Opinion: The Nightmare of a Palate Expander
When I became a parent, I did not even begin to grasp what that title entailed. First of all, I had no idea babies had to be fed every few hours when they’re newborn or bad things happen. I know. I was one of those innocent human beings that apparently made decisions blindly regarding having children.
It has all turned out all right. My kids are now 10 and 7(soon to be 8) and so far, they have all the food they need to survive.
Well, life has given us many other surprises, but nothing could have surprised me for the palate expander.
Honestly, I had never in my life heard about this before. Ever. I did not wear it as a kid. To my knowledge no one my age needed it. When it came time to fit all my teeth in my mouth, my mom took me to the dentist twice and there she took out 2 molars at a time to make space. That was is. Traumatic, but that was it.
It all so happens that there is a way to avoid taking any teeth out by using a palate expander. My daughter (who got her first tooth at 3 weeks, lost her first tooth at 4 and has almost all adult teeth today), did not need an expander. We have been going to the orthodontist for about three years now and every time he sends her back saying it’s still not time. Well, best news ever!
My son, on the other hand, needed an expander since the first time the doctor took a glance at his mouth. I can understand why. I see the reasoning behind it. Really, I do. Unfortunately, I had no idea what that implied.
Also unfortunately, my soon not only needed one, but two. Top and bottom.
Bad news.
First of all, he cried and screamed when they put it on. The assistants came out to tell me that NO ONE cried EVER. I doubt it. My son did, nevertheless and this caused the assistant not to be able to secure one side with the glue. You can imagine that a month after it was on it just fell off while eating.
It didn’t end there. He cried, and because he cried, they sent him home to get used to it. They told me not to turn the key, they said first he needed to get used to wearing it.
Nightmare.
He couldn’t swallow. He cried and cried and was miserable and so were we. He didn’t eat – and my son is an eater. For about three days he couldn’t swallow saliva, much less food. It was horrible. My husband got those little brushes (interdental cleaners). Like these ones:
At this point my husband got so frustrated he wanted to take it out, but when I told them to take it out, they convinced me to keep it an extra week. It was here that I learned that my son wasn’t the only one with issues. It looked like the majority of kids/adults got used to it in a few days, but there were also kids like my son; only everybody there was so busy chastising me for my son’s attitude that they didn’t care to tell me.
