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I Didn't Know You Could Break That Bone...


Many kids have nightmares of needing braces. I had them in elementary school and middle school, 3ish years I believe. I can’t believe I forgot to mention this sooner in another blog, but I’d need braces,....AGAIN!

I was also told I needed more width to my upper jaw, or my palate. The first ortho, wanted to pull 2 of my teeth to make this room. While this is still, most unfortunately, common practice, this is an antiquated practice and does not need to be done. If you dentist/ortho wants to do this, run and find someone else. My dentist, Dr. D, interviewed several other orthodontics, have I mentioned how amazing she is???? And I started working with a new orthodontist.

Palate expander device
Key used to expand the width of device












Instead of having teeth removed to create space, I would have my palate expanded. This is a common procedure for kids and adolescents as they are still growing and it’s easy for them to turn the key to widen their palate with their unfused bones. However, as an adult, your bones become fused and do not move quite as easily. For the palate to be expanded then, I needed a surgery called a SARPE, surgically assisted rapid palatal expansion.



My surgeon, Dr. L, would put me under general anesthesia and make an incision along the area where my gums and inside upper lip meets, so no one would see it when they looked at me. Dr. L would then take a chisel, essentially, and crack my palate in half just above my middle teeth and straight back. Two weeks before the surgery, I was fitted with the expander. I cried. I hated everything about it, my teeth hurt, it cut my tongue, food got stuck in it; I was over it and it hadn't even begun.



I had the surgery with Dr. L on June 28th at Cooper Hospital in Camden, NJ. We left the house at 3am for my 5am check-in time! Surgery went perfectly. I was super groggy and apparently asked for more Fentanyl.

                  Side note: Why is Fentanyl $4.00, but acetaminophen is $131???? Ohhhhh, our healthcare system. Tsk. Tsk.



I wasn’t in much pain when I woke up, duh, I was on Fentanyl for cryin' out loud! It was more of a discomfort. Gary drove me home and I immediately went to bed. Well, I went to sleep sitting up because I was unable to place my head even with or lower than my heart for several weeks.

I was also on a liquid diet for 2 weeks, followed by a soft chew diet for 4 weeks after that. I was starving, but it was exhausting to eat, and I quickly grew bored of shakes and broth. I lost about 10 pounds in that first week and I felt weak from the lack of nutrition. In an effort to not lose too much weight, I added protein powder to everything. The soft chew diet gave me more options, but it was only things I could mush with my tongue. And in tiny little bites. Eating a meal could easily take me an hour. I would go tired of trying to eat long before I was full.  

Top row: Driving home. Separation from surgery alone.
Bottom row: Starting to turn the key. Final Expansion.
A few days after my surgery, I had to start turning the key for the expanded; I actually had to turn it a few times before the surgery to    pre-load the tension, which I felt as pressure in my sinuses. I was quite nervous to turn it after the surgery. Thankfully, it wasn’t as bad as I anticipated. There were one or two times that I struggled, but mostly it wasn’t terrible as my bones were already separated. With each turn, I expanded about 1/4mm. So less than 2 weeks later, I had a 7mm gap and could stop expanding. 

After about 2 months, I could finally chew most foods. Not raw carrots, nuts, gum, etc. But it was a huge improvement. Unfortunately, I still could not bite. I couldn’t bite into a slice of pizza or a sandwich or corn on the cob, etc. for a few more weeks. And I learned quick that spaghetti noodles were a hard nope. The noodles got wrapped around the expander and would slip down my throat causing me to choke. Same with melty cheese, like in a mozzarella stick. There were a few scary moments learning which foods I could and could not manage while I choked and tried to not panic. Once the bones settled for a few weeks, braces could begin.


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