I can now touch the roof of my mouth

On Friday I went to Dr. F and had the palate expander taken out.  I cannot tell you how happy that made me!  The roof of my mouth was so soft and tender, it felt so good to be able to touch it again.

Taking the palate expander out wasn't an easy feat for Dr. F, though it seemed to go fairly smoothly.  It did hurt me though, not so much the teeth that held the palate expander, but Dr. F kept leaning on my front tooth that always hurts and really hurt after having the wire taken out.  I actually had to complain about it, and I usually don't complain unless something really hurts.

Dr. F gave me the option of having my fake tooth put back in, but I would have to come back on Monday afternoon to have it taken out again.  I decided to save myself the trouble of going back on Monday and go without the tooth, I didn't have any real plans this weekend anyway where I would have felt funny without the tooth.  I did ask if it would be back in by the time I went away in September and Dr. F sounded sure it would be.  I do have to wait until Dr. S gives the ok for that though.

After taking out the palate expander Dr. F put new bracket rings on the teeth that were holding the palate expander.  One of those rings feels a little off, I'm not sure if it's the way it sits on the tooth that it feels funny or if it's just hitting my teeth differently making it feel like it's off.

Since Friday my teeth have been quite sore on the top, especially my two front teeth.  When they take the wire out my teeth always feel a little sore and loose, like the teeth are just sorda floating within in the bone and aren't really solid in the bone.  It makes me wonder how different the damon braces system is to the old way and if part of it has to do with them keeping your teeth from setting into the bones, making them easier and quicker to move.

On another note, last weekend the chain that was moving my tooth on the bottom right fell off and I ate it.  I only noticed when I was eating and the tooth felt funny, I looked and the chain was gone.  Grrrr.  Of course it was a Saturday afternoon and the office was closed.  By Sunday morning the tooth had moved back totally.  Grrrr.  Dr. F did not replace the chain on the last visit.

Surgery is Tuesday!

Felling a little better

I went to the Oral Surgeon on Monday afternoon. He said everything looked good and that I don't need to come up for follow up. However, he said to keep my appt that's in 2 weeks so we can work out a date for the bone graft. He did think that late June or early July was quite possible for that surgery.
He asked if I would be interested in a fake tooth with some sort of device that would cover up my hole and prevent fluid from going up my nose. I said yes, and he called Dr. F. He didn't speak to him, but plans to. I was so happy I nearly cried, I felt very cared for by Dr. S. He also anticipates that Dr. F will allow my palate to close up a bit before the surgery and said that my teeth are slanted out a bit, which I hear is common with the Surgically Assisted Rapid Palate Expander.

I asked where he gets the skin from for the palate and he said there is always plenty of skin in the cleft (remember it's two separate pieces of palate that are covered. He cuts that skin strategically so that there is enough for my base of my sinuses/nose and enough for the roof of my mouth. That's kinda what I thought, but now I know for sure.

A gross story, but it's almost funny 2 days later

You have been warned... But I think it's an interesting story if you want to know what it's like to have a palate expander.

I used to go to a place at a local mall that does messages on message tables. I went once after my surgery and with the trouble swallowing and laying on my stomach it was hard to keep the saliva in my mouth for 10 minutes, but I was able to do it. I hadn't been there since the surgery since my face was swollen and stuff and this week I thought I would give it a try, big mistake.

So I go and ask for a 10 minute message. A few minutes in the saliva in my mouth in building up and eventually I end up drooling through the hole in the table. Opps. But I feel a little better. Eventually I try to lift my head a bit to slurp up the saliva and swallow it. Another big mistake. It seemed to have pushed the saliva into my sinuses (not hard to do with the hole in the roof of my mouth.) So now it just dripped out of my nose uncontrollably. It was gross and I totally couldn't stop it. Think of a couple minutes of saliva dripping out of your nose...

I wont be going back there anytime soon, and I wont be getting a message while laying on my stomach either. I wonder if I can do one of those funky chairs?

Full expanded and need a tooth

On Wednesday I went to Dr. F and was done expanding! He put something in the expander so it wouldn't move anymore, took some pictures and an x-ray. He told me I come back in 4 weeks and he'll make me a fake tooth for the gap.

Here's where things kinda went sour and the reason I didn't post this for so long. I asked Dr. F what we were going to do about my not being able to talk. Well, he said I was talking fine and left it at that. I'm not sure if he can do anything, maybe Dr. S made up the thing about the retainer type of thing. But I felt like I was blown off. My speech is fine if you're a 10 year old. But I'm 33 years old and speak to government officials at work. I'm in a position at work where I can't afford misunderstandings. In most cases I can be understood, but it's not uncommon that I have to repeat myself or rephrase things so that people can understand me. I'm quite frustrated with this and am not sure how I'll deal with it for another 3 to 5 months. On top of having issues at work, it doesn't make me want to go out and meet people or go to social events. It's one thing to have speech problems with friends and family, it's another thing when you're with people you don't know. It makes a new social setting even more stressful. I start work again tomorrow, it should be interesting...

If I had known about this I don't know if I would have chosen this route. It's not just about my problems with speech, and at the end I'll probably be happy with everything and all this discomfort and frustration will be forgotten. But the palate expander is quite inconvenient, I have trouble swallowing, eating, taking medication, brushing my teeth. If I knew then what I know now I would have asked a lot more questions and maybe made a different decision. There's a lot of things that weren't in the brochure I got.

Also, I was supposed to get my dental cleaning this coming week, that will have to be put off for 6-8 weeks to avoid getting an infection in my cleft.

Update, including gross stuff

Sorry I've been so quiet lately, I've been meaning to post, but just haven't gotten myself together to do it. I've been healing well and progressing well so all of that is good. I'm not in any real pain. Occasionally, I feel a little sore in the cheeks after expanding, but that's more of an uncomfortable feeling then a pain feeling and it only lasts a little while. I have encountered two problems though... If you don't like gross stuff, don't read past here.

If you look back to months ago where I posted photos of my mouth you can see a light line in the roof of my mouth. That is where my cleft palate was pulled together, closing the hole that was in the roof of my mouth. Think of it as the roof palate being made of two pieces that were pushed together, the crease could always allow liquids to pass through, but it was so tightly fit that it rarely happened. Well what the palate expander is doing is pushing those two pieces of palate apart. Now all those liquids can EASILY (especially if my head isn't upright) pass through to my nose. Food hasn't been a problem though. The good news is that my eating is going better, I'm not back to steaks yet but I'm eating nearly as much food as I was in the past at a meal. It's still softer foods, but it's getting easier to find foods to eat on a menu and I'm not stuck eating the same foods for every meal.

The other problem is with my speech. I'm losing a lot of air through my nose and sound very nasally. I'm having trouble enunciating some sounds, it's very frustrating. To make it even worse I have a tendency to talk fast, which makes me even harder to understand.

Dr. S had mentioned there was the possibility of a retainer type of thing that could be made to help, and I think I need that, A LOT. But it looks like Dr. F will have to make it and I suspect when he makes this it will include a tooth (where the large gap has formed.) I'll ask about that next week when I go to Dr. F for my last expansion on March 17.