No More Thumb Sucking For Lauren

Here's a close up of Lauren's new herbst device.
It did the trick for Emily - now it's keeping Lauren from sucking her thumb.

We're talking about the herbst Dr. Clark Stevens put in Lauren's mouth Tuesday. If you are not familiar with it (and we looked for on-line evidence of Emily's on this blog to no avail), a herbst device presents your lower jaw from moving backward.

The appliance typically corrects a condition where someone has a small lower jaw that is further back than it should be. The herbst will help Lauren's lower jaw catch up in growth.

So now she has to be careful about what she eats. Cold foods such as ice slushes, popsicles and ice will freeze the cement and make the brace loosen. Sticky foods (caramels, gum and candy suckers) can pull the brace away from teeth. Hard candies can bend and loosen it, so all of the food above is off limits.

Lauren said her mouth is a little sore and she's pretty tolerant of pain, so it must be bad. But she's also proud that she isn't sucking her thumb.

Here's the "before" picture showing how much her upper jaw protrudes over her lower one: