Orthodontics

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socal78

socal78

Well-known member
Anyone else's kids going through ortho right now? I'm doing 2 at once! It's stressful at times and we just got started. Commiserate here! I've got one in Phase II with a bite plate, banded molars. Braces will come in a few weeks. The other is in Phase I, just got a jaw expander(!) on the upper tonight plus a lingual space maintainer on the lower. It sucks because twice a day I have to stick a key in his mouth and crank that sucker. It will increase tension in his upper jaw, widening it. I have to start the first key turn in the morning. I had this as a kid and it was a nightmare. Lots of jaw cracking and crying. This is harder on the parents than the kids!  :( I'm anxious about this. I hope it will be easier for them.
 
I got braces when I was older, circa senior year HS.  It was horrible, lost a lot of weight in the beginning, sore sore sore.  Flossing at night was a pain, with all the threading crap.  But all this was nothing compared to my jaw surgery to correct my bite.  Wired jaw for 2 weeks+, more weight loss, liquid diet.  I shudder just thinking about it.  Praying my daughter do not get my crooked bite so she will not have to go through what I did.  So far so good. 
 
Oh my goodness!! That is awful, Ps9. So sorry you had to endure all of that.  :( One thing I learned just recently is that times have changed a lot, ortho-wise, since we were younger. Nowadays, they do ortho in phases, starting earlier than they used to in order to correct bites, overjets, crowding, etc., which can greatly reduce the length of treatment and pain later during the second phase which is when they typically get braces. (So, they split it up into 2 Phases.) When your daughter is about age 7, take her in for her first consultation. If she has any bite issues maybe they can possibly correct it early with more conservative treatment. Not only have the timelines changed but they also don't use as much force. When we were kids, it was hard and fast. Orthodontists thought you needed to create a lot of pressure for tooth movement. Now they are more gentle, or so they tell me anyway. Science changes every day. Getting them seen early is the key thing. Bones are more malleable in children than in adults. I hope this helps!
 
irvinehomeowner said:
Seems like that upper palate spacer is quite common.
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Did your kids have the palatal expander?

It is breaking my heart. He is asking me, "Mommy, why are they evil? Why do they enjoy hurting me? (Insert quivering lip and teary eyes here.)" I said, "They do not WANT to hurt you, baby." This morning I had to crank up the tension for the first of 16 times, 2 per day. He screamed a little but he is very sensitive to pain. I'm afraid he's going to think I'm evil, too.
 
I just finished with one- still need to do the other.  My daughter is now wearing her retainer 24/7.  Hopefully she'll get the OK to just wear it at night.  She was very diligent about putting on those rubber bands in her mouth- she had her braces for about 15 months. 

My son will probably need to wear braces longer.  We went to several orthos to see which we liked best.  I didn't want to have to put the braces on, and then take them off, and then do another phase.  Nobody did that when I wore them.  Anyways, 2 orthos said we had do that, and our current ortho said to wait until he's a tad older and then we can do it in one phase, so that's what we're doing.
 
A relative of mine had one when she was younger, she cranked it herself because her mom was afraid to.

Some of our friends have kids who had to do that... although my buddy says its much easier for them because when he had braces it was way more painful as his kids rarely complain.

@SoCal:

Just give your son "the gas". :)
 
Phase 1 orthodontics are more for skeletal issues than for simply misaligned teeth.  A lot of time in kids, upper and lower jaw are growing at different rate then kids developed over or under bite.  Also when the permit tooth erupted before the jaw grow big enough to accommodate them and create a so-called "arch length deficiency" or simple put it, the jaw's too small and there's not enough room.  When these issue occurred here's where phase 1 orthodontic would really benefit a child.

My little one had a serious under bite where upper jaw was develop way slower than the lower jaw.  They also place the palatal expander to loosen the upper jaw and a "face mask" to pull the upper jaw forward. 

It's really a pain during the 2 year of treatment but the result was really good and there's good possibility that phase 2, full braces, might not be needed.
 
damn, were all these things available 20-30 years ago? it seems like a back in the day people just got braces, but i dont remember anyone with spacers, face masks, etc.
 
qwerty said:
damn, were all these things available 20-30 years ago? it seems like a back in the day people just got braces, but i dont remember anyone with spacers, face masks, etc.
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They've always done spacers. Spacers are little itty bitty rubber rings which go in between the teeth to create a gap so they can make room to slide metal bands on the molars which are cemented on. When Iho said spacer, I think he's actually referring to the RPE (Rapid Palatal Expander) which is an appliance to widen the upper jaw. RPEs have been around a long time (I had one 25 years ago.) When the other poster mentioned a "face mask" I think he's actually referring to "headgear". Headgear has been around for ages. Before you and I were born. They still do braces but now they have micro brackets which are less bulky than we had when we were kids. And now the more current offices use the self-ligating brackets so no more (colored) bands are needed to hold the wire on.
 
got it. yeah i had those spacers between my molars to make space for the metal ring, never had the pleasure of seeing an RPE, saw the headgear back then, assumed the facemask was something else.
 
I'm so glad we found an office that has techniques for eliminating the need for headgear in most cases. My oldest would have needed headgear if we had not found this office we're at. Instead, they are able to install something inside the mouth to achieve the same goal. But the doctor said he will still put him in headgear if I want to keep the girls away from him. Thinking about it.  :)
 
Mine got out of braces a while ago, but oh I remember the pain :) She had the Herbst appliance, and every time she opened her mouth too much in choir, it would come apart. So many trips the dentist, couldn't eat this- couldn't eat that, gum pain.. finally done.

Good luck!
 
how serious are the problems to warrant such painful treatments?  i had a slight overbite and slightly crooked teeth and dentists would always try to convince my parents of braces but fortunately they refused.  fast forward and my teeth are fine.  my new dentist even asked me if i had braces when i was a kid. 
 
irvinehomeowner said:
Can they do Invisalign on kids?
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I had the same question and was told by several orthodontists I interviewed that it is not recommended for children for many reasons. I was told Invisalign is not as effective as braces, that it requires eruption of all permanent teeth, and then there's the issue of patient compliance. In the end, it was a no-brainer to go with braces. Braces also do not carry a social stigma for children as they may for adults, particularly if the adult works in a certain field which doesn't encourage braces. The self-ligating braces they have now, also have less friction between the bracket and wire so they are more comfortable than the older version.
 
Can anyone recommend a good orthodontist?
My kid needs one and I've been asking around (my kid needs spacer first, her dentist said, jaw too small and adult teeth too big and her dentist recommended one orthodontist but I want to look around first before I commit myself to pay for small fortune :D)
Help anyone?
 
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