orthodontics question

[design_mom]

Her roof in her mouth is narrow, so her orthadontist took a mold of her mouth and had a special device made that he will insert in 2 weeks, that will stretch the roof of her mouth wider. Not sure about it, never heard of such a thing.

That's a palate expander. Good luck to your daughter!

 

[mjkacmom]

How old is this orthodontist? Sounds like mine, and that's what I had done (and I'm 43). All of the orthodontists here now wait for the baby teeth to fall out, and use palate expanders to stretch the jaw, so that adult teeth can stay in place (dd13 had horrible crowding, but with the expander and braces, the teeth are now straight). I'd definitely get a second opinion!

 

[mjkacmom]

Seriously!

I posted before reading the responses, so didn't see the one telling the OP to disregard anyone with such an opinion.


Hello (person who said that), were YOU at my house on the nights that the key was turned? Did you feel my pain? Did you see my cry EVERY SINGLE TIME? No.

My mom ONLY did it to us b/c she felt she had to do every single thing "professionals" told her to do, so that my dad didn't try for custody. That's the only reason. My mom had awesome, gorgeous strong beautiful crowded teeth. She had proposals nearly every year while she was single (despite having two kids!). People loved her despite her funky teeth. And they were made even more interesting b/c of a bike accident as a child where she broke the two front ones off while going over the handlebars and hitting the concrete (made dents in the concrete, she said), and the teeth were never fixed. She was bothered by her teeth, but no one else was. They were gorgeous gorgeous teeth, even though they didn't look like Hollywood teeth.

Think about the main actress in Chuck right now. She has a few twisty teeth, and a big size difference between front middle teeth and the next ones over. It makes her HER. She looks incredible with those teeth. I so hope no one forces her to go Hollywood with her teeth.


anyway, palate spreaders (what they called it with me) might not hurt everyone, but they hurt ME, and I should not be disregarded just b/c someone else believes we should all have Hollywood teeth.

Harumph!

You are right, not everyone has the same experience. My dd LOVED her palate expander, and had it for years. Look at old movies - almost everyone had bad teeth. Since more and more are getting braces, by the time our kids are adults, one crooked tooth is going to really stand out. Even old TV shows will have a lot more actors with crooked teeth. One will have to be a natural stunning beauty to carry a crooked smile 10 years from now.

ETA, it sounds like you had either a really bad orthodontists (from your posts), or didn't wear your retainer. Even though mine was old school (no expander, 6 permanant teeth pulled), my teeth are still perfectly straight.

 

[AtlantaSue]

My DD had this issue in second grade and got an expander. It was not a "torture device" for her at all. The doc immediately followed up w/ a short time in braces, and now at age 13 she is SO happy that she had her braces so early and now has perfect teeth! She has retainers for the night time, but really has not been that good about wearing them.

 

[PlutoPony]

BTDT to some extent. My son had 6 baby teeth pulled to make room for adult teeth when he was 9/10. Started ortho consults at 7 with a very crowded mouth and the ortho wanted to wait as long as possible to start, to give his jaw a chance to grow. At 10, he saw uneven wear on the permanent teeth caused by the crowding so recommended the baby teeth come out. That bought us another 18 months before starting braces. Btw,we were amazed at how quickly the permanent teeth straightened on their own when the baby teeth were removed.

From the beginning, the ortho said he wanted to avoid pulling permanent teeth if at all possible because of the problems it can cause later in life (TMJ, etc.). My son did end up needing a palate expander on the top but it was only a couple months and wasn't too bad he said. And we were able to avoid pulling permanent teeth.

I would agree with others that a 2nd opinion might be helpful because of the recommendation to pull permanent teeth.

Good luck and hope things work out!

 

[scjo68]

I agree to get a second opinion, just to see. I am in my 40's now, and had 4 baby teeth and 4 permanant teeth pulled back in 5th grade when I got my braces. And of course my wisdom teeth came out in college. That worked for me, and I can't imagine how those extra teeth would have fit in my mouth, because my teeth are very straight now and there is no extra room for more teeth in there. I have a very small mouth.

I assume they didn't have palate extenders back then, and have only heard of them here, actually. My DD12 has had braces for two years, and though she had a couple of baby teeth pulled, which was not a big deal, they haven't mentioned pulling more teeth or using a palete extender at all. I think she has a bigger mouth than I do.

See what another ortho says. If palate extenders are a better way to go now, then they may recommend that. Perhaps it depends on the individual child and making room by extracting teeth works better in this situation.

I do think it's good that you are addressing this for your child. I am so glad I got braces when I was young. My teeth were so crooked, I can't imagine what they would look like now had they been left the way they were. I know so many adults who didn't get ortho. treatment when young, and are going through braces now, and they wish they didn't need to.

ETA; Sorry I kept saying "extender" instead of "expander"- told you I haven't really heard of them!

 

[BibbidiBobbidiBOO]

I just think it stinks that we, who have never attended a day of dental school, ended up having to roll the dice on what to do with her permanent teeth. They should have been able to come together and agreed on a treatment.

That does stink! DD's ortho had a meeting with her dentist, an oral surgeon (who we used), and another ortho to consult about DD's teeth. Then our ortho met with us. He said they all came to the same conclusion. I was very pleased he brought the others in on this, and that they all agreed. I would hate to have to make an ortho/dental decision not having gone to dental school myself!

DD did not have to have teeth pulled. She had to have 12 yr molars surgically uprighted, braces put on, then wisdom teeth out at age 14. Everything had to be timed "just so" for it to work. We hope braces come off this summer!

Good luck OP, I vote for another opinion and to ask your ortho about an expander. He may have a reason against it.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I would be inclined to get a second opionion. It seems counter-intuitive to pull tiny teeth to make room for big teeth. If she's overcrowded, she's still going to be overcrowded.

FWIW--my 2nd dd will require braces. Her front teeth had a devil of a time coming out--the pediatric dentist would not recommend pulling the teeth until it became glaringly obvious that adult tooth was already fully in behind it. That is when we went and popped it out. My take on his philosophy--try to let the teeth do what they can do.

She is 7 and since I had braces as an adult and never as a child, I asked when it was done. He said that she can wait and most kids can. Orthodontia started early, doesn't really shorten the process or anything. He has one dd that will need it and he will start her early---her teeth are in bad shape but he self-admits that it is simply b/c of him being a dentist and desire for perfect teeth.

So while I am not a dentist, nor do I play one on tv, I just suggest as with any procedure that makes you question the necessity of it--get a second opinion.

 

[Aneille]

My 8 year old has a palate expander on the top and it made a world of difference.

My ortho did recommend pulling 2 baby teeth from her bottom and putting in a spacer but we have not gone ahead and done that yet. I think he's right. I think she needs them pulled but we are going to wait and see for a while.

If I was told she needed alot of teeth pulled, it would send a red flag for me.

BTW - I got 2 opinions on my daughters teeth. 2 very different prices. Both dentists agreed on palate expander on top. 1 said he would do something with the bottom at some point but was going to wait and see. And the other wanted to pull the 2 on the bottom. We went with the ortho that wanted to pull the bottom 2 but just told him we weren't going to do that yet. He was fine with it. He wanted to pull because he said it wasn't good for the gum when the teeth overlap and by pulling those 2 teeth that would fall out around 10 or 11 and putting in a spacer I could ensure her bone and gum would be fine.

 

[Aneille]

I assume they didn't have palate extenders back then, and have only heard of them here, actually. My DD12 has had braces for two years, and though she had a couple of baby teeth pulled, which was not a big deal, they haven't mentioned pulling more teeth or using a palete extender at all. I think she has a bigger mouth than I do.

Your 12 year old may not have had the palate expander because she was too old or the ortho thought she would be. From my limited reading/research on it when I found out my DD would be getting one, your top palate starts to fuse around puberty and it can be very painful if its fused. And how the expander works is you put a key and turn it once a day for a set amount of days depending on how much space you need in your mouth. When you turn the key you are spreading your palate out. Sounds very painful to me but if you see pictures of childrens upper jaws there is already a gap. In teens the gap is filling in. And with adults its fully fused.

Another reason I am glad my dentist told me she had a narrow palate and needed to see an ortho as soon as she turned 8.

They like to use the expander in younger children as its much less painful. My dd only said it hurt the first few times I turned it. It a dose of tylenol before managed the pain just fine.

 

[PlutoPony]

I would be inclined to get a second opionion. It seems counter-intuitive to pull tiny teeth to make room for big teeth. If she's overcrowded, she's still going to be overcrowded.

In my son's case, there wasn't room for the permanent / big teeth that came in along with the baby teeth that that were still there but wouldn't be coming out for another year or two. By being so crowded, the permanent teeth were in a position that gave them uneven wear, not something you want to see at such a young age. The baby teeth that were pulled would not have come out for another year+ on their own, so getting rid of them early gave the existing permanent teeth room to spread out until those permanent teeth came in on their own. Over that year his jaw grew so in the end there was room for all the permanent teeth to come in and while they were crooked, braces and a palate expander worked their magic.

Orthodontics is one field where there's not just ONE right way to get a correct bite and nice smaile . That's what makes it so difficult to decide who to use.

 

[krcit]

I'm wondering if the palate expanders that a few of the posters refer to as torture devices were maybe different then than the ones used today? maybe that's why they were so painful? Only because both of my dd's had them and so many others that I know and noone had that hard a time with them. I would give my girls Tylenol before I turned them and thaey were ok. My older dd had less discomfort than my younger but she's a lot tougher than her sister My ds will probably have one too but they said first he may need a frenectomy He thinks that would be cool

 

[stsomewhere]

My DD-9 got her her four front teeth pulled last year. Her baby teeth were not loose and the adult teeth were coming in behind them.

The ortho sent us to an oral surgeon to have them removed. She had a palate expander put in a few weeks later. It was a little different than the one my son had the year before.

My DD had her braces put on in Sept. She had to have 2 more baby teeth removed in Jan. because the second set was coming in behind.

On her visit to the ortho last week he removed some of the braces to allow the adult teeth to move into place

 

[design_mom]

I'm wondering if the palate expanders that a few of the posters refer to as torture devices were maybe different then than the ones used today? maybe that's why they were so painful?

How old were your daughters when they had theirs?

I had a palate expander when I was 12 and mine was very painful. My son had one at 9 and he didn't have any trouble at all. The contraption looked and worked pretty much exactly how I remember it, so I don't think his was substantially different than mine.

I talked to my son's orthodontist about it when he suggested the palate expander. (I did it out of earshot of my son.) I did *not* want to put him through what I went through. That's when the orthodontist told me about the fusing plates in the mouth and why they now do it at a younger age. It sounds like I was just "too old" for it when it was done.

My son's orthodontist and I agreed that we'd try it, and if it was severely painful, we would stop and come back to the orthodontist and try something else. However, as the orthodontist predicted, my son did not complain about it at all. He was fine.

 

[krcit]

My girls were both 11( 1 still is in hers) and definitely not done growing. That makes sense that it would hurt much more once the bones were more fused. Ouch!

 

[pixiegoose]

I had 4 permanant teeth extracted when I was in 5th grade. I had started orthodontics the summer between 1st and 2nd grade and had used a palate expander (and retainer and braces) and there just wasn't room in my mouth for all my permanant teeth, plain and simple. Looking at my mouth now, you'd never know I was "short" 4 teeth- everything fits perfectly. I can't imagine where those 4 teeth would fit (it's always funny when I go to a new dentist and they're evaluating my teeth and then they get this confused look on their face like "Um, something is different here"). And I also had to get my wisdom teeth out as a teenager, as there was no room for those either.

 

[luvmy3jewels]

I have a small mouth (and large teeth), so before I got braces (over 20 years ago) they cut out four permanent teeth to make room for the rest. I ended up only wearing braces for 11 months and my teeth look great! I've never had any problems or missed the four that were removed.

My kids all have the same problem, and I anticipate that we will begin the process for ortho consults this year. From what I have read so far, the two options for this type of problem are an early palate expander (which sounds painful and lenghthy) or removing a few permanent teeth. I don't know which is best, but did want to add my 2cents in this post since I have been through the removal side of this experience.

I think it never hurts to get a second (or third) opinion.

 

[Aneille]

From what I have read so far, the two options for this type of problem are an early palate expander (which sounds painful and lenghthy) or removing a few permanent teeth.

I know I ripped out lots of your message but I just wanted to tell you that the palate expander for a young child is not super painful and is not that lengthy. If you do a search online you will hear similar experiences.

My daughter got it right after she turned 8 (in January this year) and it was not too painful for her.

The first time I turned the key it was painful for her. Then the next 2 times I gave her Tylenol before hand and she was fine. By the 3rd day I was turning it before school without hardly any pain at all and no meds. We turned it for 21 days I think.

The palate expander is still in and will be in for about 8-10 months but we only had to turn it for those 21 days.

We have totally forgot its even in there and I think she forgets sometimes too. She doesn't lisp from the appliance anymore or chew all that funny etc. At first she did those things but it just took about a month for her to get totally used to it in her mouth.