My Daughter just got her orthodontic replacement expander on. It’s a little different from the previous one and has reinforced wires (a wire broke with the first one). It’s one the orthodontist originally wanted to use. If so, why did we originally get the 2nd choice which subsequently broke?
Anyway, this expander is much better. There is less gap between the expander and the roof of her mouth, so less food (if any) gets caught up there. She hasn’t been in any pain from it.
The headgear on the other hand… the first night when she put it on (attaches to expander with rubber bands), she said it hurt. I couldn’t tell what was hurting. She eventually fell asleep. All seemed to be ok until I heard her crying 2 hours later. She said it hurt. It pains me as a mom to see my child crying, in pain. I didn’t know if the pain was normal and I should tell her to push through it, or if it was abnormal and maybe she should work up to her required 12 hours of wear a day. If the pain was normal, it’s hard to tell your child to just push through it. You want to make the pain stop, not push pain on them.
I ended up telling her that I needed to get ready for bed and would come back to check up on her. I hoped that I would know what specific decision to make if I found her still crying. Low and behold, my daughter fell back asleep. I didn’t hear anything from her the rest of the night. In the morning, she wanted to keep the headgear on to make sure we got to the 12 hours needed. She amazes me! She toughed it out and survived. Yay! Selfishly, this helps me feel better that she’s not in pain and that I’m not a bad mom.
