has anyone's dc had those orthodontal braces to widen the upper jaw?

[SSSandy2]

Because dd (7)has just had one cemented in and I am freaking out a bit. She says she can't eat with them, is not swallowing but constantly spitting into a bucket and her speech is unintelligible. I also find although I can insert the wire they give you into the hole, I cannot manage to pull back the screw towards the back of her jaw which I am supposed to do morning and night. It doesn't move and she gags.

Aarghh Please tell me I will manage, she will get used to it and it is really all worthwhile

DD is also 7 yo and was due to get one in December. They are going to wait another year. By the sounds of it she going to hate it Hope someone has some advice for you.

Thanks fran. I have to say I am regretting it but maybe I need to calm down and give it some time? Hope it really is necessary etc. They wanted to do this when she was 4 but I decided to wait, however now her bottom teeth are coming out quite crooked and they say before that can be tackled, we need to widen the upper jaw so felt I had to deal with it now IYSWIM. Hope your dd won't need it and the jaw sorts itself out by next year!

Looks a bit different but this kind of thing: www.orthonj.com/rpe.html

Fair bit of info on there Fran. Maybe it reassures you?

DS2 had one of those but he was quite a bit older, and he started his orthodontic treatment earlier than average - 7 sounds terribly young for it!

Have they done anything else first? Extractions or anything? IIRC he had a lot of teeth out when he was about 9 but he didn't have the arch stretcher until a couple of years after that.

(btw his baby teeth were quite straight and uncrowded but his adult incisors came in one behind the other, and his adult canines right at the top of his gums, so he did need a lot of intervention at that stage)

Anyway FWIW he managed OK - being older, probably, even though he was a very gaggy child - and it did work very well. So I hope DD will be OK once she gets used to the feeling, poor lamb.

thanks Wendy, I hope so. She is hungry but can't eat anything and has been crying and saying she wants them taken back out. Maybe it could have been left a few more years I really don't know. Since they advised it, I felt I should get it done but don't know now if it was the right thing to do.

No this is the first thing they've done, she hasn't had any other treatment.

How is she getting on, Sandy? Hope things have improved as she's got used to it?