Rapid Palatal Expander: Day 15

Treatment Status: Rapid Palatal Expander (Day 15)
Impediments: Eating specific foods.
Discomfort: Pain around submerged wisdom teeth. Tender front teeth.
Mood: Surprised 

My family and I are pretty surprised just how much my teeth have moved out (mainly my molars) and it is only just day 15! See for yourself: 

Rapid Palatal Expander: Day 15

Compared to my previous pictures, my palate has certainly become far less crampt. I feel like there is more room in my mouth, and it isn’t so noticable anymore. 

Speaking is just about back to normal, with people not even noticing my expander. Eating is still a bit fiddly, but it has become a lot easier. I think both have more to do with the wider palate rather than my ability to adapt. I’ve been feeling very good health wise lately. I’ve also lost some weight which is also a plus 🙂 

Speaking of more room, take a look at this: 

Rapid Palatal Expander: Day 15

Echo! Echo. Echo… 

Pretty cool huh? I can see my tonsils! Now it may look at bit more balanced now, but don’t be fooled! The top jaw is actually BIGGER than my bottom jaw! 

Uneven Bite

Now it is only slightly bigger when you look at it, however it doesn make a big difference. It is even more noticable when I try to smile… 

Uneven Smile

So there you have it! Quite a bit of change happening with only half a month gone by. It’s amazing! It makes me wonder how far they want my mouth to expand! On the little packet with my spanner to tighten my expander, it says 12mm. Yikes! 

Now with all this change, there may be a change I wasn’t expecting. I think all this expanding is pushing my wisdom teeth out. My upper wisdom teeth. They have been very sore, and a lady I work with, said her daughter’s came out at 22…I’m 22 this year… 

I’ll have to ask my orthodontist what he thinks and if I should be worried. Speaking of appointments, I also booked my Half Yearly Cleaning at my dentist where they are lovely and attentive as always. It will be not long after my orthodontist check up. 

Next post I’ll talk about the fluoride treatment I have started using (oops at using alcohol free mouth wash only…) and also my new Oral Irrigator has arrived! I will let you guys know how things are going now that I have it, and also I may share my banana smoothie recipe! 

Till next time, 

Love, 

Miss M

Rapid Palatal Expander: Day 6

Treatment Status: Rapid Palatal Expander (Day 6)
Impediments: Speech (but getting better), excess saliva, eating specific foods
Discomfort: Tense feeling in gums and teeth. Tender cheeks.
Mood: Eager

Here’s an update on how things are progressing with my Rapid Palatal Expander. My mouth certainly feels more roomy at the back, and on closer inspection it looks like my molars are moving outwards, and my cheek bones feel more pronounced. Here are the pictures:

Rapid Palatal Expander: Day 6

 Each day I expand my RPE a little more, I feel a tense pressure on the sides of my teeth, but only now have I started to feel a bit of pressure in between my front two teeth. This seems to be a good sign!

Rapid Palatal Expander: Day 6

Comparing it to my picture below when I first had it, it looks like there has been a bigger change than I expected. It’s exciting! I do currently have a pain in my cheeks, but It’s tolerable. I’m just happy with progress.

Love,

Miss M

Rapid Palatal Expander: Days 2-5

Though today is the 6th day with my Rapid Palatal expander, I thought I might make a quick summary for you guys on how things went between my last post and now.

Day 2: Still frustrated, and having to eat soft, slippery foods. I don’t think my stomach was coping that well with the sudden change in diet. Foods I ate were be pumpkin soup, yoghurt and juice. Lots of juice. I wasn’t able to eat dinner (chicken and cheese and spinnach ravioli) and most was left on the plate. I had to skin the pasta and just try and eat the filling. By the end I felt upset and defeated. I felt very tired quite quickly, maybe crashing after a sugar high…

It was also my first day at work with my RPE and my lisp was quite bad. My collegues had a few laughs at my expense and people found it hard to understand me on the phone. However cleaning my teeth at work seems to be going smoothly and the routine I have started seems to be working well.

Day 3: I was feeling hopeful. During work, I was apologising for my lisp but people were saying they could hardly notice it today, and I probably noticed it than anyone else that I sound different. I was getting headaches though in my temples, but other than that I am ok.

During dinner. I took the time to experiment with some things to see what I can eat. I made Alfredo pasta with really soft, flat pasta and this seemed to go down good, besides some still getting caught at the top, it was quickly dislodged with a swish of water. I was overjoyed I was finally able to eat. I also had rice. This didn’t go as great as the pasta though so I passed on that. I then stumbled accross a leftover omlette my mum had made during breakfast and I thought that could be a possibility! So I heated some up and I was overjoyed! It was easy to eat and easy to swallow. I never thought I’d be able to just swallow something with minimal chewing because I have such a hard time swallowing tablets! So much trouble I have to crush them up and scull them down in water.

Since I seemed to be getting used to using the new eating technique of pushing my food to the side and then swallowing (I tried in my first meal but it didn’t work), mum asked if I wanted to try some left over chicken from last night since I haven’t had any meat. I cut it into a little piece, and hooray! I was able to swallow it. I was over the moon!

Day 4: Speaking is still lispy but not as bad, but mainly due to the excess salivia that is being produced. Taking my time with food, but sticking to the soft,  and easy things to eat like yoghurt, juice and soup for lunch. I was able to experiment though at dinner with bread. I tore it in little pieces, and dipped it in a bit of hommous. I was able to eat it 🙂 I also had some spirally bendy pasta that was nice and easy to eat because it just slid down my throat.

Day 5: Tried my luck with takeaway. I had mongolian beef noodles, but I couldnt hardly make a dent in it and had to eat it so slow. The meat was hard to swallow cause I couldnt really chew it into smaller bits, and the noodles kept getting caught however I did get a fair bit down in each attempt. For dinner was chicken and leek pot pie which was very kindly cut into small pieces so that was a joy to get through. I also had a slice of caramel cheesecake. While it wasn’t sticky, it still took a thorough cleaning to get it all off. But that was fine.

***

All in all it seems like I am slowly getting the hang of things. The past couple of days have been a bit slow and a little frustrating, but I am starting to see myself adapt and changes in my smile which I will talk about more in my next post 🙂 Next post will have photos!

Love,

Miss M
(a.k.a Mousetrap)

Rapid Palatal Expander: Day 1

Treatment Status: Rapid Palatal Expander (Day 1)
Impediments: Speech, excess salivia, eating
Discomfort: Minimal pain, Maximum difficulty when eating
Mood: Frustrated

At 8am this morning, my mouth was fitted with the Rapid Palatal Expander. It has been a pretty full on day. I went to my orthodontist and had my separators removed. I was surprised how easy they were taken out considering how loose my teeth felt. I then saw my shiny new RPE. Custom designed to fit my mouth. I was surprised how well it fit into the spaces the separators created for it in the one week they were in.

My dentist did a little cleaning before fitting and bonding the RPE. Not much in way of pain when it was going in. It seemed to fit snuggly and it was nice to feel a my teeth become much more secure. The main issue I had with eating was that the teeth would move when I bit down. I thought hopefully I won’t have much of a problem eating now, but appearences are decieving…

My Rapid Palatal Expander

 It would appear that food would be easy to eat now that my teeth are more firmly into place, and that the RPE doesn’t seem so bad in regards to trapping food. How WRONG was I. This is probably the hardest thing to do with my new expander. Eating has definately become a very lengthy chore. I made the mistake of starting off my experience eating minestrone soup. As this soup has lots of veggies etc thrown in, all of those bits promptly got crammed up against the roof of my mouth meaning no food really got swallowed.

Smile?

Chewing is also difficult. I can no longer close my teeth as they have filled my fangs with glue to hold the expander in place. I try to chew on the sides but there is also some pertruding metal similar to outside of braces on either side of my mouth. Both of which I have to use wax to keep them from irritating the inside of my mouth.

I hope as the months go on, that the space between the roof of my mouth and the RPE will get bigger, or make it much easier to get food out of there. My main solution while I wait for my H2Oral Irrigator is a spray bottle filled with water, and gargling glasses of water while eating. At least it won’t be hard getting the reccommended water intake…

To activate the expanding, I need to turn the middle part of the expander with a small spanner, in one downward motion, once everyday. When it was activated this morning, I could feel the pressure but that quickly went away.

While it isn’t uncomfortable during the day, it is a little awkward to navigate my tongue around it when I need to speak. I have a pretty strong lisp the longer I talk for, but besides “s” and “th” words it isn’t too bad.

I also am experiencing the famous Drool Relflex. It isn’t as severe as I expected (Sammy Spits from Benchwarmers, anyone?) but it does gather at the back of my throat. I am quickly getting used to swallowing to counter this.

The orthodontist has also given some tongue twisters to repeat twice a day for 5 minutes.  I may post them up later on. For once trying to speak with the RPE is kinda fun. Haha

As for hygene, I went to the shops and got some supplies.

Supplies

I got:

• A new electric toothbrush
• Orthodontic wax
• A baby toothbrush to bring to work
• A sample pack of bristly mini brushes to get hard to reach spots
• A floss hoop
• Floss

I also got some food to experiment with:

• Microwave soup for work
• Canned minestrone soup – FAILED
• Yoghurt
• Rice Pudding
• Vegetable Juice
• Fruit Juice
• Milo Dairy Snacks – Success!

The milo dairy snacks are so far the best and easiest to eat. I am probably going to stick to a liquid diet for lunchtimes at work due to the hassle of cleaning out my RPE after a meal.

Speaking of meals, I just had dinner and the experience was very frustrating. Foods I had:

• Fish
• Spinnach & Cheese Ravioli
• Sweet Potato

The sweet potato, while soft, would still get jammed. I tried a technique with the pasta to push it at the back of my throat when eating but it didn’t really work. My tongue keeps pushing the food up behind the expander and I hardly get to eat any of the food. I am also scared that the pressure of my tongue to dig out food may bend the RPE 😦 It took me an hour to get through half of what I’d normally have for dinner…meaning I’ll probably see a change to my body as well as my teeth I guess.

I hope things get better. Tomorrow I am back to work so I need to get the hang of speaking with this thing.

Love,

Miss M
(a.k.a Mousetrap)

One More Day Until My Smile Changes Forever

Treatment Status: Pre-Palatal Expander (1.5 Days)
Current Procedure: Separators
Mood: Anxious 

But first let me tell you about how I am doing with my Separators. For 4 days I was scared of biting down on the elastic, but now I am a little more relaxed. I was very worried that the elastics will come out, but they haven’t seemed to moved. The only things that seem to have moved…are my teeth! On the 2nd day with the separators eating was difficult, and as the days have gone by it had become increasingly difficult to eat. And a little painful now that my teeth are moving. On the 3rd day I was getting sharp headaches in my temples most likely from it and my teeth have been very tender.

I have been trying to find softer foods to eat, and the basis of my diet has been pasta and yoghurt. I have it about twice a day (in different ways of course).

For dinner my best friend has been roast dinners. Roast meat (nice and soft), and roasted veggies like carrots, potatos, pumpkin and sweet potato…oh and pasta.

One of the most painful things I have eaten today, was lettuce! It wraps around my teeth and I have to try and scoop it with my tongue so I can chew it with my front teeth…it was death. My teeth were moving and sore as I tried to navigate the lettuce around my mouth. I haven’t had bread except for a bread roll I tore into small bits, and sucked on till it dissolved.

I am hoping that the expander might be easier to eat with because it is fixed in my mouth and I should in theory be able to close my back teeth and chew. I’ve also had to stop myself a couple of times from unconsciencly going to dig out these elastics from my teeth.

However the days with these separators have gone pretty fast surprisingly! And it has been a good chance to see how I am going to cope eating and brushing wise.

In other news, my H2Oral Irrigator should be getting delivered soon 🙂 Here is a picture of it.

It hooks onto the showerhead and I can rinse out my mouth and around the appliance much easier. I hope it comes soon!

Hope things go well when the time comes for me to get my expander!

Love,

Miss M

Orthodontist Checkup: Separators Go In

Treatment Status: Pre-Palatal Expander (7 Days)
Orthodontist Checkup: Separators
Mood: Anxious 

I’ll be honest here. I didn’t exactly know what was involved in this check up. I assumed that it was just another imprint being made for part of my Rapid Palatal Expander. Another morning of the plaster mouth. 

Apparently not! 

I now know that separators are small, coloured elastics which are wedged between the teeth (in my case, my upper molars) to allow for room for where my expander will go. 

Here is a picture of my mouth with the separators (the blue things) and also a picture of Rapid Palatal Expander to give you an indication of how the separators are going to help in the fitting of this device. 

Separators

Sorry about the picture quality. I took this on my camera phone. The separators are blue. 

Expander

And here is an example of the expander. You can also see just how narrow my upper jaw is in comparison. 

The dentist was having alot of trouble putting these in. At first she used two metal plyers to wedge it between my teeth, however the elastic snapped 4 times, and the plyers hit me a couple of times by accident. She and her assistant had to be a bit creative and tied the ends of the elastics with floss, and this seemed to do the trick after a few attempts. 

Now, the dentist said that this was not usually a difficult dental procedure, however my mouth is apparently the most difficult she has ever encountered to get these separators in.

Dentist: Wow…you must have fun flossing…
Me: Yeah…it usually tears it up!

Now that they are in, I am a little nervous since these elastics need to stay in my mouth for approx. 1 week. They get taken out on Wednesday when I get my expander fitted.

The day is nearly over, and I have already had difficulty eating. The separators are keeping me from being able to close my mouth, and I’m afraid of them breaking because if they do, it is an urgent trip back to the orthodontist to get them refitted.

Crunchy foods are out, because I am worried about getting food caught and possibly snapping the elastic. The dentist however said that she does not think the elastics will fall out because the teeth are just so tight together.

Pasta has become my friend today. And yoghurt. I’ll be sure to update with how I am going eating wise while I have these in during the week.  At the moment, eating is a slow, and needingly careful process.

Discomfort wise? I feel a bit of pressure on the teeth but it doesn’t hurt. It got a little tender during the day but that was shortlived. It seems to be ok for now.

Love,

Miss M

Orthodontics In Your 20’s?

Treatment Status: Pre-Palatal Expander (8 Days)
Mood: Average

Some people have been pretty surprised at the estimated length of my orthodontic treatment. At the moment, my orthodontist has calculated that correcting my smile will take a total of 18 months. And during these 18 months, I will only need braces for 14 of them.

This comes as a big surprise to my friends, and also me a little due to the fact that many of my friends, who I think had better teeth before braces than I, had their braces in for around 3-4 YEARS. I won’t even be needing 2 years.

This is one of the benefits of having my orthodontic work done in my 20’s. The main reason being is the time to research, and to let technology advance. The main reason the time with braces is so short for me in comparison to my friends is that I am using newer technology. The Damon System. No elastics, or the painful tightenings. Having the time to research, also makes me more positive on having this work done.

Some of you may wonder if I am too old to have effective treatment done. I did, but to my surprise, it is actually possible to have orthodontic work done at any age.

While it is expensive, (about 7 1/2 thousand, roughly) I have learnt it is far cheaper and more practical to do it now, rather than wait and try to fix it all up, or have dentures or implants in my older years. I am already finding it difficult to floss with my overcrowded teeth tearing up the thread…but it is something that needs to be done, and will only get worse over time. I also have an issue of my compacted wisdom teeth. They still haven’t broken through, and one is completely on its side inside my mouth.

Back when I was in primary school, I was fitted for plates, but for some reason, nothing more ever came from it after the moulds were made…

I had not been back to the dentist till the end of high school. I was told I needed braces, but I did not think my smile was that bad, besides the fangs.

After having the opportunity to go to dental seminars, find a new, and excellent dentist and get a much better understanding about what is out there, I feel much more at ease about the process. I am actually kind of looking forward to just getting things started! However that feeling may change down the track, haha.

I also feel lucky that I am able to go through this procedure using the Damon Braces, and the Rapid Palatal Expander which I get fitted to the upper part of my mouth next Wednesday.

I have already modified my eating habits to include foods more suitable and easier to eat with braces, and exclude those that aren’t. Good thing I love yoghurt!

Here’s hoping things go well with 4 months of Palatal Expander 🙂

Love,

Miss M