Hi guys! :)

[teddy13]

I'm so excited to finally sign up to be a part of this forum!

My ortho's evaluation states that I have:
-1mm overbite
-2 mm overjet
-Upper midline is centered
-Lower midline is to the left (of where it should be)
-Both upper and lower arches are severely crowded
-impacted lower canine
-impacted wisdom teeth

Currently, I am going through phase 1 of my orthodontic treatment. I have been wearing my rapid palatal expanders (top and bottom) for about 7 months now. My expanders are the removable ones where I have to turn the screws once each day. I have to have oral surgery next month to extract my wisdom teeth, which are stuck underneath my gums and are pushing on the rest of my teeth since they're growing sideways! My ortho plans to expand my jaw enough to make room for my crooked teeth so that I wouldn't have to extract three of my premolars and my impacted lower canine (which was recommended by my previous ortho). THANK GOD I CHANGED MY ORTHODONTIST AND DIDN'T GO THROUGH WITH HAVING ALL 8 EXTRACTIONS AT ONCE!!! My ortho also plans to expose my impacted canine later to guide it back into the position of where it's supposed to be by putting a bracket and a chain on it and pulling it onto the jaw arch.

My ortho estimated for my treatment time to last for about 27 months, but I feel like it's taking forever just for my jaw to be expanded to get ready for braces to be put on. I feel depressed sometimes because of how the expanders make me talk with a lisp. Even though it's been months since I've gotten the expanders, it's still hard for me to communicate with my coworkers and with customers at work since sometimes they can't understand what I'm saying when I have issues saying certain words. sigh

I have seen a video on YouTube where a teenage girl also wore a rapid jaw expander and she turned the screws on her expanders two times a day even though her orthodontist recommended her to only turn the screws once a day. Do you guys think this is a good idea? Do you think that maybe if i did this, then the process of my expansion would be much faster? When I go to my check-ups, my ortho says that my jaw expansion is going great, but in the beginning of treatment, he said that I would only wear them for about 6 to 8 months. Right now it looks like I will still be turning screws after the 8 month mark passes. My lower canine that isn't impacted is actually "loose" for the past couple of months due to the expanders pushing on it and making gaps between some of my teeth. I'm actually scared to turn the screws more than once a day since I'm worried about more "loose teeth". Any thoughts?

[jem]

Hi Teddy,

Congratulations on starting your orthodontic treatment. 27 months sounds a long time but it will mostly fly by and when you have finished, I doubt you will regret having done it.

As to turning your expansion screw more than instructed by your ortho, I would strongly recommend that you don't. As I understand it, orthodontic treatment can only work at a certain biological speed and if you try to go faster by applying extra pressure, you may damage your teeth/roots.

Patience is not my strong suit either, but please just let your treatment go at the pace your ortho recommends.

Good luck!

Jem

[teddy13]

Thank you for your great advice Jem! I didn't start turning my screws more than once each day like I really wanted to in order to speed things up. I actually had a check-up a few days ago after my first post and my ortho thinks that my jaw expansion is going great! He wanted to put my braces on asap, so I have an appointment for that next week! I'm very relieved to finally to get my braces on!

Currently, I have to keep my expanders in and my ortho told me to stop turning the screws to "set" the expansion. The only problem that I had was that my lower jaw isn't as expanded as much as the upper jaw is. The ortho assistant felt that one side of my lower jaw was "stuck" since the lower expander favored one side of my jaw compared to the other side throughout the entire expansion process. However, the lower expander still managed to create gaps between my front teeth on the lower jaw regardless of this issue. There are enough gaps to move and create space for my impacted canine.

I'm not sure how much longer I will have to keep wearing my expanders, but I'm so happy that I decided to go through with the long process of expanding my jaws instead of rushing into extracting my healthy premolars and impacted canine. My first ortho and my dentist tried really hard to peer pressure me into doing 8 extractions all at once in order to straighten my teeth with braces. I didn't back down, and I refused to do those 8 extractions. I was really against their recommendation since I felt that extracting those specific teeth would create a straight smile, but it wouldn't fix my bite problem and I was really worried it would've created more problems down the road.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story

[Tobilei]

Glad everything is going so well and you're getting braced soon