This puppy has braces and we can’t handle the cute

Meet Wesley the Golden Retriever. Like all puppies, Wesley is an adorable ball of fluff. As he’s growing into a doggy teenager, Wesley is losing his baby teeth. But like a lot of middle school humans, his “big boy” teeth haven’t come in quite right. So like generations of tweens before him, Wesley had to make a trip to the orthodontist. That’s right. Wesley got braces…

Awww. Have you ever seen such an adorable brace face? Nope. Didn’t think so.

Who knew doggy orthodontists even existed? Wesley’s owner did, that’s who. Wesley’s pet parent is Molly Moore, and her father, Jim Moore, is a veterinarian. Molly even works at her dad’s office, the Harborfront Hospital for Animals in Spring Lake, Michigan. Dr. Moore specializes in veterinary dentistry. When Wesley’s grown up teeth came in crooked, his bite didn’t line up properly. The poor baby couldn’t even close his mouth all the way.

So Dr. Moore put braces on Wesley’s teeth to fix the problem.

Molly told BuzzFeed, “A lot of people don’t understand. They think we did this so he won’t get picked on in the playground, but there’s a serious medical reason.” Her dad adds, “We don’t place braces or any oral appliances in the mouth for aesthetics. We do this for pain or function.

If you’ve never seen a dog with braces before, that’s probably because it’s pretty rare. Dr. Moore puts braces on about 4 dogs per year on average. Fortunately, Wesley won’t have his tinsel teeth for long. He may even get them off after just a few weeks. That’s one lucky dog.

While Wesley’s braces are a medical necessity, that doesn’t stop them from looking super cute. Since Molly posted his brace-face photo to Facebook just two days ago, it’s been shared nearly 277,000 times. Whoa.

Best of luck to Wesley. Hopefully, he won’t have to wear his braces for long. But in the meantime, he rocks his metal mouth like a champ.