ALF Appliance - is anyone having treatment using this ?

[TammieM]

Hej Anna,

Did you got to the consultation? If yes, what were your thoughts? How did the dentist seem? And was it Erik Barman or someone else? Tack på förhand!


[quote="anna88"]Hi Ni8!
No I didn't get through with it yet, basically because I didn't have the money or the time yet but I still want to do it. Did you go on the consultation yet? If you did, what did they tell you? Do you know how much it costs and how many times you would have to go there etc?

And for the rest of you, how much did your treatments cost and how many times did you have to go to the clinic? I want to know if its about the same price in all the countries.



Ni8 wrote:
> Anna, did you get the alf treatment?
>
> I'm from Sweden too and I've scheduled a consultation in Norway this summer so it'd
> be great to hear from someone who has experience![/quote]

[fla]

Hello Justonian!
I also have dystonia and TMJ.. i am really interested in knowing how your treatment has progressed.
Did the ALF help with your dystonia? Are you done with the treatment?
Thanks for sharing!


[quote="justonian"]Hello,
I just got fitted with my appliance today. I will keep you posted. I'm being treated for TMJ and cervical dystonia. I have had dystonia for 6 years. I went into remission for about 2 years but was never 100%. My naturopath happen's to be in the same office where Dr. Darrick Nordstrom sees patients occasionally. She told him about my case and he came in to talk to me in between his patients. He is an extremely kind, humble man. He made some recommendations which led me on the treatment path I am currently on. I am seeing a specialist who was mentored by Dr. Nordstrom. The specialist who fitted me with the ALF believes the dystonia is related to my jaw being out of alignment. I also have bruxism.
Will post again after a few weeks.[/quote]

[Dukeblu03]

I’m in the us. I’ve had braces as a kid but now I’m mu late 30s developed severe tmj. 2 surgeries later and failed Invisalign my doc is recommending Alf. I had it activAted on the 31 dec. no issues. But when she expanded it 4 weeks later I wanted to amputate my head. Not tooth pain the occipital bone and cervical 1 area. I’m her first Alf pt. Has anyone else experienced this. I have a removable Alf but I’ve heard it should never be removed my me. I’m seeking a second opinion with dr James Bronson in va. Does anyone have similar symptoms.

[Dukeblu03]

I’m in the us. I’ve had braces as a kid but now I’m mu late 30s developed severe tmj. 2 surgeries later and failed Invisalign my doc is recommending Alf. I had it activAted on the 31 dec. no issues. But when she expanded it 4 weeks later I wanted to amputate my head. Not tooth pain the occipital bone and cervical 1 area. I’m her first Alf pt. Has anyone else experienced this. I have a removable Alf but I’ve heard it should never be removed my me. I’m seeking a second opinion with dr James Bronson in va. Does anyone have similar symptoms.

[junkyak]

Why is there so little information or testimonials about ALF? Very little before and after pics. Kinda discouraging. How much is it btw?

[EmmaJade]

Hello, I'm due to start my alf treatment next week (only consultation) and was looking for reviews good or bad on it. I would love to hear peoples experiences as there is very little info I have found. I have read this thread with lots of people posting early on treatment but no follow ups? How are you all getting along with it? HONEST reviews please :-)

[smiley1011]

Would love some info on this as well

[cheryldell]

Here's my update: I've had my ALF for 6 months now, I'm a 53 year old adult. My dentist works along with an osteopathic physician during all adjustments (both are there) and they do the adjustments one Friday a month. So all ALF patients are there on that day (only ALF patients). The dentist has a few years of experience with the ALF and he mentions success stories. However, he was unsure why my palate is not expanding as fast as other adults he's done. If you watch the wire loop behind your front teeth, you can see it opening up, implying expansion, and mine is much more open, but I don't see palate expansion. Then one day the dentist expanded the ALF quite a bit more than normal to see if that will expand my jaw, it wasn't that painful so I said fine. Now...my upper molars are slightly tipped outwards. When I mentioned it to the dentist and osteopathic Dr. at the next visit, they both looked and didn't see the tipping I see. They measured from the bottom of the tooth on one side the the bottom of the tooth on the other side, saying there's been expansion, but it's just tipping in my opinion. If the bottom of the tooth is supposed to be vertical, then mine aren't. Maybe some tipping is normal, I'll have to research that. My lower molars tip inwards, so some outward movement would be nice on those, they haven't started moving yet though. I'll post further updates if things get better.

[HLB2018]

I am so grateful to find this group! I got the ALF expander because my mouth is so narrow. & I didn't realize bad teeth was linked to poor posture! Woah. I have been grinding my teeth in my sleep forever. When yall got your narrow teeth corrected with the ALF did you stop grinding? My braces are clear (fast braces) so they don't bother me much. What kills me is this LISP. It's horrendous. When does that go away???? Will I ever talk normal again with this thing glued in my mouth?

By the way, how long did it take you to notice the results?

[HLB2018]

I've seen this question a lot! My ALF was 800$ + braces was $4000 so total= 4,800$ for me. I'm located in keller TX 76244 (US). I went to bluestone dental for mine

[djspeece]

I know a dentist that does ALF in the UK in the Midlands area. I went to see him and he did a treatment plan for me. I didn't go through with it though. If anyone wants the contact details then contact me and I will happily send them to you. I would normally just put his name here but apparently I did something wrong recently by mentioning an orthos name (son of Jon-Mike M)in a thread I started where I was asking for if people have had any treatment/experiences with him and the name auto flagged spam?!! I only joined this forum a couple of days ago so I don't get what I did wrong in mentioning an orthos name. Other people have according to the search results! I couldn't even edit my post either to remove the name. Next thing I know the admins deleted profile and thread. Completely over the top and uncalled for.

Send an IM to the board Admin, her name is Lynn, and she can explain what happened. The software underpinning this forum has some odd rules for marking words as spam, and that may have triggered the issue with your profile. I've mentioned the name of my ortho on many occasions without a problem, so I think it was something else in the words, or word order.
As far as editing posts, you only have an hour after submitting a post to edit it, and after that it is locked down. It's the way the software is designed for some reason. The board admin can't control that. There's a sticky at the top of the forum that explains the rules of engagement for this forum. But when in doubt reach out to Lynn.

[Lily7]

I had my 1st appointment today to inquire about the ALF in Florida.
I was quoted between $8,000 to $10,000 for the ALF only. With the possibility of having braces or transparent aligners after (but would be even more)
From what I read here it seems to be among the highest quotes.

How often do you have to go to the dentist to have the ALF adjusted?

Thanks.

[Whythelongfacenay]

[quote=HLB2018 post_id=502344 time=1527228491 user_id=31884]
I am so grateful to find this group! I got the ALF expander because my mouth is so narrow. & I didn't realize bad teeth was linked to poor posture! Woah. I have been grinding my teeth in my sleep forever. When yall got your narrow teeth corrected with the ALF did you stop grinding? My braces are clear (fast braces) so they don't bother me much. What kills me is this LISP. It's horrendous. When does that go away???? Will I ever talk normal again with this thing glued in my mouth?

By the way, how long did it take you to notice the results?
[/quote]

Hi HLB2018,

How is the lisp going with the ALF? Hopefully it has settled down a bit now you've had it a bit longer? I also have a narrow jaw, and I'm considering an ALF appliance but hoping the appliance will not impact my ability to speak for the entire time I have to wear it (about 8 months I've been told).

[Tokamec]

I'm looking at having ALF treatment here in the South of France.

I had 4 teeth removed as a kid, headgear, fixed braces, the works for 3 years. I have bad posture, bad tongue posture and relapsed crowding. Hoping that expansion works; however I am concerned about how vocal the orthodontic community is about adult palatal expansion and how it has not yet reached the mainstream...

[Whythelongfacenay]

[quote=Tokamec post_id=502551 time=1528277492 user_id=31995]
I'm looking at having ALF treatment here in the South of France.

I had 4 teeth removed as a kid, headgear, fixed braces, the works for 3 years. I have bad posture, bad tongue posture and relapsed crowding. Hoping that expansion works; however I am concerned about how vocal the orthodontic community is about adult palatal expansion and how it has not yet reached the mainstream...
[/quote]

I understand some of where you are coming from Tokamec. I've got moderate obstructive sleep apnea, a ‘long face’, gummy smile and some infrequent jaw pain/TMJ issues connecting back to an issue of my very narrow upper jaw I believe being allowed to develop following some orthodontic work involving extraction and traditional braces in my teenage years (relapsed crowding as well). I've come to discover my upper jaw/palate is probably to blame for many of the issues I have now as an adult, it's so vaulted and so narrow I have no space to fit anywhere near my whole tongue against the roof of my mouth. It's a real problem for my breathing. Because the tongue can’t fit there, it’s pushing back and significantly restricting my airway, which explains the sleep apnea/snoring and poor quality sleep.

I’ve found a dentist who has recommended maxillary expansion in the form of semi-rapid palate expansion with an ALF appliance over the next 6-8 months, combined with cranio-facial chiropractic work. This will potentially be followed by another 18 months or so of invisible or self-litigating braces along with myofunctional training and more chiro work.

I've just made a decision to go ahead with the expansion part of the treatment, but it's been anything but a hastily made one. It's been six months of doing as much research as I can (which has been hard as mainly anecdotal accounts, seemingly few longitudinal studies on non-surgical expansion), confronting lots of skepticism from the orthodontic community, seeking second opinions, soul searching etc. In saying that, and even though I believe I've reached a decision I'm happy with, I'm still apprehensive about it all. There's a risk to going ahead, with no guarantees the expansion will work, lots of expensive treatment bills and what I imagine to be a fair bit of discomfort/pain with the expansion process itself, as well as a bit of stigma I fear I may face in doing ortho work again as an adult (I'm 37). So all in all - I'm kind of jumping in and hoping for the best. It's not a foolproof strategy but I've reached the conclusion it's the best path for me to take right now, I'm tired of living with constant issues impacting my quality of life.

I hope this helps - not trying to convince you about going ahead with expansion by any means, but hope it assures you you're not alone.