Sylvester the Cat Gets Headgear

My anxiety over the next 3 weeks higher than I would have liked it. I struggled to find information on what the expander removal would be like, there’s just not a lot of great resources on the internet. I am a member of a Facebook group for called “adult non-surgical palate expansion”, which includes the MSE (maxillary skeletal expansion) that I have, the ALF, AGGA, FAGGA, DNA and others, but I am the only person of the nearly 500 members who has had an MSE. I have read a blog and watch the vlogs of a guy who does have the MSE, but he and I had it installed about the same time. Doctors are not aware of its existence and not enough are being trained to provide them. This is a group with members from all over the world and people are struggling to find options in their parts of the world. I spoke with one woman on the phone for nearly an hour who lives in Paris and plans fly to Philly and meet with my ortho. The last of resources and knowledge are scary and frustrating.

I was able to find one video on the MSE being removed. I watched it several times, but it just made me worry more about any pain as the doctor spent 6 minutes preparing the screws to be removed and then to remove them and the patient had no anesthesia. The day before my appt, my anxiety peaked, and I called my mom in tears. I think I was burned out from work and so many doctors appts and missing time at work (and clients and money) and this appt was the icing on the cake.

The morning of the appt, I drove the nearly 2 hours to Philly. When I arrived, I nearly panicked, I went to my ortho’s other location, not the location she was at that day and the offices are nearly 30 minutes apart. Talk about subconscious self-sabotage! I was worried that they wouldn’t be able to see me, but thankfully, they were able to see me still.

Dental bonding covering my expander

When I sat down in the chair, Dr. E came right over and told me that she wanted to leave the expander in for a bit longer, ugh. But she would be able to remove the 2 back screws that are most bothersome. Woot woot! Dr. E had me lean my head back so she could examine my expander and before I knew it, she had removed the 2 screws. I hardly felt a thing:) But it was much easier and less bothersome to talk and not have them irritate my tongue. I could live with this!

They changed both my top and bottom wires and repositioned a bracket on my front tooth, which is rather uncomfortable to have removed as they are bonded on the tooth, so you bite down on a rubbery chewy thing and they pop the bracket off with pliers.

This was a good break in my appointment, so I then met with the media team to give my testimonial. It was much more in-depth than I anticipated. I walked into the room where the 3 guys had set up and it looked like a tv studio with 2 chairs, a video camera aimed directly in front of one chair, several other cameras on tripods and those tall boxy lights that create that natural, soft lighting. Peter introduced himself and said that he’d interview me, but that it would really just be a conversation. I got a microphone clipped to my shirt collar; they tested the lighting and we got started.

Dr. E provided Peter with the timeline of the dental work that I had given them during my initial consultation so he would know what questions to ask me. We talked about problems I have breathing, what I’ve had done to try and correct it thus far, what worked, what didn’t and a lot about how this has all impacted my life, my marriage, my career, and me personally. Whoa. This was getting deep. I then discussed how I learned of Dr. E, what she has been doing to help me and what is means for me.

The whole thing probably lasted about 15-20 minutes. Peter and I chatted a bit afterwards about my specialties as a therapist and I learned that this is a passion of his…helping to empower patients who haven’t had positive experiences with various   

treatments and allow them to share their story of how it impacted them. It helps to educations doctors and other patients. Very cool concept!

Back in the dental chair, I got 2 hooks bonded to the backside of my premolars. These hooks were then connected to the expander which was completely covered with bonding and cured. Dr. E came over periodically throughout this process to assess the progress. She then came over with my new sleep mask, a facemask, an extra-oral protraction headgear device, to be exact. Siiiiigh. I got to pick out which color mask and storage bag I wanted and I was shown how to wear it.

Me with my new facemask

It’s a really simple design, which is bananas considering I paid $850 for it! There is a metal vertical bar, about 10” in length, with a 120-degree or so bend about 7” down. There are 2 padded supports, one for my forehead and the other is a chin cup. Both can be individually adjustable to fit the patient’s face. The mask is placed on my face and 2 elastic rubber bands are used to hold it in place. They are wrapped around the brackets on my premolars and then hooked onto this short bar the runs perpendicular to the vertical bar.

Elastics to hold on the facemask

The mask is worn at night while I sleep and is designed to pull my upper jaw, my maxilla, forward. I tested it out that night and surprisingly, it wasn’t horrible to sleep in. I’ve had it 2 ½ weeks so far and only 1 night I’ve woken up and removed it. I had 2 complaints with it, difficulty putting it on and drooling. The teeth I initially was told to wear it on, I struggled greatly with hooking the rubber bands onto the brackets. It was difficult to hold the facemask to my face, pull my cheek back enough to see the bracket and hook the elastic. The elastics with pop off seconds later, snapping me on the lip as they flew about the room. It would take several minutes before I’d get it to stay. After 2 weeks, I called my ortho and was told I could hook them onto the metal bands around my molars, that’s a piece of cake. One gripe down. The other gripe is the drooling & dry mouth. The elastics create just enough of a gap that I drool, sometimes waking me up if I was just dozing off. In the morning, I wake up a lot with a dry mouth from the air seeping in throughout the night. In spite of this, I will wear this sucker every damned night until I’m told otherwise. It even traveled with me this weekend to Raleigh when I visited my friend, Sarah.

Here is a video illustrating what we hope the protraction facemask will do for me. In the video, it does show a slightly different facemask, but same idea. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn9COVA4ItI 

Expander elastics hooked onto my metal band on my molar

My half gripe is that I think I talk with a slight lisp that still has not gone away after more than 2 weeks. Others say they don't notice anything, but I believe I sound like I did when the expanders first went in. Eating is way better though now that I don't have to mess with the wax all the time. The only wax I wear is a 1" strip on the front of my lower braces at night, otherwise the force of the facemasks' chin cup pressed the braces into my mouth and cuts it up.   

The appointment that day was much longer than I had expected, and I had to call work to cancel 2 clients. More lost money.

That following Tuesday, my dentist office called and canceled my tongue tie release surgery that had been scheduled for that afternoon. Too late to fill those slots with clients and further lost wages. I was able to get to yoga and run a few errands without the after-work crowds though, that was nice. Hopefully that will get rescheduled soon and then the only other appointment coming up is the ortho again, just before Christmas.