Rapid Palatal Expander: Day 26

Treatment Status: Rapid Palatal Expander (Day 26)
Impediments: Eating specific foods.
Discomfort: Sharp pain around my front teeth. Frequent headaches and tension in jaw.
Mood: Tired 

I was meant to write next about my fluoride treatment but something more interesting has happened as of yesterday. Day 25 marked the day where my two front teeth began to visibly separate! I had just turned my expander for the night, and I felt a very sharp pain and got tension headaches at the back of my head. When I went to brush my teeth after dinner, I was surprised with what I saw! 

Gap

 I have to apologise, but this photo was taken today, and not yesterday when I first discovered the gap. And I can tell you there is a bit of a difference between yesterday and todays gap. Even if it is only slightly. I also have to apologise for the quality of these pictures since I took these on my camera phone, but I will be taking much clearer pictures tomorrow to see how things continue. 

Top teeth space compared to bottom teeth space.

 The expander definitely has been making more room. My bottom jaw feels so much more crampt in comparison. My top wisdom teeth are also not bothering me as much but it is probably because the pain in my front teeth is far more distracting. Activating my expander has become a lot more painful. With the pain lasting up to half an hour, and the headaches for a few hours. 

Wider

A photo just to show how my top jaw is looking a lot more wider…it is filling out more space in my mouth now. Eating is a little bit awkward chewing wise since now I can’t rely much on my front teeth anymore. But I’m not having much trouble eating compared to when I first had my RPE. 

RPE Day 26

 Now a few changes I have experienced, adapting to the RPE. When I first had my RPE, the middle screw part sat right on my tongue. I woke up in the mornings with an imprint of the expander on my tongue and my mouth got quite dry and it hurt to swallow. Drool reflex was working during the day though so I think that is the main reason it hurt my throat swallowing cause I had to do it so much. It was also the cause of a lot of my speaking issues. The expander being right on my tongue that is.

Now it seems to have risen up a bit as my mouth is expanding. Today the side bars are also resting quite close to my palate now rather than having the gap it used to have. No talking issues, and only slight discomfort with eating since I know what to choose that won’t cause much trouble, and I’ve adapted to eating differently. All my life I have had a horrible time trying to swallow tablets (I had to ask for syrup form or crush them up and skull them with drink) but now, I am pretty amazed to find I can swallow most of my food which is bigger than a tablet. The narrowness I had must have been the biggest cause of the problem I had.

There are times I am also forgetting the expander is in there. But not for long, haha.

Anyways look out for some better photos to come soon 🙂

Love,  

Miss M