Cant speak with Quad Helix expander

[katynew]

Hi

I have had a quad Helix expander fitted four days ago and I am having problems with my speech. I have tried practicing by reading out loud when at home and it does seem to get better, but then when I get to work I am back to square one. When I am on the phone it is even worse and people cant understand what I am saying as my mouth totally tenses up. Its making me feel very unhappy and I feel like having it taken out.

I know this sounds a bit psychological but I am worried as I am getting ceramic braces fitted to the top of my teeth in two weeks so this will probalby get worse.

Has anyone else had a similar problem?

[felicia]

Your speech will improve with time. I had a rapid palatal expander and was in the same situation like you with the speech(I worked from home and I was terrified to answer the phone because people could not understand what I was saying). It got better with time. Just be patient.
By the time I got my braces on(2 months later), I learned how to speak almost perfectly. Getting braces did not affect my speech at all. The way I see things is that the tongue does not make contact with the outside of the teeth, so how could braces affect anybody's speech?...(I heard people complaining about having difficulty speaking with braces...I just don't understand why?)

[evilnel]

Braces made it awkward to speak, but didn't make it impossible. It just meant that my mouth got dry easier, it was harder to move my lips over the brackets at first, and I just had to get used to the feeling of having extra stuff in my mouth. I think that if you can master the expander, the brackets shouldn't be a problem!

[peach]

I've been there . I started with braces and then had an expander added to my top and bottom arches. My speech was pretty bad the first week but it got better over time. there were certain sounds that I continued to have some difficulty saying, like "s" sounds. I have to talk a lot in my job, constantly interacting with people face to face or by phone, so I know how discouraging it can be. Hang in there! It does get better

[katynew]

Thanks for all your advice, it has made me feel a lot better. Just need to overcome the work and phone situations. Fingers Crossed

[Vulcan]

I've had a quad helix in for 2 months now. You will get used to it. At the beginning it seems like a long shot, but I barely even notice it now. Hang in there lol.

[Kimmy04]

Yes fear not, it gets so much better, did take me a good few weeks but I got there in the end and can even eat bread normally again, woo hoo, 6 months later, it is still in, grrrr but I don't even notice it anymore!

[katynew]

I was told it would take a few days at first, so if its a case of a few weeks then I will stop panicking. Seems to be getting better over the last couple of days, but I am still terrible on the phone. o well hopefully that will get better to. Thanks

[bois789]

I'm so glad I've found this post, I had a quad helix and ceramic braces top & metal bottom fitted yesterday and I can't speak properly at all, I am on the phone alot for my job and I feel ridiculous trying to talk to people!! my mouth hurts and feels pretty cut up with the braces, teeth ache (not badly but I'm feeling sorry for myself!) and I can't speak, thankfully I've got 6 days off work starting tomorrow but really good to hear that this gets easier!

[djspeece]

bois, Welcome to the board! I did a search on the Quad Helix Expander, which sounds like a special sort of torture, and there are nearly 20 pages on the subject here (hopefully): search.php?keywords=Quad+Helix+expander ... %5D=13[url]. You'll notice a small "search this forum" field near the top of the page and it works very well. You'll have to hit the magnifying glass icon to get the results -- I don't think "enter" will get the search going.
Best of luck to you. Things are a bit quiet here these days so you may have to do some searches to find your information.
Also, I recently learned that by clicking on the ads on the landing page the admin gets a tiny amount of money to support this board. I'm clicking away and so far I have had no problems being bombarded with ads, etc.