Almost there...

Hi to all my friends,
Just less than a week and I have my palate expander taken off. I am going to see if they will let my mom video them taking it off. This way I can honestly answer everyone when they ask me i fit hurts to have it taken off. So far, my dentist has said no that it doesn't hurt but you never know so I will be able to let you know for sure.
There is a boy named Lucas who made a nice comment about my blog. He said he has the palate expander and he has braces. Good luck to him! He said that the tools his dentist uses are different than the tools I showed in one of the pictures we took at my dentist. I am sure that every dentist does things differently but my mom says even though they do things different, all the dentists just want all of us to have good teeth.

This weekend I am going to work on a page about the memories of my palate expander. School starts soon so my mom wants me to write a poem about it. We will see.
Have a good day.
your Friend,
Colin :)
P.S. Last week I went to my friend Anthony's party and I got to be in a dunk tank! It was fun!

Happy Saturday :)

Hi Friends,
I just wanted to give you some answers to some of the questions you were asking. My dentist and his assistant were nice enough to email me to let me know the answers to so thank you to them for helping us understand more.
 So, the first question we wanted to get answered was...
Do your cheekbones expand when you get a palate expander?
The answer is yes.
That kind of freaks me out a little but I guess if the palate expander is stretching out your palate then yes, your cheeks will widen a bit but its not like you are going to have an elephant face or anything. I haven't really noticed anything.
#2
One of our readers commented that they have a palate expander that you don't have to turn the key for.
So I asked the dentist about that too and he said...
it is called a QUAD HELIX but it is used for a different kind of bite.
here is a link on youtube that shows the quad helix expander:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9JvE1Npfg8

thank you for reading my blog! good luck wiht your palate expanders....i will write again soon.
have a good weekend.
your friend
Colin

p.s. I've been participating in my local theatre group. here is a picture of me with my drama buddies performing "I'm a Believer" from the Shrek Musical. (i'm in the blue). hey, thats another thing YOU CAN DO WITH A PALATE EXPANDER....haha

Your comments!

Hi Friends,
Thank you to all of you who have been writing to me. I love to read your comments and I try to answer them the best that I can. If I don't know the answer, I send an email to my dentist and within a couple of days I get the answer and will post them then.
So, a couple of things.
One, good luck to GRADY who just a few days ago got both upper and lower palate expanders. I am really proud of you and I am sure all of your fellow palate expander friends are proud of you being so brave with having both the top and the bottom. With me, I only have the top palate expander and to answer your question about when I could eat real food, it took about a week I think to eat regular food. I am sure you love milkshakes but are probably sick of them by now! Who would have thought that someone could be sick of milkshakes! But I know too. Try some soft noodles like spaghetti. Did you do that? My mom made ramen noodles too. Pudding, and things you can just suck down instead of chewing. You will get the hang of getting the food out that gets stuck in your palate expanders too. Your tongue will automatically learn what to do.
So good luck with that.
ANONYMOUS wrote that they have a palate expander where they don't have to turn the key. I am going to email my dentist to find out more about that or ANONYMOUS if you are reading this, can you comment again and tell us more about this kind please?
Another reader was telling us that her daughter has a palate expander and has sores inside her cheeks. If I remember right, my dentist said that if I have sores in my mouth, I should come back in to see him so they can adjust whatever is causing the sores. I didn't have that but I would have the mom call the dentist and get looked it. The palate expander is already a pain, so who wants more pain.
I hope you are all having a good day. I will write again and answer the questions when I hear back from my dentist :).
Your Friend, Colin :)

Once Upon A Time There Were Two Teeth - My Palate Expander Appointment

Hey whats up dudes and dudettes...
Today I had my palate expander appointment. One more until I get this off. The dentist said I have had it on for 6 months. I don't know about that. I think that is right. Anyway, here are the tools the dentist uses to check the palate expander:

they kind of look scary, dont' they, but really they dont' really hurt.

So while we were waiting, my mom noticed that the dentists helper did not take away the spacers they must have taken off another kid on the dentist's chair next to us, so we took pictures of the spacers. See the little blue things?  Those are the spacers. I do't know what the other things are.

Okay, so back to my news. it was a LOOOOOOOONNNNNG appointment. Well because things happened that we didn't expect. Here goes My News.
Today the dentist said that my palate expadner looked great and that I have one more month to wear it. That is good news. Then he said to my mom to look into my mouth. That is when you know there is not good news, when they tell your mother to look at something. So she gets up and looks and he shows her that one of my top teeth is coming in behind my baby teeth in the front and that I will need another appliance to correct that or we can EXTRACT the tooth and since the one next to it is loose, I should have that EXTRACTED TOO!. So in my head I am trying to figure out what "extract" means again and then I remember...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. So, next thing I know, I am in another room, a PRIVATE room. Uh oh. Then they put this thing on my mouth so my mom video'd me. Its sideways but here it is:

Here is a picture of me with the teeth I had before...

Then they have to put this mask on you to make you feel like you are floating in the sky. You can choose your smell from orange, watermelon (I think), grape, bubble gum or strawberry. So I chose strawberry. I have to tell you that I was really scared and really freaking out. Then the dentist stuck me with a needle near my two front teeth (my mom says this is so I wouldn't feel it). At the time I thought it was a long drill and that is what I told my mom afterwards. It took them like 2 seconds to pull out the teeth and then I had to wear the mask for a little while longer while they pumped "clean" air into my lungs so I would stop floating.  Here is a picture of me getting the clean air.

Can you see that I am not looking to happy and I was feeling really tired. It didn't really smell good but when I got a little used to it it was okay. Now I have no old baby teeth in the front but my new tooth is already there. So here comes the next step. I am supposed to take a wooden popsicle stick and bite on it and try to get the tooth to push forward. I have to do it every day for half an hour and IT HURTS so my mom said I didn't have to do it today since I had the teeth taken out but starting tomorrow I ahve to do it. Aah. So the dentist gave us some popsicle sticks to use but my mom asked if it was okay if since I love popsicles and especially fudgesicles, if i could just eat one of those and then take that stick which will taste good and do it that way (this is my mom's way of thinking like she does for her preschool class - always coming up with funny ways to do something and make a kid happy) and the dentist said okay. so I have to do this for a month and then on Augsut 25 I think, I have to come back and get looked at again and have the palate expander taken off which my mom says she will hope to video tape and I told her to turn the camera the right way so you don't have to watch the video sideways!

Have a good day.

Your Friend,

Colin

P.S. If you have written to me as a comment, check where the comment was posted and I usually put my responses right under those so you can see my personal answer to you. bye dudes and dudettes!

P.S.S.

here is a picture of me I had my mom take just now of me with my missing front teeth and also my messy mouth because I was eating a fudgsicle. Yum!







Popcorn

Hi Friends, I hope those of you who are in the very hot areas, are keeping cool and if you happen to be in a cold movie theatre and are at the candy counter wondering what yummy snacks to enjoy while you are watching a movie...DO NOT CHOOSE POPCORN. Oh my! So I didn't really listen very well to my dentist when he told me not eat popcorn while wearing a palate expander, but you can't blame a boy for well, not listening. I didn't listen to my mother or my dentist or the nice lady so I ate popcorn. I love it. I love it. And it smells so good when you go the movie, but guess what? Yesterday I went to the dentist for a cleaning (my palate expander is on Monday) of my teeth and guess what, the hygenist found the popcorn stuck in my palate expander, you knkow in the place in the back where it is attached to your teeth.  So boy oh boy, did I hear about it. She was nice about it but really I have to learn tohold out one more month till I get this off. So, I will try not to eat popcorn, and I am telling you guys don't eat it either, okay. We can be "no popcorn buddies"until we get the palate expander off.

Now this is a message to Shoshana in Israel who is getting her palate expander in a month. She is 9 years old and her mother writes that she has issues with pain. Shoshana, everything will be okay.  All of us are either going through this or have finished going through it. You will be fine. If anybody has any suggestions to help her or others going through this, can you please send me a comment and I will post them. All of us will have the most wonderful teeth when we are done and beuatiful mouths.

Your Friend,
Colin

P.S. Remember, do not eat popcorn. I have to keep telling myself that.

Hello

Hope you are all having a good summer. Here where I live, its very hot and its summertime. I know where some of you are that are reading this, you are in your winter months.
Anyway, I just wanted to let you kow that I have my dentist appointment on Thursday so if you have any questions, please leave your quesitons on the comment section and I will find out the answers for you.
Have a great day.
Your Friend,
Colin

Lessons We Can All Learn About For Our Palate Expanders...from Blog Readers :)

Hi to My Online Friends,
I've gotten some nice and interesting comments so since last week I got a few, I wanted to answer them here and answer some of your questions since I don't have another appointment until I think next week (I forget!).
"Elyse" who is 25 years old used to have a palate expander, then braces, and she didn't wear her retainers. Here is a lesson for all of you after you have your braces (and for me too since I don't even have braces yet!), WEAR YOUR RETAINER, because Elyse had to get a palate expander AGAIN. So thank you for your comments Elyse, because you have taught all of us a very good lesson.
I also heard from "Samantha". Hi Samantha! Samantha is 9 and has braces and a palate expander. Like I said, I don't have enough teeth out to have braces yet like Samantha and Elyse. So, poor Samantha had something wrong with her palate expander where it was digging into the roof of her mouth. If you have any problems with your palate expander, it is important to get to your dentist right away so the problem can be fixed. Thank you to Samantha for reminding us about this. Palate expanders do hurt, but only because of the turning from the key. They shouldn't be poking you or making your mouth bleed or anything like that.
Samantha also said that they temporarily took her palate expander out and that the procedure hurt to take it out. When i asked my dentist about this, he said it should just pop out with the tool he has, but I haven't gotten to this step yet (next month I think!) so I will let you know and possibly video tape it if they will let me!
"Erz" wrote me as well. Hello to Erz! Erz just got the palate expander and is having difficulties talking and eating. As all of us who have had a palate expander, or are still experiencing it, we know a couple of things for sure...
#1...It hurts, my goodness, it really hurts when you turn that key. Yikes! But it gets better in time and you just kind of get used to it (see my older blogs for ideas on how to make the pain a little bit more bearable)
#2...You are not alone...there are thousands of us going through it each day and we understand what you are going through
#3...You will not talk funny forever...it gets better. By the time you get to school, Erz, you will be talking almost normal and no one should notice anything different. Besides, you will not be the only one with one on in school, you can bet on it. These palate expanders are so popular now, my mother says they are like video games, "everyone's got them!" You will speak fine soon, within a month or so...your tongue just has to get used to it being there. I don't even remember half the time that its in there!
#4...I remember my mom freaking out that all she could feed me were noodles and ice cream shakes (not that I thought that was too bad! haha) but I learned how to move the food around and now I can eat anything (but stay away from gum and chewy candy - not good for you anyway!). That took just a little while because I like to eat so I had to teach myself how to do it...see older blogs about that too :)
So, I want to say thank you to all of you for writing and to please continue comment. My mom says its become like a "palate expander family." So isn't it nice, that we are all in a family together, and not alone going through this.
Your Friend,
Colin :)