparently while we were gone to Montreal shopping on Friday with our girls, he came over and talked to my husband, telling him how worried he was about B and how it usually doesn’t happen that way.

Anyway, it’s out.  And we are happy.  Now.