Any Experiance with Palate Expander

My daughter had one when she was 6. She had to take advil for the first few days because of discomfort. And we gave her softer foods for those first couple days. As far as speech, yes, for a couple weeks they do sound funny until they get used to talking with it. But it didn't cause any permanent speech issues. I can't remember completely but I think she wore it for a year (it was for a cross bite).
Also in case they don't tell you the front two teeth will get a huge space between them, but trust me, it will close up.
Good luck!

Here's the deal on those: MANY kids who are told they need them really do not. They are quite simply a HUGE money-maker for orthodontists. I was told that by the ortho that did mine when I was young. He is older now and definitely the "old-school" kind of Doc. I trust him completely as he is a close friend of my father's who is actually a dentist. What he told me was that very few kids ACTUALLY need them. He gave me the reasons and it made perfect sense. I forget the exact details now. I am going to email you his name in case you want a second opinion.

I have an expander in now. I just got it on about 4 days ago. The effects of the palate expander: You cannot swallow your spit unless you make a very annoying sound. 99.9% of the food you eat get's stuck up there. The sides of it rubs against the sides of your mouth making it very painful. You talk funny. You get a big gap between your front teeth. It's just like a perfect living hell. I also have ADHD and anxiety so I know where she's coming from. It drives me insane, completely insane. It is just not fun AT ALL.

My "whiner" son just had his palate expanded taken out. It's amazing what a difference it made in his mouth! He never drooled but he did talk funny. It was pretty bad the first few days but he got used to it. It's not forever and it's worth it. He complained whenever we tightened it and various other times of course because there was metal in his mouth;) all in all it was a good experience. He now has a nice wide palate. Good luck!

Sounds like you may be willing to give this girl a free pass if she doesn't prefer the expander and if she may go into a rage if it's uncomfortable in any way. If this is the case, you may want to just let her teeth go bad. At 8 years old, she is already learning that she should tolerate no inconveniences. If she can't "stand" and palate expander, what will happen to her if something worse happens one day?

If I complained about my clothes etc at that age, my mom would have taken me to the thrift store to donate them all AFTER some other firm punishments. My brother and I knew that any complaining usually lead to volunteer work over the weekends at wildlife centers or food banks (actually it wasn't because we were complaining, it was just what we did), and we were always very aware of the suffering of other kids.

The issue here is not the side effects of the expander. Of course it will be annoying, as will many many things in life. I had very painful braces as a child, and aside form legitimate pain, very little complaining was allowed. I was reminded how lucky I was to live in a country where I could have the opportunity to fix my crooked teeth.

Show your daughter some footage of needy children with cleft palates who cant' get them repaired etc and tell her she is fortunate to have dental services. Tell her she will not be allowed temper tantrums or "x" will happen and follow through. Either that or tell her she can skip the palate expander and address her crooked teeth later as an adult with her own money.
Be firm! Good luck.

My 6 year old daughter had one for 6 months. It did make her speech sound a bit "slured" at first, but that wore off after a couple of days. She is much like your daughter with the sensory issues and the clothing. She was a bit bothered by it at first, but never to the point of a breakdown. What bothered her more than anything was that she couldn't have ANY sticky/gummy foods while she had it in. It really was no big deal to be honest with you. It did come loose once and had to be recemented, but again, really nothing big. Now the retainer that she had to wear for the 3 months that followed the expander did bug her a bit. I think it just wasn't adjusted to her mouth properly because she always complained of it poking her gums on the one side.

I had one of these when I was younger because my mouth is so small. I did not get headaches or have a drooling problem. You do talk a little funny for the first few days until you get used to talking with a new fixture in your mouth. After that I didn't have a speech problem. I'm sure they have come a long way since I had one. That was 18 years ago. It came with a little key that I had to turn every so often to open the gap a little wider. From what I remember, there was slight discomfort when the gap would widen for a little while, but nothing major. It was like the discomfort I had when my braces would be adjusted. I think the worst part of it was I would constantly get food stuck in the gap and I would have to use suction to get the food out. The noise drove my mom nuts. :) That was just a fringe benefit though. :)

My son is 13 and got his expander in September. He is autistic with adhd and hyper-sensitive around his head. He's been fine. He actually got his expander the day he got his top braces. We had to turn it once a day and after about a month the orthodontist locked it. It needs to remain in his mouth for 6 months after being locked so his teeth don't go back to their original position. We noticed, like most others here, that he had a slight lisp. He did have increased saliva at the beginning. His orthodontist explained that if he did drool or have more saliva it was because his brain was sending signals to his mouth to create more saliva to break down that 'food' that was still in his mouth. After a few days his brain would get the message that this thing wasn't food and wasn't going anywhere. He never complained about pain while it was being turned. The only thing we notice now is that sometimes food gets stuck between the roof of his mouth and the expander and he blows air through it to clear it...usually a bagel or bread.

Best of luck!

I hope you are still checking back for answers! There is a correlation between the need for palatial expanders and ADHD! The palate can be narrow due to enlarged adenoids which obstruct the airway. The associated sleep apnea can cause symptoms of ADHD! We are currently looking into either tonsil and adenoid surgery and or palatal expansion to see if it will resolve my son's ADHD (apparently the benefits of both together are addative). A friend of ours son with ADHD just had his t&a out and he is a different kid...huge improvement on the ADHD! I would suggest seeing an ENT to have her tonsils and adenoids evaluated.

My older daughter is currently 9. Last year, the school was pushing really hard for us to have her go see an orthodontist about correcting her teeth. However, at the time--and even still now--we didn't have the $ to even consider something cosmetic. I'm very glad we waited because now that she's growing more, her teeth are starting to fit into her mouth better and there's a very good chance she won't need any ortho work at all. Your daughter is very young. You may want to wait a while and see if she starts to correct on her own.

My daughter had a palate expander and did not have any of the problems that you are concerned about. However, she was only three when it was put in. It was in for a period of about 6 months. The expansion itself took about 2 months and then there was a period of time to "set" the expansion. The whole process was definitely worth it for the beautiful smile she has today. Your daughter will do fine, if you can get her to have a positive attitude toward the process by knowing that her teeth and smile will be great for the rest of her life. Learning a bit about looking to the future is a good lesson for everyone, though not always an easy one.
Good luck.

well, i just got an expander about 2 months ago and they are really not that bad. i am 12 right now but i could of got one earlier. it is good that your daughter is young, because it wont be such a problem at school because of her speech. once she gets her expander, she will feel scared to talk because she will not be able to say her e's, g's, d's, t's and s's. especialy not e's or s's. you will also have a lot of trouble eating because all your food gets stuck in your expander. so i would suggest just giving her drinkable foods. every night you will have a key and you will need to turn the expander or else it will not expand her mouth. later on when she has it for a month it will feel like all her top teeth will fall out. but not to worry, that means her expander is only working. right now i feel like my expander is now a part of me, my mouth looks much better and im not afraid to smile anymore. i can eat perfectly now and talk MUCH better then i did before although i still have a little trouble saying my e's and s's. your daughter will for sure feel much better when she gets used to it. it feel like nothing is in your mouth at all.
p.s. when the orthodontist says she will have it for 4-6 months he means that is the longest time you will have the expander on. my orthodontist recently told me i only need 12 more turns on my expander and i am done. so i only needed it for 2 1/2 months.

so many kids have them.. that she will probably find others that have it. my son got his around the same age.. he sounded like he had a lisp and the first 2 days was the hardest.. see if you can get it on a thurs or fri.. so by monday she will be ok. you don't really get headaches unless they turn it to much.. ask the ortho dentist.. if you can turn it slowly.... it all worked out for us... my son would make weird noises.. like trying to clear his throat at first.. but within a few days it was fine.. also the benefit of the expander out weighed all the other stuff.. his teeth looked awesome after he got it off.. it was only on for about 3 months... or maybe a little longer... but not to long.. don't make a big deal out of it... after she gets it.. let her eat ice cream.. and stuff like that.... after 2 or 3 days.. she will be fine..

I wore a palate expander as a teen and I'll be honest it wasn't that fun. It does make it difficult to eat and and for me created somewhat of a lisp, just while it was in...not permanently. The one problem that I have had is that since wearing it my jaw seems to pop a lot for some reason. I think I wore mine for about a year.

I had a palate expander when I was in my tweens / early teens and wore it for about a year. I don't had a lot of different devices, and although this one sounded the most tortuous when the described it, I didn't think it was as bad as braces.
* you can't see a palate expander from the outside, whereas braces are always within view.
* I remember it taking a few days (maybe a week or 2?) for my tongue to get used to it being there, I didn't notice a change in my voice, but I think my mom did for a little while.
* I didn't get headaches from it. I did get headaches later when I had braces and the orthodontist tightened them each month.

I'm sure everyone reacts differently, but honestly the palate expander was probably one of the easier devices I had.

I had an expander for several years as a kid. It wasn't a big deal. It took a while to get used to. At first I was sore, talked a little funny and had some drool. You quickly learn to get over the talking part, maybe a week tops. The drool always stayed in my mouth during the day, I just found myself having to swallow more often. I had to connect head gear on the outside only at night, and then I did drool on my pillow a lot. I just learned how to flip it at night without waking too much, and my mom washed sheets often. It was harder to learn to sleep with a wire around my cheek than to deal with the drool! When I went to the orthodontist to have it tightened, I would feel sore and sometimes have a headache. They tighten in such tiny increments though. Sometimes I didn't even notice. It was definitely worth the inconvenience for me; my smile is what people always compliment me on. I'm sure lots of kids in her class will be getting braces, etc. this year. Go for it- it's not like she can yank it out, right?

I am going to peface this with saying that the only experience I've had with this was 30 years ago, and things may have changed significantly since then. That being said, my best friend had one of these when she was the same age and it was a truly horrible experience for her. Her speech wasn't affected, but the "turning the key days" were something she dreaded. It really hurt her and the whole thing freaked her out.

Having said that, sometimes you have to do bad stuff to your kids in order to make their lives better later. I'd get a second opinion, and if 2 orthodontists agree she needs it, you may just have to go for it. And maybe it's better now that it used to be.

My daughter just had her 2nd expander this past summer. The 1st one was put in by her pediatric dentist, apparently he wasn't aggressive enough. The orthodontist used an acrylic one which allows for more aggressive expanding without rolling teeth over on the sides. The 1st time there was no complaining, nothing. This 2nd time there were a few minor issues. We had to do more turning, which caused some initial pain. I just gave my daughter Advil. She did have a little trouble speaking correctly the first couple of days, but you get used to it. The same goes for the drooling. The appliance causes extra salivation. That goes away after a couple of days as well. There were no problems after it was taken out. Although my daughter had to get used to speaking again. I guess it just felt weird being used to it for 6 months.

Now since they were aggressive with the expansion, there was a significant gap in her front 2 teeth. But they put braces on the front 4 teeth and pulled them closed about 2 months into the expansion process. It is nothing to be worried about.

I would definitely recommend this treatment. It worked wonders!!! My daughter is not the toughest, so she did complain the 1st few days-a week of the initial expansion. But just be sure to give Advil 30 minutes before any turning. Many people have complimented my daughter since the expansion was done.

Another, fyi. She is currently wearing a retainer for 6 months to hold the teeth in place. They have to make sure everything heals completely before they let everything go.

Good Luck!!!

The neighbor girl had one that wasn't in for too long , and my daughter has one (she is nine) that will probably be in for a good long time. It depends on what needs done for each set of teeth. Both girls did drool - we still joke about it now, and my daughter had a little bit of a problem speaking until she got used to it. It is really very simple, so you shouldn't have any problems with it, and just tell your daughter it won't be in forever - just a short time. Good Luck

My daughter had hers about a year ago. It did make her talk a tiny bit different. (not permanent) I did not notice any of the other side effects that you mentioned. We needed to buy her act mouthwash to help her rinse her mouth.... it gets a little nasty. It will be well worth it in the end when yur daughters teeth are beautiful :)