Herbst appliance update

Well It has been 4 months since Paige has had the Herbst appliance installed in her mouth. I see her every day so I have to admit that I don't notice change as well as someone who doesn't see her often. However, when I was looking through some old photos from the start of school I was amazed at the change in her teeth, her overbite & her top front teeth which are currently in braces. (she will have full braces put on Chen the Herbst appliance is removed. They estimate she will wear it for a year)




Can you tell a Huge difference? I sure can. The pictures on the left are from the start of the year, the pictures on the right have been snapped in the last month.

Paige has gotten used to the appliance, it really is not a big deal. The main thing Paige says is,"it is hard to brush around." It frustrates her that it takes longer to brush around it. Besides that, talking, eating, and yes even yawning is no Big deal now days.

When I take her in for an adjustment. (I bring her to the orthodontist about every 6 weeks where they adjust the appliance by moving the jaw forward a little bit more. Small adjustments are made slowly each 6 weeks to try to make the change more comfortable. For about a day or two she will take some Tylenol, but usually by the middle of the following day she forgets to ask for it.

I am really glad that we decided to do this!! The changes in her jaw line and the decrease in her overbite is so startling and we are not even halfway done!! I'm glad that we did not get scared off from doing this by some of the scary stuff we read on line!

Amy

It's Herbst Appliance Time

Well my second daughter hit stage two of her braces two weeks ago. (Stage one was she had to have wear an expander in the roof of her mouth to open up or expand the top jaw. Picture below)




She managed the expander with grace and dignity. Even though her speech sounded a little funny for a while. With the expander you had to put a little key in it and turn it each night. That job fell to my hubby since we have 3 daughters and I help do hair and he can not. Equal opportunity at our household)




Remember the head gears of the past? Well now they says, to fix an overbite "instead" of wearing a lovely head gear (pictured above) you get the privilege of wearing a lovely "herbst appliance" pictured below.








Well, that is a lot if metal inside the mouth! Paige is a trooper. It took 3 visits over 3 weeks to install the appliance. The final visit Paige was all excited to finally get it over with it & I had promised to take her to lunch & a trip to the bookstore. She loves to read. As we left the office we asked her to pose for pictures. Unfortunately when she opened up her mouth wide the appliance locked up for a few seconds and she could not close her mouth. Which did freak her out. Well we proceeded with our day.
I will be honest it took about 3 days before she was able to really adjust to eating and sleeping (she had to change her position of how she slept due to the fact that the metal hinge in her mouth rest between her cheek and teeth). Brushing her teeth takes longer now. However she is back to her regular routine now.




I did keep her out from school the day she got the appliance in & the day afterwards. The third day I sent her but picked her up for lunch, then she had the weekend to get more adjusted before she had to eat 1) in front of her peers but also 2) in the short amount of time allotted for lunch. The only challenges that she deals with now are: slower eatting, she also has to take smaller bites, and I do have to send toothpicks to school in case food gets lodged in her appliance. I swear she has to be the only fifth grade student with a toothpick in her lunchbox.
She has to wear this appliance for a year to correct her overbite. It has not been as bad as an experience ad I feared it would be! When we researched this we read all kinds of horror stories - I was really worried after that. Also we kept reading this is one of the most common used appliance that orthodontist use. However she is the only one we know of (as of right now) at the school who is wearing this appliance. However, you really can not tell she has it when you look at her, only if you get up close and look in her mouth.




After all this, simple plain braces (which are stage 3) will be easy breezy for her.
So that is what is happening in my world. Have any of your kids ever worn braces, expanders, or a herbst appliance?