palatal expander help?!
Question: Palatal expander help?
My tongue is getting sore even worse each hour it turns red now and is there a way i can avoid it? putting something on my tongue suitable?
EATING- yes of course major problem for me. The darn thing on the top is so bulky it keeps getting food stuck in it and i choke on my foods. What way can i eat around it??
Spitting- gross but it does make you drool often and i can barely spit it out! the metal things keep interfering. how should i spit it? XD\
Last Q- Do braces even hurt worse?? Please tell the pros and cons.
Thank you so much, im freaking out with the eating part, My stomach growls all the time! Yogurt won't satisfy,:P
Answers:
Expanders can be tough to deal with at first, as you're learning. Everything you described in your question is pretty normal in the first few days, so don't worry. :)
Short of covering the expander with wax, there isn't much you can do to help your sore tongue. Try your best not to "play" with the expander with your tongue, though.
You have to re-learn how to eat with that big hunk of metal in your mouth. As for foods, stick to soft, easy-to-eat things at first. Macaroni and cheese, apple sauce, mashed potatoes, soup, etc. After a few days, you'll be able to work back up to eating most everything that you could eat before the expander was placed.
Until your body gets adapted to having the expander in place, its natural reaction any time something's in your mouth is to try and eat it, so you're going to drool like crazy. It WILL stop in a couple of days.
As for pain, expanders don't normally hurt. My patients tell me that they usually feel like they need to sneeze for about five seconds after each turn, but pain isn't typical. A bit of tenderness would be okay, but if you're feeling sharp or extreme pain from your expander, you might give your orthodontist a call. Braces are uncomfortable as well, but for different reasons (soreness of your lips and cheeks, more teeth being sore at any given time, etc.). Just like with the expander, though, you adapt and you WILL live to tell about it! :)
I'm an orthodontist. D.M.D., M.S.