Palette Expander???

N

neenee

New member
Ugh.....my DD #3 (12 yo) got her top braces today and had to have a palette expander on the top as well. I work for the dentist that is doing her braces and trust him completely. But, she is SOOOO miserable. I hate it for her. I just want to cry and cry. She couldn't eat her dinner and said that she just isn't hungry anymore. She tried taking Ibuprofen and the pill got stuck in between the roof of her mouth and the expander. She is slurping constantly trying to deal with the saliva. It's almost more than I can handle to see her miserable.

I am not a strong person when it comes to my kids and babying them over things and it's even worse cuz she is the BABY. So, I really baby her.

So, my question is......anyone here have a kid that has / had an upper expander? And if so....please tell me it gets better and they get used to it........:(
 
Awww hugs! I was an orthodontic assistant for many years before i started designing here, and I can tell you with 100% certainty that it DOES get better.

When they first get them, it takes some practice learning to swallow. You are used to your tongue touching the roof of your mouth when you swallow, and they can't do that. So for a couple of days, I'd stick with easy to swallow foods (a milk shake is a GREAT thing to practice with cause it's thick and goes down easily).

She might stay away from breads and spaghetti for a couple of days just because those things get stuck up there more than others.

Also she really needs to try to chew if she can because the chewing motion increases the blood flow to the area and it really helps relieve the pain. Sorta like walking off a sprain.

I promise it does get better! Usually the first day or two are the roughest just because it's such an adjustment.

Please feel free to PM me if you have any more questions, ok?
 
Oh I forgot to say, the slurping sound is totally normal at first, too. Drives parents crazy. ;) We always checked them about 3 weeks after inserting an RPE, and by then, almost all of them were completely used to it and said it was no big deal.
 
No kiddos here, but I personally had one when I had braces! I had mine for about a year. It does get better. I don't want to scare you, but, I will be completely honest. I never got used to it. The pain would go away some, but every time I used the key to expand it, it just started over again. But, the eating & swallowing she'll definitely get used to! Just give that a couple days! (((hugs))) to both you and your dd.
 
Oh...thank you so much Libby and Deb. I feel better hearing this from you. I just cried and cried after she went to bed. We told her she could sleep with us tonight (told you she's spoiled!!) so her Daddy took her to bed cuz he knew I was so upset.

I plan to take her to the pool tomorrow and maybe it will get her mind off of it. Maybe we could make milkshakes and ice cream cones. Poor baby! I will be glad when this part is over.........

I love it here. you are all so awesome when anyone has something they need a shoulder to lean on over. Thanks girls!:)
 
I actually had one as a teenager. It's great Libby was able to give you such great advice. One thing I remember was my speech was different. I came home one day and told my mom and dad I had to do a report on "woodo wilson" and my mom corrected me and said, "you mean woodROW wilson", and I said yeah, "woodo wilson". My did kicked my mom under the table like, "hello, she can't say it the other way". I'm 42, and to this day, somehow that gets brought up once in a while. So I would say she will experience some difficulty speaking correctly until her tongue adjusts to the spring in her mouth.

It will get better {{hugs}}
 
I had one when I was younger too ...... bloody horrible things they are! I had to go every 2 days to the dentist to get the key turned. I remember crying a lot too. I got teased a bit at first because I spoke funny. Took a bit of getting used to but I did and it got better. I can still remember the day I got it taken off though :)
 
I had one as a kid. Hurt like crazy (sorry) but the pain would go away a few hours/days after the key was turned. It's lots of pressure.

It does get better - it just sucks. I was soooooo happy when that thing was out of my mouth!
 
I had one as a kid too, and the same thing happened to me. It hurt miserably for the first day or two after the key was turned. It sucks but it's worth it!
 
Oh gosh, I feel for your daughter....My daughter had to have one when she was 8 years old and I remember the pain she felt mainly when we had to turn the key....It does get better....

Big Hugs to your daughter....
 
poor thing! i also had one when i was young .... i don't really remember the pain too vividly - but i do remember that my mom would make up silly songs to sing while she was turning the key to get our minds off of it ....

good luck and i hope your daughter is feeling a bit better this am! i would totally try a milkshake for her :)
 
Yup, another one here who had one. I was older when I got it (before my braces went on) so I had to turn the key myself. THAT was PITA, lol!!

Just like anything knew, she'll get used to it. The pain will subside, and she'll stop slurping, and she'll get used to talking and eating with that thing in there. And if you baby her so much, she might be milking it :p
 
Well I'm gonna disagree with Libby and say it doesn't get better. I had one when I was 20. I was diagnoised with TMJ and we found that the problem was my upper jaw was the size of a 12 year olds and it was fitting "inside" my lower jaw. I wasin a car accident and the stress from that was manifesting itself in night time grinding.Since my jaw was to small it wasn't grinding "right" and I was literally paralyzing all the muscels in my face and was getting terrible terrible spasams.

I was miserable the whole 6 months that expander was in and lived on pudding and milk shakes. I ended up losing 20 lbs!!!! Now granted I was older and my top palatte had alread fused together so really all it did for me was move my teeth (I had a gap in my front teeth the size of my middle finger :blink:) and not my "jaw". I ended up having to have my top palatte split and then the expander put back in and my jaw wired shut for 6 weeks till it healed!!!!

I do think most of my problems and pain stemmed from that fact that I was older and my palatte was already fused together. Which my orthodontist warned me about from the very beginning, but you know insuracne and they have to try the "cheaper" fixes first.

So my advise to you is give her lots of yummy prtien packs liquids....don't force her to eat if she doesn't want to. Also make sure that the expander is doing what it's suppose to do.....move the palette, not just the teeth!!!

Huge huge hugs to your DD....I totally know where she is coming from!!!!
 
Oh gosh, Elizabeth, yes, doing it at 20 is practically unheard of. The oldest I remember doing it on any patient was 16 and even that was pushing it. The bulk of our RPE patients were ages 7-13 or so. You are so right that the majority of your discomfort more than likely stemmed from the fact that it had already fused together. At 12, it's a much different scenario. I'm so sorry you had to go through that. How misearble.
 
I had one when I was about 8... and I remember talking funny, slurping a lot when I first got it. And yeah, turning the key sucks and it hurts. But I survived. lol
 
I remember when my boys first got it, it hurt, but then after they kind of liked it when the key was turned. Weird boys!
 
OMGosh Elizabeth. I can't believe they did that on your when you were 20. That's crazy! You poor thing!!! The younger the better for sure!
 
yikes, my 15 yo Grandson is having that done this afternoon!!! I am feeling horrible for him and he hasn't even gone yet :(
 
We took our son to 2 different Orthodontists for eval...one wanted to put the expander in it because the son didn't have enough room for his teeth and he said that the other kind of Orthodontist would remove the teeth (that is the kind I went to as a kid...I have large teeth and small mouth).

So we took him to 2nd Orthodontist and he said it's not necessary. The expander scared me and the Orthodontist's reason was "that is what we do here" (he was actually quite RUDE with me and wouldn't explain the reason). The other Orthodontist gave us reasons not to go with that other treatment. The 2nd Orthodontist was also cheaper and recommended by other local moms.

We went with the 2nd Orthodontist...and were happy with it. All 3 kids have gone to this same one...only 1 out of 3 needed the 4 teeth extracted.

Sorry...it just didn't seem "natural" changing the shape like that...but that's just me. My 2 younger ones are getting close I think to getting their braces off...if I could just help them remember to wear their rubber bands!

I always like to get 2nd opinions...especially on something a doctor (or dentist) is going to be doing to our bodies...I want to know reasons and get good explanations...and I sure didn't get it from the first one. Ever notice they always think "their way" is the only way? ;-) Just my 2 cents.
 
Last edited:
seems like they are doing these on everyone. the dentist wanted to do this to my dd as well...i said no thanks and now her teeth are perfect. in fact, he said she didn't need one. i refreshed his memory and he was quite embarassed after looking in the file. i'm so sorry she is in so much pain!!!
 
I definitely needed it, my teeth were a crazy ass mess. I also had to have teeth pulled in addition to it. All of the stuff sucks that they need to do, it was a 4 1/2 year total process for me, but it was so worth it at the end.
 
Awww.....you girls are absolutely the best!

She went to bed with DH last night (cuz I was a total wreck and DH knows me oh so well and knew I needed some time to regroup and calm down) and she cried for a while telling him that she wanted it out, she hated it and scared that she wouldn't be able to eat anymore....poor thing. I stayed in up til 1 am, crying off and on.......She eventually crashed but slept SOOO restless and beat her Daddy up all night with flailing arms and legs. :p For some reason, I slept like a baby and didn't even know she was there.

She is a lil better today and discovered that she can swallow macaroni and cheese and not really have to chew it. So, she's had 3 bowls of that today.....:unsure:

I am trying to get used to the slurping.....she has been on her laptop playing around all day right behind my desk and sometimes it even scares me when I am not expecting it. :)

I just hope I am doing the right thing for her. I trust the dentist I work for but, then again.....it seems all doctors really just want to make money, kwim? So, I thought about a second opinion but, then what if they just BS me cuz they want the money too.....??? I know her teeth are perfectly straight now but, she still has quite a few baby teeth, so who knows......

Sannajeannine - how did your grandson's appt. go?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Community platform by XenForo® © 2010-2026 XenForo Ltd.
Back
Top