Metal Mouth Message Board

I would like to get palate expansion mostly for facial cosmetic reasons. There's a tiny bit of crowding in my mouth but not much. I doubt insurance will pay for it so it'll be out of pocket. That's why I would prefer to avoid hospital costs. I hear it's pretty quick and routine surgery so can you just go to an ortho's office to get it done? What kind of anesthesia do they use? I live in New York so any recommendations for docs would be appreciated.

You can't have SARPE expansion simply to correct crowded teeth. It is used for correcting narrow palates. Do you have a narrow palate?

Oh I'm not doing it to correct crowded teeth because my teeth are BARELY crowded at all. Just a little bit. I want to do it for cosmetic purposes only, not because I medically need it. That's why I know insurance won't pay for it and I have to pay for it on my own because it is strictly cosmetic. Yes my palates are narrow and a couple of dentists growing up have said so while working on me, but because my bite wasn't affected they said it was fine. I'm 31 years old now and I hate my smile because my narrow palate makes it so that only the first few teeth show and the corners of my mouth are a black shadow abyss. I went to a plastic surgeon to see if he could fix it but he told me that in my case only a palate expansion would help that. I've researched it and it seems that at my age surgical expansion is really my only option.

My maxillofacial surgeon would also carry the procedure out in his office/surgery, rather than hospital. I'm in Canada, had sarpe and 4 wisdom tooth extractions in hospital under GA, I have seen online blogs where people have had sarpe under sedation and local anaesthetic only. I would recommend consulting with a max' fax' in your area...

Most surgeons don't perform SARPE unless there is a functional reason for it.. and no it is an outpatient procedure usually.

Good luck