Ep: 344: "What It’s Really Like to Wear Expanders — Hallie & Her Daughters Spill the Truth!"

Okay, Mia, your turn. You have your bottom Invisalign. It's been in since the beginning. How do you feel like that's going for you?

It's fine because when I switch to the next one, it's just a little tight. At first I didn't take it out to eat, and then it would get all, like, yellow. I had my Invisalign case in my backpack because I had. I had forgot to put it back in after snack. And when I looked in my backpack, I couldn't find the case. And I was like, oh, my God.

Hello, friends. And say, hi, girls. Hey, it's Holly. Me and Mia. Mia here. And this is episode 344 of the Untethered podcast. And we are coming to you with an update on the girls expanders. They came out an update on my merpy, so let's dive in. Welcome to the Untethered podcast.

I am your host, Hallie Balkan. I'm a certified myofunctional therapist, feeding specialist, podcaster, business owner, and mentor. This podcast is all about getting your questions answered and collaborating with colleagues to bring you the most up to date information in the orofacial myofunctional therapy, airway, tetheral tissue, and pediatric feeding therapy space. If you're new here, I challenge you to keep an open mind and join my mission to spread this message far and wide.

If you've been around since June 2019.

Thanks for being a loyal listener. As we jump into today's episode, remember to listen with correct oral rest posture. Tongue up, lips closed, teeth apart, breathe through your nose. Let's get started.

Okay, so both girls just had their fixed expanders out, and that was really exciting, right? With Dr. Koval. Now you guys are. So you've been doing Invisalign on the bottom. You had a fixed expander on top, and now you're waiting to get your fixed expander through the top, which will be in next week to about. Well, actually seven days. Seven days, I think, until they're in because we're going next Wednesday. So you guys both have your bottom and liners. We're getting the top all exc. Now, we thought it would be really fun to share what this process has kind of looked like from expanders to clear aligners. And then, like I said, I'll give an update on my marquis journey. So let's jump in. Mia or Mia, I'm looking at you, Lily, and calling you Mia. Lily, tell everybody. Just remind them. How old are you?

I'm 10 years.

You're 10 and Mia, how about you?

Seven.

Seven. Okay. So I'm gonna ask you, Lily, first. What did it feel like when you first got your expander put in? Do you remember?

It felt like, sore and, like, tight. Because they basically, like, imagine what it would be like. Just like. I mean, it's really, like, skinny, like the part that fits between your teeth, but it feels like a lot. Even though it's like a thin piece of metal. It just like. And once you get it out, it feels like. Like it feels really weird because, like, you're not used to it.

And like, what part felt weird when you got it out?

When you touch the top. The top of your palette, it, like, tickled and it was like. It like it was only for like a few, like, not a few minutes.

Few days, actually. A few days you guys were complaining that it felt very like. Cuz it was more sensitive for your tongue to touch the roof of your mouth. Cuz it really hadn't been up there. Right.

There was also some, like, cut. So it, like, stung when we ate certain foods. Like, we had brisket left over from.

What was it, Yom Kippur or Shoshana or something.

We had brisket left over from Shoshana. And it like, it like stung also things with like, acid, like strawberries and oranges. Yeah, because we have like.

It was like that made a. Yeah, because, like, your palette just gets a little bit scraped, maybe as it's coming out. But it's also, in certain places, was used to having the expander sit up against the palette. And so I think in those areas where the expander came out, it wasn't that it was like, cut. It was just the skin was really sensitive because it hadn't had anything but that expander touch it for like six months. Months, right? Yeah. So, Mia, how about you? Do you remember what it felt like when you first got your expander put in?

It hurt. And it felt like.

Like it hurt. Like it was really painful or it was sore or what? What does that mean?

Like, it felt like there was something in my mouth that I couldn't take out. So it felt like there was like no room in my mouth.

And then how about when you got it taken out?

It felt so nice and felt like someone took the top of my mouth out.

Okay. So, Lily, was it really weird when to talk when you first got it and then think about when you got it out? Did that make it easier? Was it harder to talk again? What do you think?

Well, at first, I mean, I don't really remember, but I Think it was, like, a little bit difficult to talk. But, like, when I talked, like, I got used to it so quickly. Like, only the other people around me noticed the difference in how I talk. Just, like, how yours is.

How mine is. Yeah. What about when you got it taken out?

I actually noticed the difference when it got taken out.

Like, meaning it was harder to talk. Easier.

Easier.

Easier. Okay. Mia, how about you?

It didn't really make a difference about, like, some sound different. Like, things I was able to like. Like.

Like certain words, but still easy to say. Were there any words of sounds that you feel like were harder to say even if you can't remember what they were?

Like, it felt like I could say things that I couldn't say.

Oh, when it came out. Yeah, got it. So it was harder to say it when the appliance was in. I agree with that. You know why? Because there's not as much room for your tongue. So I find my tongue, like, hitting against my appliance trying to say something, and sometimes it stops it, and then it sounds, like, a little funny to me. What's up, Lil?

I also want to, like, say how, like.

Maybe it'll come back to you. All right. Did anything, like, do any funny stories? Oh, what?

How, like, you. You, like, can't, like, suction your tongue, right?

Because it is blocking your tongue from suctioning to your palate when you have.

It in there or doing. What are these called?

Like, the tongue clicks? Yeah.

You couldn't do tongue clicks or suctioning.

But now you can. So here's the crazy part. Okay, so part of my update, which I'll share now, is I got the arms taken off, so the part that was actually physically touching my teeth was cut off, and, like, the metal going around my teeth was taken out. And there's only. The marpi is only now in the center of my palate, holding the. The expansion while the cell regrowth happens down the center of my palate. So it felt really weird when that first happened because, again, there was some sensitivity. But after that went away, what I noticed was I can now suction my tongue to my palate. There's nothing blocking, and I can click. There's nothing blocking my tongue from, like, doing that. It's harder. It's not as easy as if the appliance wasn't up there, but I'm able to do it because there's no longer anything. Like, there's. There's space between the appliance and my teeth around the edge of my. My palette, which Is pretty cool. Okay, let me think about what else I can ask you guys. So what is your most favorite part of not having the appliance anymore?

We don't have to, like, pick food out. Especially, like, sometimes, like, when some, like, stuff like bacon. Like, sometimes it hurts when it gets. Oh, yeah, sometimes things hurt.

Mia, do you have a favorite thing? Like, number one, what's your favorite thing? Hold on.

Eating gummies and popcorn.

I was waiting for that answer, especially because a Swedish gummy store actually, well, candy stores opened up in Boca recently. One of them is Go Yummy, which is, like, a Swedish candy store. And so you guys were able to go and get candy and eat it because you didn't have your fixed appliances.

Sugar high.

Oh, sugar high. Yeah. Was there something else you wanted to say about the best thing about not having it anymore?

It feels like my tongue has so much more room to, like, move around.

Do you miss it?

Not at all. I mean, sometimes I, like, stuck my tongue into, like, the side parts and. And, like, it was kind of, like, a habit of doing it, kind of. Because I, like.

So you have nothing to play with other anymore, so became like, a little fidget toy. That is funny. So for anyone listening who's not familiar, expanders help create more room in the upper jaw. It's not just to, like, move your teeth, but to actually create room for your teeth, but also for the tongue and to open your airway. And so they can make a big difference in how you breathe, how you sleep, your facial development, especially when you start them young in kids. You're not a lost cause if you're an adult like me, but. All right, so, Lily, I have a question. You've had your invisalign.

What? Expansion? Like, I was like. I had, like. I don't want to say stuffy, because my nose wasn't stuffy, but I had, like. It also wasn't running. Like, I had, like, just, like, congestion. It was. No, but I wasn't congest. Like, I feel like after getting the appliance out, like, when I got, like, a cold, like, I wasn't congested. Like, like, the snot. I wasn't, like, congested. I was like. Like, it felt like. It felt like. Like it wasn't, like, hard to blow my nose. Like, when I blew my nose, something always came out. And it wasn't like that before. I had expansion because my nose was always stuffed up when I got, like, cold.

So it's. It's making things flow through your airway more.

Yeah.

Okay, hold on. My Turn. So I want to ask about Invisalign a little bit. And we're not gonna. This is gonna be a super short episode, so I'm only gonna ask you one answer each. No long stories. Okay. We're going to do, like, rapid fire. Do you know what that means? Like, I ask a question, you answer quick. You answer quick. Move to the next one. Okay, so for Lily, you've had your Invisalign for a little while now. How does it feel compared to your expander? I know you have only had the bottom one, but you're not even on top of the top one yet.

Like, I like it better because I'm able to, like, take it out, and I've also learned how to take it out with my tongue. Tongue is pretty strong because I used to do Maya.

Okay, so was it tricky to learn how to put them. How to put it in and take it out, or was it pretty Invisalign?

No, you just pop it on and pop it on.

All right. Do you notice any pressure or tightness when you switch to a new set? Like, every week you switch to a new one?

It actually depends. Cause, like, it, like, how much I was in. I was wearing my Invisalign before, which I'm pretty good about. But sometimes I, like, miss a day, which is very rare. Like, if we're really.

Sometimes you take. You don't miss a whole day. Sometimes you'll take it out and, like, leave it on the counter. And then, like, at dinner, I'm like, lily, you don't have your appliance in. And then you'll put.

Picture a.

Put it back in. Right. Oh, sorry. You're Invisalign. Okay. And how is talking and eating with the Invisalign, specifically? Oh, I don't.

I take it out when I.

And technically, Dr. Cabal said you can eat with them in. So, like, kids who are in school, parents are worried. Like, you can actually leave the Invisalign expanders in your mouth, and they are expansion appliances that they're using. It's not just, like, for straight teeth. It's actually to, you know, basically put the teeth where we want them, but you can technically eat with them in. But both of you take that out at school, right? Yeah. Okay, Mia, your turn. You have your bottom Invisalign. It's been in since the beginning. How do you feel like that's going for you? Does that bother you? Do you like it? Is it, like, what are your thoughts?

It's fine. Because when I switch to the next One. It's just a little tight. Cuz it's just like a little.

I think, like, it's shifting it a little bit more, right? Like little by little. It keeps shifting things every week. Yeah.

And it's. And at first I didn't take it out to eat, and then it would get all like, yellowish and gross.

Especially when you ate curry with it in. And then it dyed it yellow that one time.

Remember that?

That was so fun. Okay, Mia, are you excited to get your top aligner next week? You are? Okay. Is it. Do you think that the Invisalign is easier or harder than the expander or like kind of the same easier because.

I can take it out and like, if stuff gets like, stuck in it, I just take it out and like, use my finger. Like, clean it out, right?

Yeah. What's the funniest thing about wearing them? Do you have any funny stories or. Not really.

Once, like, when I was about to say something, I forgot my Invisalign was like. Because I was playing around with it in my mouth.

I was like, you had Upside down. Wow, that is very impressive that you can just use your mouth to flip it over and turn it all the way around and put it back on.

On.

Lily is now showing us how she does that as well. All right, Lily, you have a funny story to share real quick. All right, go for it.

So once I was in school and I had my Invisalign case in my backpack because I had. I had forgot to put it back in after snap. And when I looked in my backpack, I couldn't find the case. And I was like, oh, my God. I had one of my friends take me to go look for it. And we like, retraced our steps all the way back to my classroom. And then we were like. When I came back, I was like, I couldn't find it. And then I looked, I double checked my backpack and I guess I just didn't look hard enough because it was right there with my Invisalign in the case.

I'm so glad you found it because we've had. We definitely lost a couple. Or like, not like lost lost. Like we knew where it was. Like left it next door at the neighbor's house because they had a snack and they left it on the plate. And they would tendency here to leave it on their plate. Or like last night, Mia putters in her salad. When she was done eating, it was still sitting in her salad on the kitchen table. And that was like, girlfriend. Like, why is it like anybody else would like, dump out, like, what you're done eating and not realize that there is a clear Invisalign sitting in your salad. So. But I know to look for these things, so. Hey, everybody, if your children are wearing Invisalign, make sure they have a case or a designated bowl or a place to put it. Like, we're in a restaurant. I never let them put it on the plate. I'll have them wrap it in, like, a disposable napkin. I'll put it in my purse. We don't have a case with us because I know if it ends up on the plate, it's going to get picked up and carried away. I have a funny story about my clear liner. So I don't have Invisalign. I have memory clear aligners. They are different. I'm only wearing my lower right now because if I wear my lower and my upper with the Murphy while speaking on a podcast, I'm super clear. But I realized that I can have my lower end and I'm still semi clear, so we're rolling with it. So, anyways, I went to the spa a couple of weekends ago with a couple other, like, business, like, owner, owner, moms, and I realized I showered and I had a robe, and I had put my Invisalign in the road pocket when I was having a snack. And I put up the robe and I put it, like, I put it in the area where you, like, put the dirty robes. And then, like, I got undressed, and like, five minutes later, I was like, oh, my gosh. I put my Invisalign in the robe. Like, oh, my goodness. And so I went and, like, leaned over and took it out. There were no other robes in there. It was only mine. So I took it out and I put my hands in the pocket, and sure enough, there it was. And I was like, well, I guess with my kids, I like. My kids, I feel like, are better about this than I am. Although you guys have both lost one, so. And I didn't lose it. I found it. Thank goodness I remembered it. Anyways, one of the things that we have learned is if you lose it, you can always go back to the prior tray. Or depending on how far you are into the week, you can go forward to the next tray. So that's just what we've done. Sometimes we really haven't, like, missed a beat there. And sometimes we end up just, like, wearing that tray a little bit longer for a couple extra days because it replaced the one that was lost. And we were close to replacing it for the next week anyways. But anyhow. All right, so since everyone's kind of asking about an update on my appliance, I'm going to give you a super, super quick update before we wrap this up. So, yes, I'm still wearing my marpi, which stands for Mini Assisted Rapid Paddle. Mini Mini Screw Assisted Rapid Paddle Expander. Some people say micro implant, but usually I see mini Screw assisted. And basically I have six screws that are screwed into the appliance, into my palate. The arms, as I mentioned, that were attached to my teeth have been. So it's much more comfortable now. Things don't get stuck as easily. And if they do, they're much easier to get unstuck from the appliance. But that center part is still up there with the six screws in place. And so that's helping to stabilize everything. As the bone in my palate, like the regrowth happens, the cells grow and everything sets. And so I have to wait for that midline suture to fully fuse before, you know, we'll have those lasting airway and skeletal changes. And then, you know, the Marcy can be taken out. I'm also in, as I mentioned, the memory clear aligners on top and on bottom. So I'm one week and a couple of days into those. I have worn a lower, a lower clear liner for as long as I've had my Murphy in. But when the arms came off, they redid all of the imaging and itero scan and then created an upper aligner. And so now I'm going week to week. And so like I'm on week two of my upper and lower aligners that come together in a little set since we're doing upper and lower now. And so I'm way further in like week wise for as far as like the lower expander goes, but with the aligners. But for all intents and purposes, we'll say week two that I've had now upper and lower. And so what happens is when I actually put these in my mouth, it's different than Invisalign. I have to run them under warm water so they soften. And then I put them in my mouth over my teeth and it then like shapes around my teeth and the clear aligner has this like memory built into it. I don't understand all the science and tech and everything, but they're really cool. They reshape and that then it, it guides, that's what guides the expansion, which is really cool. So anyways, they remember where they're Supposed to be where they're supposed to move your teeth. And so it's slowly, slowly closing my gap. I actually don't have the hairliner on the top right now, but when I have it in, my gap actually looks like much, much smaller just because of, like, the plastic. So that's pretty wild. And so I can, you know, it's slowly closing the gap between my two front teeth during, you know, and it's also going to help, like, line up my bite properly, which is the big part. And, like, we have probably another year and a half of this, to be honest with you. But I can already feel a difference. I'm breathing better, I'm sleeping better. It's wild. It's why I don't have any pain in my tmj. My lower jaw, my mandible is not deviating like it used to when I speak. It also, when I open it wide, only deviates slightly instead of, like, majorly like it was before. It was much more significant. And so it's really wild to see this kind of a change as an adult, which is really exciting. But so the girls and I are basically going through our airway journeys together, which is super fun and super cool. And so, you know, if you guys were going to. Let's wrap this up. Like, if we were going to give any tips to anybody, do you have any tips or advice that you would give to another kid who is about to get an expander?

Lily, if you use a water pick.

To get your feet up, highly recommend.

Level 2 or Level 3 is probably best level to put it on because level one, some food is loose, but maybe start with level two. Yeah. Like, to get used to it because.

It feels a little funny.

Yeah. Because level two and level three are pretty strong.

Okay, Mia, so do you want to give us a good tip for, like, cleaning your Invisalign or remembering to wear it or some other type of advice for somebody?

Like, when do you first get it? Like, eat applesauce and, like, yogurt and stuff like that.

Soft foods. Right. While you're adjusting to it because it's. You're sore and it's hard to chew and everything gets stuck and you're like, get it out, Lily.

I recommend taking an Invisalign case everywhere because it's way easier than putting it in napkins or putting your Invisalign on a plate or a placemat.

Totally. Mia.

Like, when you get used to the expander, it will feel like sometimes it might feel like it's not there. Yeah.

Oh, you'd forget it's in your mouth. Yeah, that's great. I think everyone looks forward to that part.

Definitely the part in the middle where you turn it. There's like, this sharp thing on it. So, like. Like, don't touch it with your tongue because it will, like.

Do you mean, like, like on a metal piece that, like, turns in the middle? Got it. Interesting. Okay. I love hearing what you guys have to share. This is just a reminder that, like, with the right support and team, kids can handle these treatments so, so well. You guys did amazing with them. You're still doing amazing. And it's not just about straight teeth. It's about breathing, sleeping, and growing healthy. So we're going to start to wrap up so you guys can each share one last thing. Mia, what would you like to share?

Well, I was going to say if you wore the top. And what do you sound like this possible.

That kind of sounds like stitch a little bit. Was that your goal, Lily? All right, well, Wally. Okay.

Okay. It actually doesn't hurt when they're playing the clients in or taking it out. It just, like, when they're taking it out, it might feel uncomfortable because they're, like, picking at your teeth with, like, this.

Well, they have to, like, get. It's, like, superior to your teeth. Right. So they have to, like, break it.

And when you're. When they're putting it in, it's really not that bad. They're just, like, pushing it up into your teeth, which might take a few minutes. It might feel tight, but it actually does look amazing.

Mia, last thing.

So when they're putting it in, it might taste bad because, like, they use this really. This, like, glue that tastes weird.

True. Just be aware.

Yeah, yeah. Oh, so would you say carnival?

Anyways, I am so proud of both of you. You both have handled your whole expansion process. I mean, Lily, it's the third time you've been in expansion. This is the second time you've been an expansion. We've handled your expanders, your invisalign, all the appointments like champs. You guys are like, the best. The best patients. So thank you guys for sharing your experience today with our listeners. I think it's really going to help other families know what to expect. I think it helps when other kids can also. What you guys have to share. And to our listeners, thank you for tuning into this special family update. If you're curious about airway health expanders, clear aligners for kids, we hope this gives you a little peek behind the scenes, you know, of what the process looks like in real life. As always, if you guys have questions. Whether you have questions, your kids have questions, you can always DM me @AllieBulcken on Instagram. I'm happy to answer the questions in DM or on stories or even do a podcast episode. So don't be shy. Reach out. Let me know what questions you have about this, especially if you're considering it for yourself or your child and you're just like, I have so many questions, I don't know where to go. You're not the only one, and I'm always happy to to share more if there's other things you want to know. So that's how we've got this was Halle and signing off. Bye guys.

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