DD just got palate expander.. Help!

[PrincessBelle39]

My dd is 10 and we were advised at her last orthodontic appointment that the expander was in her future. To be honest I'm not really sure why. She has only lost 4 baby teeth and is missing more than 1/2 her adult teeth. They are simply not there. So its not like they need to make room for them. I'm not really sure what the long term plan is past the expander (which she has her first appointment for in April) as they were waiting for her to lose more baby teeth.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

I had an expander as a kid. A water pik, or dental floss for braces can help. She will fugure it out in a day or 2.

 

[PirateSnowmen]

I had a palate expander 10 years ago. Eating was uncomfortable for the first couple of days, but I learned to manage. Let's just say you have to get REALLY good at sucking the food out of that thing. It drove my parents CRAZY, but it was what worked best.

 

[walkerag]

Thanks everyone for your responses. She's still not really eating. She had a fruit smoothie for lunch at school yesterday and claimed she wasn't hungry last night for dinner (yeah right). I made her an ice cream cone and she ate the very bottom part of the cone since it was softer. Of course it got stuck. She started to get a little teary but managed to get it out and all was good. I offered her a vanilla Ensure this morning. She tasted it and said it was terrible. In her defense it did taste the same as a slim fast

I'm hoping day by day she'll come around a little more. We did the first turn last night and she did great for that and I did buy her a waterpic last night. This is what her appliance looks like. It's a little different than the traditional palate expander and it's called a Snodgrass Appliance.

http://www.qcortho.com/appliances/molar-distallizing-appliances/snodgrass.html

Her upper jaw is too narrow for her teeth to come in. One of her canines is coming in too high in the gumline and the other is impacted. We're crossing our fingers that the expander will create enough room for that tooth to come down on it's own so they don't have to "go in and get it and pull it down with a chain" that would be connected to her braces (when she gets them)

 

[Miha5230]

If I recall - a spacer is used to allow "just a teensy bit more room" inbetween teeth so that there was room to fit the braces.

And - I believe the purpose of the palette expander is to create a lot more room so the teeth "fit" better in the mouth - my DD had braces put on at the same time - so that it would help get the teeth into the right position and then hold them there.

Not to be confused with the quad helix which helps with a cross bite.

(Hope I am correct with this. We have been done with DD's dental work (a quad helix when she was 3, palatal expander and braces when she was in 3rd grade, and a second round of braces when she was a freshman, and a year ago as a senior - she had wisdom teeth out.)

My advice to the poster - hot dogs (no bun) where "deemed OK" to eat by DD when she had the expander. She just ate them more on the sides of her mouth. And - we were warned not to give her super hot food - because if food gets stuck - it is easy to burn your mouth when you can't easily remove it.

Good luck - they really do adjust quickly!!!

I got my expander in on Monday and just ate French fries and they got stuck in my expander and currently there is a bad burn up, skin is currently peeling. Have a lisp all the time, really sad because we're debating in class

 

[Patience]

My 10 year old has a Haas palate expander. We had to do 18 turns and are done with those but she will wear the expander for several more months.

She eats fine with the expander. We did soft foods the day the expander was installed but she ate normally after that. Speech was the worst problem. She sounded like she was talking with rocks in her mouth but that has improved now too.

 

[leebee]

Regarding the shakes... skip the ready-to-drink and go with the slim fast powders. They taste much better. The "Slim Fast Smoothie Advanced Nutrition High Protein" chocolate powder is pretty good. You can get this at Walmart. They make a vanilla, too, but the chocolate is much better. I make mine with unsweetened vanilla almond milk (as per my nutritionist) but you should probably use 2% or whole milk, if you are worried about her caloric intake. Also, Walmart sells a shaker bottle that has a spiral metal ball inside the cup. That thing really mixes up the shake mix easily- but I'm sure you could also use a blender.

I can't stand the ready to drink shakes made by ANY of the companies.

 

[PollyannaMom]

My DS liked the Carnation Instant Breakfast (strawberry) better than most of the ready-mades. We used those if he needed to eat pretty quickly, and when he had a little more time, he would practice eating around it.

Mac and cheese and pasta worked well for him at first. He also liked McDonald's cheeseburgers cut up into little pieces!

I think the key is to let her try different things, but also have the shakes on hand so she's not getting so hungry that she just feels too tired and upset to stay calm.

 

[Allison]

Let's hope the expander is gone after 5 years. ZOMBIE.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Let's hope the expander is gone after 5 years. ZOMBIE.

How do I not notice these things?