SARPE Surgery

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#1396 Post by **Hyrule** » Thu May 06, 2010 9:27 am

Update : first visit post surgery to my OS. Everything is healing very well. My surgeon seems really happy with the outcome of the surgery no numbeness except at the tip of my upper lip. Also first visit at the orthodontist. Started turning yesterday. the gap between my front teeth seem already bigger. I have to do 22 turns in total + the 8 already made by my OS. That's 10mm in total.

#1397 Post by **rizomona** » Mon May 10, 2010 5:23 pm

To begin, thanks for all your info... it really helped me get through this crazy process. A little regret when I look in the mirror (huge gap). My name is Angela and I had the expander and braces put on wed, then I had SARPE on Thurs April 29, 2010. I met with my ortho five days later who expanded 12 turns=3mm during first office visit. It felt tight. He wanted to be aggressive with the turning as I am on a timeline and need the gap to close by Sept when I am in a wedding. He suggested to turn 4 times a day=1mm a day. I felt it was too much, but if it was ok then why not. I expanded 4 turns for the next two days, by the third day my palate was blood red. I felt we were expanding too much and I took the red palate as a sign to slow down, but of course by then it was Friday when all orthos are off and I could not call them. So I made an executive decision and only expanded 2 turns a day for 2 more days and by Sunday i felt a sharp point at the roof of my mouth. I had felt it after surgery, I just assumed it was a staple or stitch or something. Well I took a pic and realized it was bone sticking out of my palate. I kinda freaked so on Sunday we only expanded 1 turn. Then Monday I called the surgeon and he told me we were expanding too fast and it causes the bone to die and come out. AHHHHHHHHH so tomorrow I go see the surgeon and he said he will cut it off and sand it down and hopefully that will take care of it. Has anyone had this happened?
My face is numb on the right side and my upper lip appears paralyzed and does not move. The good thing about that is that it covers the gigantic gap that is as big as a giant tooth. The expansion has created such a huge gap that one of the front teeth is climbing over another one. It is crazy!!!! Also did you guys experience fluid like/ air filling in their sinuses? I can feel this horrible pressure on my right sinus area and the cheek is swollen some and you can feel it moving when you touch it. Weird feeling!!!! I don't know how to get it to go away. I am sick of liquids.. and I am always hungry. I have lost 8 lbs and can't afford to lose more. Please I would appreciate any info on my questions. I am kinda regreting things right now just because I am so worried and I look horrible!!
Thanks again for sharing.
Angela

#1398 Post by **CoastieAsh** » Tue May 11, 2010 4:55 am

Angela,

I am sorry to hear that you are having such a rough time! I couldn't even imagine expanding by 12 turns in one visit! I honestly don't think I would have allowed that, I would rather take the slower, safer route. I myself have just come to accept the gap for now. The way I think of it is that soon enough I will have braces to bring them back together. Think of the end package. In my case I call it my million dollar smile. Everyone in my life have been really supportive of me. Of course I have my moments of self conciousness, but the ones I love, love me just the way I am. I hope you start feeling better!

a2hopper,

I am glad someone else has posted on this! I am done turning my expander. When I look in the mirror though, to me it looks as if one side my upper jaw comes down more at an angle than the other. It's not very noticeable, I have been the only one to notice it. I havn't been to my Ortho in almost a month so I havn't had the chance to ask if it was normal. I go in next week so maybe I will be able to find out.

Another quirk that I have noticed is that in between my two front feet, the gum seems to come up a little higher on one tooth than on the other.

#1399 Post by **BracketRacket** » Tue May 11, 2010 9:06 am

CoastieAsh -- good to hear from you! It must be a relief to be done expanding!

If I can be nosy, how are you feeling? Any swelling still? Numbness? Did you have any pain while you were expanding?

Thanks -- I'm getting close and pretty nervous! When do you get braces?

#1400 Post by **CoastieAsh** » Tue May 11, 2010 9:45 am

BracketRacket,

Thanks! I have been busy since I am back at work now. It is a huge relief to be done with the expanding! It has been almost a month now since I have been tied off. I go back in next week just for a check up. I get braces on my bottem teeth in June and hopefully by July or August I will get braces on my top!

It really wasn't that painful expanding. I felt very little pressure and then it subsided within minutes!

I don't really think I have any swelling left at all. I still have a few differnt numb places mostly in my upper lip. It doesn't really bother me though.

Good Luck with your upcoming procedure! It's a large step towards a million dollar smile!

#1401 Post by **zeira** » Sun Aug 01, 2010 8:33 am

I've had my surgery a year ago, and I just wanted to post some photos to show where things are now. I'm very happy with the results! I think it was totally worth it (I had to pick between an ortho that recommended the surgery and one that was 100% against it), and I'm glad I went with the surgery. I still had to get teeth extracted to make space, which was a bummer. The photos might not show the full extent of the expansion because my top teeth had moved outwards to compensate, and since then they've fixed the cross-bite with elastics. I can't believe how wide my smile is now!

#1402 Post by **WaterBoy13** » Wed Oct 27, 2010 11:31 am

Hey Everybody! I am new to the board and am thinking about getting SARPE. I am curious... How much expansion did everyone require (how big was your gap) and how long after final turn did it take for it to close up?

#1403 Post by **BracketRacket** » Wed Oct 27, 2010 9:45 pm

Hey...just wanted to point out that the size of the gap and the amount of expansion you have isn't necessarily the same. I expanded about 10mm, and the gap between my front teeth topped out at about the width of three of my bottom incisors. There are pics in my story thread (link's in my sig) if you want to check it out.

My teeth started to close relatively quickly when I stopped turning, and within a month and a half or so closed up quite a bit by itself. I got my braces about three months after surgery, and it closed a bit more, and just got a powerchain after my first adjustment and it's pretty tiny now.

#1404 Post by **sauerkraut** » Thu Oct 28, 2010 1:25 am

I ended up with around 6mm expansion I believe. My gap was much bigger than that though (10mm maybe?). I waited 7 months for braces but the gap closed by itself long before then. Sorry I can't remember how long that took.

You've probably read already that it's possible to disguise the gap a little by sticking dental wax across it (fixed to the back of the teeth either side). But it honestly isn't that big a deal in the grand scheme of things. And there have even been one or two lucky people here who never got a gap at the front at all. I admit that's most definitely the exception, but you never know...

#1405 Post by **WaterBoy13** » Fri Oct 29, 2010 10:56 am

Last visit with my Ortho, he told me that I could expect the gap for 3-4 months. After reading through this thread, I see that a lot of people's gap closed about 4 weeks after they stopped expanding. Was he giving me a worse case scenario? Are the 1-month'ers just extremely lucky?

#1406 Post by **sauerkraut** » Sat Oct 30, 2010 2:25 am

I've just checked my diary (especially for you

) and seen that I'd done expanding by the beginning of October and my gap was closed by the following January. So for me at least your ortho's advice is spot on. They can only ever give you average expectations anyway.

#1407 Post by **WaterBoy13** » Sat Oct 30, 2010 1:00 pm

Sauerkraut, I appreciate you doing that research for me! haha I am fully expecting mine to take the discussed time to close up, but obviously hoping that the gap closes up almost the entire way fairly quickly. How narrow was your pallet to begin with? do you have any photos posted of your progress?

#1408 Post by **sauerkraut** » Sun Oct 31, 2010 2:06 am

Sorry, WaterBoy, I've never worked out how to post photos. I suppose my "pre" photos are similar to zeira's just above but I don't think I've achieved quite as much expansion as she has. It's still been well worth it, though. Well, I honestly didn't have too much choice in the matter, really. I was told my teeth were likely to start falling out before too long. And I had too much bone loss to be a candidate for implants. Then the surgeon told me I wouldn't even have been able to wear false teeth because of a weird lump in my palate. So for me the decision for surgery was much more clear-cut than for many others

#1409 Post by **35ksmile** » Fri Nov 19, 2010 8:27 am

hey guys.

new here, spent the last week or two reading all 94 pages of the topic. i just got SARPE done myself on nov. 4th... so it's been a little over 2 weeks since the surgery.

i'm nearly 22 years old, had full braces for a few years when i was a kid (<14) and had a perfect smile by 9th grade. i grew, my maxilla didn't, ended up with a class III bite and then my wisdom teeth came in, caused crowding, and messed up one of my incisors (pushed it back)

so now im in for the full ride again. SARPE to expand my maxilla/palate, braces to align my teeth, and a probable lefort I osteotomy to shift my maxilla forward. my teeth are fairly straight but my old ortho aligned my teeth to match when i had a slight underbite, so all my bottom teeth need to be repositioned (reangled i guess) even though they're straight. i have a slight crossbite as well. im not too happy that my ortho coverage has run out from the first round of braces, ive been in contact w my old ortho just to let him know im not happy with what's happened - i couldve had an RPE in before my maxilla fused when he was treating me, i already had an underbite as a kid, i dont really appreciate that he didnt "course-correct" for the future or have any foresight.

ANYWAY... regarding surgery.

all-in-all i can't really complain. i was anxious about the general anaesthetic but yknow what, it was great. felt awesome, and when i came to i was laughing and joking with the nurses.

only got nosebleeds the first day, after that it was fine. the swelling was worst on day 3-4, and so was the pain... needed my painkillers to get to sleep.

had the following eating habits: clear liquids first 5 days, thick liquids next 5 days, and now im on soft foods for 6 weeks. ive read here other people ate right away, but im a very cautious individual and so is my surgeon. i dont mind it, i was gainin a little bit of weight pre-surgery and now i almost have my abs back! not the healthiest, but meh.

anyway i'm looking at about 7.5mm expansion as it stands. 30 turns. 2 in surgery, and i've done 20 turns already (2/day for 10 days, didn't start until 5 days post-surgery). i'm a little peeved as my ortho initially said "around 5mm" and then it changed to "5mm at least" and now i'm going way past that, but he knows what he's doing so i trust him.

as for the gap, at 5.5mm expansion the gap sits around 3mm. it seems to be closing on its own at a rate of around ~1/4mm per day so here's hoping it continues. i had crowding before the surgery so i think that's influencing it.

finally, as for dealing with the gap, some days are better than others. for the most part it doesn't bother me that much, it's pretty noticeable now, but what can ya do. my friends are pretty understanding. the biggest pet peeve i have is being asked "why are you getting this done?" but honestly, it's only ever been asked by people with perfect teeth who have never had braces. the people i know with bad teeth don't say anything, and the people i know with perfect smiles from braces are really encouraging.

so ya ask me anything i guess. wild ride, treatment plan is currently 36mths but i'm really hoping i can beat that by a lot. depends on how my orthodontist wants to handle things. i'm more excited about the end result than i am worried about how i currently look.

#1410 Post by **badbite** » Fri Nov 19, 2010 8:49 am

I had to expand 7 mm after my SARPE and my gap was about 9 mms. May gap did not close up for over 7 months. It didn't even start to close until I had the braces put on which was four months after SARPE. Of course I am very happy I did it now; moving on to the "big surgery" next month.

Metal Mouth Message Board

SARPE Surgery

Bone coming out in palate during expansion