Orthodontics

Orthodontic Headgear & Expander update

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So far, we’ve had the headgear & expander on for about 4 months. See previous post here.  It seemed to only hurt for about a week and then my daughter was fine. She has made good progress with her teeth and is almost done with this part of the treatment.

It’s taken me awhile to figure out how to turn the expander each week. Since it’s only done once a week, I feel like I have to refigure out how to do it each time. You have to hold the key in a certain way to get the expander to turn. I’ve only just now gotten the hang of it and can do it quickly. I always shine a light into her mouth so that I can see what I’m doing. The challenge is getting the key out once the turn happens since the key ends up in the back of her mouth almost chocking my daughter.

Challenges:

  •  Getting the minimum 12 hours of wear a day is hard. My daughter tends to sleep only 9-10 hours a day, which means we need to make up the extra time during the day. I forget about this. When I do think about it, it’s at a bad time, like right before a meal. My daughter also resists wearing it during the day. (She’s 8) She hasn’t taken the responsibility upon herself to remember. I am pretty sure that not wearing it often has slowed our progress.
  • Food gets stuck in the expander. I found a medicine syringe that my daughter uses to squirt the food out. It gets some, but I’m pretty sure there’s more in there. This grosses me out thinking about all the bacteria living in her mouth. It feels unclean. I can’t wait to get the expander out.

First Night with Orthodontic Headgear & Expander

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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.

Getting an Orthodontic Expander

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Daughter #1 got her expander put in. It was very nerve wracking for me, her mom. I read online about how much it will hurt and how she won’t be able to eat well for awhile. Google is a wealth of information. There’s enough info out there to scare you about anything.

My daughter did quite well. She didn’t seem to be in any pain. That totally wasn’t what I was expecting! I don’t want to get my hopes up – maybe the pain comes later? She did have problems eating a bit, so stayed with liquidy foods.

We are also doing headgear. My poor child! I had her wear it for an hour during the afternoon – no pain, no complaints although she couldn’t wait to take it off. At bedtime, she put it on and got very quiet. She layed down in my bed. I thought she was tired and told her to go to her room. When I looked at her, she had tears in her eyes. She was in pain. On both sides of her mouth are hooks (attached to the expander) where rubber bands go to attach to the headgear. One hook was problematic for the lady who “installed” the expander. It was flimsy and wouldn’t “lay” right. We were told to be careful of the wire by being gentle. Well, when you attach the headgear, there was enough force to pull the wire out of place. My daughter was in pain, not because the headgear itself hurt, but because the wire was poking her and hurting her mouth. I had her take the headgear off. It helped some, but the wire was poking out of place still.

My daughter is so brave. She was quietly dealing with the pain of the wire and didn’t seem to want to tell me. I’m afraid this experience might scar her to the expander. She was so excited to get one! Now? I’m not so sure…

The next day we went back to the orthodontist. They tried adjusting the wire, but it got so loose, it broke off. The expander was taken out and will be sent back to the place who makes them to get the wire fixed. The ladies felt like the wire wasn’t put on correctly. It shouldn’t have been so flexible.

I wasn’t too happy that they didn’t notice the wire before and checked on it before we got the expander. Plus, this will delay our treatment and my child now has a negative experience related to the appliance. Not much I can do about it I guess. I’m thankful that we were able to get the expander out the next day.

Tip: Only have an expander put in on a day when the orthodontist will be open the next day. You never know what might happen. I would have hated to have my child so uncomfortable for an entire weekend, especially knowing that wearing the expander wasn’t helping since we would have to start the clock all over again.

See update here.