Newbie sarme surgery and expander advise

[Kerryboo]

Hi Everyone,

I'm a 31 year old mum of four. After years of being unhappy with my teeth, I decided it was time to do something about them. I'm having sarme surgery in a few weeks followed by fixed braces and lower jaw surgery eventually. I have a long journey ahead although I'm excited, at the same time I'm nervous about the expander and sarme surgery.

Any tips on how to cope with a expander and after the sarme surgery would be really helpful

[Kita12]

Welcome and well done :D I just joined today.
Just started my expander too, It's not very comfy but will admit it's becoming more and more unnoticeable. I have the removable sort which is really good in terms of cleaning etc etc
Good luck hope I can see update regularly :D

[jaime]

I had SARPE in December and blogged about the entire experience, the link is in my signature. I blogged with the intention of helping future SARPE patients.

Here are some tips that I can think of off the top of my head:
-The lisp will improve over time. The only people who told me they noticed knew I had the expander. Even the day I got it and felt it was really obvious, people told me they couldn't even tell!

-You will have to cut everything with a fork and knife. Make sure you cut food into small pieces, the expander means there's less room in your mouth. Sometimes food would fall out of my mouth and that was always embarrassing if it happened in front of people.

-Start carrying a travel toothbrush or dental picks with you everywhere. When food gets trapped in the expander (for me it was on the sides), it will drive you crazy because your tongue is right there and you can feel it.

-Buy yourself a turkey baster before surgery. It is so much easier to drink water with it and the baster is big enough that you can get a good amount of water in your mouth.