Part 8 - Ashleigh's Tongue Tie Release Journal - Expansion and Orthodontic Work

The last step in this process is expanding my palate and straightening my teeth. Read on for the long and windy road it took me to figure out how to address those two things. As an adult it is not at all straight forward.

Teeth Photos before

Expansion:

The general consensus from all the dentists that I met with is that my palate is very narrow. When I had braces in middle school they rarely expanded anyone unless it was very bad but because orthodontia was being done after the time of the palate fusing in those days (early-mid 1990s) it was very painful to have expansion. I feel like an old lady saying that! Back in my day... but it's true. My orthodontist was horrific. He would keep kids in braces for way longer than was necessary. One of my friends who was also using him had braces for 10 years. I'm not even joking. All of this to say that whatever he did to my teeth it wasn't enough. He also did not give me a permanent retainer so over time all my teeth shifted back. Plus his office was super creepy with dead bugs pinned into frames from the ceiling to the floor in every exam room. If you are from Kenosha I'm sure you figured out who I'm talking about.

Upper and Lower Expanders

After much debate I decided to start with expansion with traditional expanders. I did not want, and could not afford, to go the route of surgical expansion. Honestly the price tag for that did not warrant the symptoms that I was having. Also, ouch. I went with Dr. Jerry in Mequon and he placed upper and lower expanders as pictured above. They were very uncomfortable and I did not know he was going to do both upper and lower. I could not put my tongue anywhere and my mouth was very swollen. I had a panic attack that night and had to get them removed the next morning. I called multiple dentists to get the expanders out that night because the panic attack was so bad. Thanks go out to Jerry for coming in on a Saturday morning to remove them! Looking back I could not eat anything, not even with a straw, I was so hungry and my body just freaked out due to the pain and stress of them. Molly had to talk me through how to manage a panic attack. I was touching cold things, going outside and walking, feeling the grass. I was doing all the things to calm my body down. It was a nightmare. So that was the end of expansion. I was so traumatized it took me many months before I was willing to look at fixing my mouth any further.

Aligner Trays:

After the trauma from the expander was worked through I started looking at different avenues to at least get my teeth straightened. My lower teeth were crooked and my tongue was getting a sore on the bottom of it from touching them. I did not want to try expansion again although there was an option for a removable expander, I just couldn't justify spending more money on that.

My sister is a dental hygienist and her office had started offering Sure Smile aligner trays. Since I'm her sister I was able to get the trays at cost to save me some money. Since they are removable and I could manage the stress of having them on I decided to go for it. The price was right on this option! I had initial scans done in the dental office and the waited 3 weeks for my trays to come in the mail. The first round of 13 trays I had to wear for 2 weeks a piece. It was annoying but doable. My teeth straightened faster than I thought they would! I had another scan done about a month ago and I have started to work my way through the 9 refinement trays. After that I'm done!

My original symptoms of open mouth breathing, snoring and tension have resolved. I still struggle with some teeth grinding due to my jaw being off but fixing that was way more than I wanted to spend. I am happy with how far I have come and thankful for all that I learned through this process.

This blog post is in no way medical advice and just my personal experience.

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