Orthodontics questions

[coffeecake]

DD is getting braces and an expander and I figured doing it over winter break would be a good time. I scheduled everything and now I’m second guessing the timing. She has to get spacers the week before Christmas. Is this a bad idea? Will her mouth hurt and will she be limited on what she can eat? She does not want braces(but wants straight teeth) and is dreading the entire thing. Just curious about other people’s experiences.

[byjove]

Our experience has been several rough days at the start, and then a couple of rough days with each adjustment. Towards the end though, the expander was NBD.

[chocolatecake]

Is she getting an expander (for palate expansion with a “wheel” you have to turn?) and then having phase 1 braces? Spacers are usually placed on the teeth before braces to allow for easier application of brackets.

2 of my kids had expanders, spacers & then braces. Because the turn apparatus on the expander is near top of hard palette, getting used to swallowing a bit differently took time to adjusting to. The expander wasn’t painful, just awkward in mouth. For the spacers, braces placement & adjustments, usually it was sensitive/sore for a few days.

Whether it be expander, braces or spacers you can’t have sticky or hard foods that can break the ortho appliances. No hardy candy, gum, chewy foods, caramels, nuts, etc.

[roselab]

IME a week is plenty of time to adjust before a fun, eating-filled event. My kids have had a variety of appliances, and I think at most they would take a few days to adjust and want specific foods (soft like pasta if they were just sore, liquid-y if they were having trouble getting used to the appliance in their mouth). Spacers might make them sore overall (which Tylenol will help greatly with) for a few days maybe, but the only eating issue they would have is making sure not to eat anything super sticky that would pull them out.

[coffeecake]

Nov 12, 2024 12:12:45 GMT -6 chocolatecake said:

Is she getting an expander (for palate expansion with a “wheel” you have to turn?) and then having phase 1 braces? Spacers are usually placed on the teeth before braces to allow for easier application of brackets.

2 of my kids had expanders, spacers & then braces. Because the turn apparatus on the expander is near top of hard palette, getting used to swallowing a bit differently took time to adjusting to. The expander wasn’t painful, just awkward in mouth. For the spacers, braces placement & adjustments, usually it was sensitive/sore for a few days.

Whether it be expander, braces or spacers you can’t have sticky or hard foods that can break the ortho appliances. No hardy candy, gum, chewy foods, caramels, nuts, etc.

She is getting spacers 12/17, then braces and expander together on 12/30. So she’ll just have the spacers until after Christmas. I just don’t want her to be miserable or unable to eat what she wants for the actual Christmas week and holiday.

[abs]

The spacers should be fine. IIRC those were no big deal and shouldn’t interfere with the holidays. The expander took her 2-3 days to get used to then it was fine and off within 6 months. Now she’s doing Invisalign and oh boy that was a rough start but was fine after a week or two.

[Sweetjane]

The spacers are NBD, it's like a tiny rubber band stuck between your molars to make space for the bands that hold the expander in. It's like having a piece of popcorn stuck between your teeth for a few days.
Just make sure they don't fall out from sticky food, otherwise you have to start over and the timeline gets pushed back.

My kids got expanders before their braces, they had to make the mouth bigger first. Then come brackets and wires about 6 months later after the expander is out. The expander was worse than braces, it's awkward and food gets stuck up there. It also takes a while to learn to talk without your tongue, they sound kind of funny for a while.

Overall I would say your timing is good. They can eat most stuff during the holidays but NYE won't be so fun. Hopefully they also get used to it before going back to school after the break. My youngest was very self conscious about going to school and talking different, he also drooled a bit. (This was all from the expander)

Braces aren't as bad now from when I was a kid. Now they get to choose colors and the brackets are smaller.

*also get them a water pik to clean teeth with. Actually I would start that now so it not one more new thing to deal with.

[Cher]

My son just finished and he did the palate expander, the headgear, braces, the whole thing. We really didn’t have any problems. Maybe once in a blue moon when he switched a wire or something, he might say his mouth hurt and a little ibuprofen fixed it same-day. But he has a flair for the dramatic and the process really wasn’t a thing for him.

[FlightView]

I literally made DD's first ortho appt today, good timing for all this information!

[STP]

I think your plan is a good one. DD was ok eating, it was just an annoyance and time off at the very start would be helpful.

[daisy]

your timing should be fine, and it probably won’t be nearly as big of a deal as your daughter thinks. My daughter also was very anxious about orthodontics. My son’s teeth were really tight and he actually did have some pain with the spacers. I think a lot more than most people. My daughter didn’t even really notice that much. He had the expander and the expander kind of sucks but it’s not the end of the world and you’ll get through it. He did have to adjust to eating with it and it made him feel kind of gaggy sometimes and foods can get caught in it.

Honestly, though, if you have any big New Year’s plans, I might just put the whole thing off until January, so she’s not worrying about it or anxious about it over the vacation time. Like if there’s really no downside to putting it off, why not? But if you’re trying to use benefits this calendar year or you don’t really have a big New Year’s or whatever, it really will be fine.

[coffeecake]

Thanks for everyone’s input, it is helpful! We are not big New Year’s people and just usually just do a movie/game night at home so I’m not worried about that part. I talked to my DD last night and she said she just wants to get on with it so it can be over faster, lol. So I think we’ll stick with what is scheduled.