Improvement!!!

  The last couple days, I have been eating way better than the first day. I even ate a burrito... Well, not with the tortilla... The tortilla kept on getting stuck to the roof of my mouth, so I had to just eat the beans and cheese with a spoon. Then I threw the tortilla away. How nice of me...

 Having the expander turned only hurts for a little bit. It just feels very tight. My mom gave me some ibuprofen to stop the pain. She did it before hand, to let the medicine settle.

 I played with some friends and told them that I might sound kind of funny, and that I had this device in my mouth. They didn't seem to care for the rest of the day.
                                                                                                         See how so many people you know don't care about those kind of things?! That's a true friend.

Oh, by the way, my orthodontist has a pumpkin making contest every year! These are all of the pumpkins. Q: Can you guess which one I picked to vote on?!  

      

A: I picked the penguin!!!

The First Time Turning the Key at Home!

 I drooled all in my sleep and woke up several times because of the wet pillow. THAT WAS NOT A FUN NIGHT. But I did get some sleep.

 When I woke up in the morning, I was hungry, so I decided to get a snack. When I went downstairs, I remembered, OH, yeah... I still have that in. DERP! So, I decided to try something new. I tried a Nutri-grain bar because they are very soft and slightly chewy. I chewed with my two front teeth and then pushed it with my tongue to the back of my throat and swallowed. Some of it got stuck in my expander and I pushed it out with my tongue. I started from the back and tried to push, then I grabbed it at the front and pulled it forward. Or, you could just drink a sip of water and swish it around in your mouth, then swallow.

 The next thing I tried to eat was some soft food that the orthodontist had given me in a bag. It was a cookie. It was yummy! Then after that, I had my capri-sun that they had also given me. I ate the cookie very slowly and took small bites. That helped me a lot. The capri-sun was easy because I had already learned how to swallow the day before.

 My speech is improving, though. I still have a lot of trouble with my E's. Like when I say queen, I say quin instead.

 The next thing I did was play with my friend. I told her and her mom that I sound pretty bad. They really didn't seem to care. They are really good friends! I am on Fall-Break for this whole week an I'm glad, because it would be hard to have to adjust to the expander at school...at least on the first day. If you are getting a palate expander, make sure your mom/guardian lets you stay home for the first day.

 Today my mom turned the key and it HURT!!! Well, it didn't hurt TOO badly, but it did hurt for a little bit. My mom gave me ibuprofen to soothe the pain and it stopped hurting after about 3 minutes. She had to lay me down on the stairs for her to get a better angle.  Glad that's over!!!

It's Time!!!

<------ Attractive, Right?! Not...

  I just got this in today! I was very scared about this whole situation. This is what it looks like and where it goes, as you can see. 

 I was in the waiting room, scared to death and I felt like I had butterflies in my stomach. They called my name. I went into the room and saw the chair that I was supposed to sit in. They had me sit in the chair and lean back. The lady took my spacers out and tried on my expander to see if it fit on my teeth. She had to adjust it a little bit to make it fit right. Then the orthodontist took a look at the fit of my palate expander. It fit wonderfully. Then the lady took it out again and this time she grabbed the cement and told me how bad it would taste and I was feeling JUST GREAT. She sprayed the cement into my back molars and you should have seen my face when I accidentally tasted it. Boy, did that taste gross! Then she put the palate expander into the top of my mouth and a wire to go across the bottom of my mouth. Then I had to go wash my mouth out afterwards. Then she showed my mom how to turn this key thingy-ma-jig in my palate expander. Then, we went home. 

I had a VERY HARD time swallowing and talking. I cried a lot when I couldn't swallow. I also had a lot of spit coming out of my mouth because my mouth was still getting used to it. The orthodontist says it can take 24 hours for your salivary glands to stop going crazy. My mom and I played some games and watched a movie to get my mind off of the horrible subject. It took a lot of practice to learn how to swallow for the first 24 hours. Eventually I was able to drink a smoothie and eat chicken noodle soup and applesauce.

The sides of my cheeks hurt for a while and were annoyed by the brackets on my molars.

What really helped me through it was the fact that there was another blogger out there who is named Colin. He helped me realize how you're not the only one out there who is trying to go through this.

So, if you have a palate expander, just be sure not to give up on the first day. Say, "I will conquer this device. I will not let it conquer me!"
 
 

This is a bag that they sent home containing all the stuff that I might need.

This is what was in that bag sent home.  As you can see, they gave me toothpaste, wax (for putting on the brackets so they don't hurt my cheeks), floss threaders for when I get my braces, floss, a baby chapstick, a little brush thingy-ma-jig for cleaning out my expander, and a toothbrush.  I already have an electric toothbrush.

This is the weird key thingy-ma-jig.  My mom sticks the pointy end into a little hole in my expander and turns it to make it expand.

This is called a sand dollar. I earn it by wearing this T-shirt to the orthodontist and having clean teeth.  If I collect enough sand dollars, I can earn prizes like pizza and movie tickets.

This would be the free T-shirt. They had a lot of different ones to choose from.

Getting Impressions...

We just got home from the orthodontist and they took impressions of my teeth! Okay, so they had me pick a flavor, I picked orange, and they made up this weird mixture of this thingy that looks like bubblegum. They took my spacers out. Then they filled this weird plate thing that looks like a horseshoe. They stuck it into the bottom of my mouth first. I couldn't swallow for a very long time. I had to wait for the stuff to harden for them to pull it out. THEN, they did my top... This time my mouth got dry and I longed to swallow very badly. But I couldn't. I was VERY happy when they took it out. The lady that that helped me was very nice about it.

 She had to give me a plastic bag for me to spit out the little pieces that got stuck to my tongue. Then I had to wash my mouth out with water at the brushing station. One good thing is that I got to have frozen yogurt when it was over. It was chocolate-mint flavored. The orthodontist has his own frozen yogurt machine in his office to help soothe the patients' mouths. 

I go back on Monday to get my palate expander put in! I cannot explain in words how nervous I am...
 

Day 1

Hi! My name is Caralie. I am a ten year old girl living in Arizona. I am in the 5th grade.

 I just got home from my orthodontist meeting from getting my spacers in to make room for my yet to come PALATE EXPANDER!!! I am also going to get braces at some point... A palate expander is a device that goes into the top of your mouth and stretches it out to make room for all of your teeth to come in. I felt kind of overwhelmed about this whole situation.

 For those of you that don't know what spacers are, they are four plastic rings that go in between the molars. They floss these into my teeth. It feels like there's something stuck in my teeth, like meat or broccoli or a popcorn kernel. Yuck!  These are what spacers look like:

The orthodontist also sent me home with a booklet about what it's like to have braces:

 The booklet says that you can't eat hard foods like peanuts and sticky stuff like taffy and toffee. You need to keep your teeth really clean If you do carefully eat that type of food. 
Sucky...