twin block brace - any experiences

[Rafaella]

Does anyone have any experience of their child or anyone they know having one of these fitted? The are designed to alter the shape of the jaw so the top and bottom teeth meet properly and have to be worn for about a year. My dd has had one for a couple of days and is still in constant pain with it and can't sleep. Also it makes her chin stick out more and face look fat so she feels ugly and miserable. I keep telling her it will all be worth it but if its going to make her face shape change forever I'm really worried.

[nic06]

My DD (10.5) has been wearing one of these for seven weeks now, to pull her bottom jaw forward. I've got to be honest, it was absolute hell to start with. I think she thought having a brace would be quite cool, until she saw this contraption and spent days sobbing about how ugly she is. She was advised to build up to wearing it - a couple of hours, then gradually more. We were told she should manage to wear it for a whole night after about a week.
Plenty of nurofen and calpol for the pain (and bonjela).
When she went for her 6 wk check the gap had lessened fron 10mm to 7mm already - so she is really thrilled about that. Hang on in there - it really does get much easier, and my DD is happy to wear hers all the time now.

[SoupDragon]

Is this biobloc orthotropics?

[nic06]

Oooh, no idea - ours is called a "functional appliance"!

[SoupDragon]

DS1 (9) has been having orthotropic (as opposed to orthodontic) treatment for a year now. It's designed to correct how the jaw grows and to teach the child to keep their mouth shut (if only it stopped them talking too!!) to give nice straight teeth without having permanent teeth removed/train tracks later.

It did hurt a lot to start with but not for long. Calpol, ibuprofen and those calpol meltlets left by their bed so they can take them in the night if needed (make sure that any bedtime does you give them is ibuprofen though!)

[Rafaella]

thanks, nic06, that's really reassuring. Does her face go back to its lovely 'normal' when she takes it out? Also, can she speak without lisping and how long does the saliva thing go on for!

[nic06]

Sorry - been out for the day! Yes her face shape goes back to normal as soon as the brace is removed.........better than normal infact as it does pull her teeth inline and take away the goofyness.
I still find her speech really frustrating, but it seems all her friends have no problems in understanding her at school. I think because she is so paranoid about it, she is talking much quieter than normalm which makes it even worse!
If she is in lots of pain - remember the nurofen, take the brace out and apply bonjela. Leave that for half an hour before putting the brace back in. Mine seems to find that really helps. Also, if she is still in a lot of pain (rubbing pain) after two weeks, it might be worth a visit back. Ours just filed/smoothed the plastic bit down a bit for her which has helped too.
Good luck - it must be really tough on them, I don't envy them at all.

[GillK09]

My daughter is just about to have the twin block fitted, she is very worried about how ugly she is going to look and she also thinks she wıll have a big sticky out chin at the end of it all. I don't thınk it looks very comfortable either, ın fact we could both get quite hysterical about it. Our dentist tells us that she won't have to wear it at school which is good news but your girls seem to have coped with that- do you have any more tips- what do you mean by the saliva thing?

[GillK09]

My daughter is just about to have the twin block fitted, she is very worried about how ugly she is going to look and she also thinks she will have a big sticky out chin at the end of it all. I don't think it looks very comfortable either, in fact we could both get quite hysterical about it. Our dentist tells us that she won't have to wear it at school which is good news but your girls seem to have coped with that- do you have any more tips- what do you mean by the saliva thing?

[EssentialFattyAcid]

any updates?

[bazbozx]

there is no need to get worried trust me i used to have them before just tell your sister to not worry and that you teeth will be straight as possible.

[Mrsmorton]

Thanks for that

[W4terford]

Hi can anyone who has had twin blocks and gone through treatment tell me did your child's face change as mine has the same concerns as your children that her face looks fat and square and I want to know if this is the end result. Thank you xx

[Saltysailor]

My daughter has had them going on over 4 months now and what a change . We are seeing 1 mm a month change she had a 10 mm over bite. Now she can close her mouth completely with no teeth sticking out.

[Saltysailor]

She got them right before she turned 9 so had the summer to get used to them .no problem with Salvia or speech and she wears them all the time except when eating . She's seeing how well they are working so she's very compliant

[motherhenpecked]

W4terford, my DD got them around this time last year and yes her face did look different when wearing the brace but we all got used to it.

She is supposed to only wear it at night now (but cant get it in as lost too many molars so and) and we are waiting to go back for a review.

Now she no longer has an over bite her profile is so much better. She is so pleased her persevered with it and so are we as parents. She certainly does not have a fat, square or chinny face and neither does she have an over bite anymore.

How is your DC getting on ?

[MomOfOneGirl]

Hi, my soon 12 yo girl just got her Twin Blocks and is super cool with them. First few days there was some pain and dripping, but several days after everything got settled, she started to eat with them too.

She wears them all the time, at school also. She speaks as she has a full mouth, but then again: she does - of twin blocks! :) But she has no problems with that at all. She's confident with them, girlfriends support her, boys didn't even notice or when they do, they are interested in them as in technical equipment. :) There are quite some pupils with some sort of braces, so this is normal for their social circle.

She takes them out at sports. She's so confident, she takes them out in the middle of the street, not carring if someone find's that strange. She licks them and then adjustst them back.

Keep in mind she's in puberty, fully self-oriented.

We did prepare for the time, she'd got braces: when she started to see an orthodontist, she started to read comics Smile from Raina Telgemeier and I think that really helped her with accepting braces as something normal for childhood.

Also: I never pitied her, I am of maximum support and coaching her through discomfort with high-fifs sort of attitude. Noone in our family makes fun of that and most people are saying, that they are really looking cool. Especially as she hass chosen blue ones with sparkles. :)

So: be supporting and with joyful attitude and keep wearing them!