Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi everyone!
I am being fitted for a RPE this Wednesday and am scheduled to have braces put on 9-6-06. I'm extremely excited. I have been doing some research and have found out that RPE does not always work for adults due to it being too painful. I'm 42 and wondering if anyone else has had a RPE and if it worked, type of problems and what was the alternative if you were not able to use it.


Thanks,
Cindy

Lots of people on here have, or have had RPEs. I for one, wanted one but didn't get one- worried my arch wont widen out enough with just a wire. Anyhow, glad to hear you're exited, I was excited and scared to death at the same time, not nearly as bad as I thought it'd be.

I have had my expander for about 10 days now, so I am by no means an expert, but I am happy to share what I know.

I asked my ortho about whether or not non-surgical expansion is truly possible in adults. He stated that there is a limit to how far they can go without surgery, but that in most cases they can get all the expansion they need. He says he has always had good success with those patients who follow their treatment plan (ie: turn the key as scheduled).

Be prepared for an adjustment period. The first two days were rough. I was on ibuprofen constantly for 48 hours. After that, it hasn't been too bad. Each time I turn the key (every 3 days) it gets pretty tight, but only once have I needed any ibuprofen. In fact, I turned it this morning and I hardly notice a difference! I am still learning to speak clearly again, but my wife says I have improved a lot in the past few days. It also has a tendency to get in the way of my tongue, but I am getting used to that.

Good luck!

My Ortho thought that we could get enough expansion so that I would not need to have any teeth extractions and get a wider smile. I have a lot of crowding and he does not like removing any teeth unless there is no other choice.
Gunter888 please keep me updated on how the expander is going. I'm not looking forward to the pain so I'm thinking that I might want to take off a couple of days from work when I get it put on just in case its bad.
Also Meryaten - thanks for the advise on staying hydrated. If I have a lot of pain I probably would have tried not to drink much but I'll make sure that I drink plenty of water.

Thanks you guys are a lot of help!

Cindy

My ortho put me in an RPE on June 27th of this year, and I turned the key once a day for a little less than a month. He did a lot of x-rays along the way, to make sure I wasn't just getting tipping of the teeth, and that everything was looking okay...

As far as the x-rays show, the expansion went beautifully...they got separation of the bony part (along with a nice sized gap in the front teeth ), and my arch is a lot wider.

I'm 21, so he was pretty sure I was still able to have an RPE...he was hesitant to try it on anybody older, but I know a lot of orthos have success with it! Good luck!