My T-Bar is getting covered over!

[TuZZi]

So I have this T-Bar on the roof of my mouth, and until yesterday, it was perfectly fine, and hasn't caused me any problems since the first day I had it. Yesterday after a meal, the roof of my mouth felt very sore whenever I touched my tongue to it, and I could feel the tissue with my tongue, and it felt very squishy. So I looked in the mirror, and there is now some skin on my pallette, covering part of the T-Bar!

I just took some pics of it, and tried to move the skin around with my finger to see if it was indeed stuck, or maybe just a little swollen... but the skin didn't move, and is still really sore.

Could I have poked myself somehow and the skin is just swollen around the T-Bar, or has my pallette changed shape enough that the T-Bar needs to be adjusted? It's still another 2 weeks until my ortho is back in town for appointments

I'll attach some progress pics and maybe someone can shed some light on a similar situation they had. Thanks in advance!

September 15 - My 3rd week in braces - before the T-Bar and extractions:


December 10 - 2 teeth not wired yet


March 25 - one more tooth to go and they'll all be in the wire: notice the nylon thread?


Just today - notice the lil flap of skin on the rounded part


Sorry for the big pictures... I like paying attention to detail

[jaswi]

sorry, no usefull from me. At the risk of hijacking this thread, what is that 't bar', as you called it, used for?

[TuZZi]

I believe everyone else calls it a TPA, but for some reason my ortho calls it a T-Bar. I believe it's used to hold the molars in place while everything else is moving around.

[rsprouse]

Hi,

The purpose of the TPA is to prevent arch width relapse. It is holding the width of the distance between molars. If I had to guess I would venture to say that something is iritaing the tissue in front of the TPA (probably your tongue ring) which has caused the hyperplastic tissue growth. You want to call your ortho's office and inquire about it. Somebody will be covering while the ortho is gone. If it is infalmation it will heal on its own once the iritant is removed, worst case is that they will perform a little plasty to remove the excess tissue which is NOT a big deal. Good Luck.

Best,
Rory

[TuZZi]

Hmmm my tongue ring hasn't had any effect on my mouth so far... and it doesn't rub against the roof of my mouth in that spot at all.... I've tried... I thought it might have been that at first as well.

It doesn't seem as sore today, but there is now tissue built up on either side of the bar, where it was only pushed up against the one side the last 2 days. I'm not sure if that's a sign it's getting better or not, but the annoyance isn't there as much as it was previously.

I'm going to try and get in touch with an ortho assistant tomorrow... but unfortunately, they move around and work with my ortho while he travels around from city to city, so I don't know if anyone will be in town to help