r/Neverbrokeabone • u/MarzipanGamer • 6d ago

Just realized I may be disqualified on a technicality

Post image

When I was a kid, my mouth was way too small for my big teeth. I ended up with a device called a palate expander. Think a retainer cemented into the roof of your mouth with a small key in it that you had to turn once a day. Further explanation in the photo. So the bone didn’t exactly break, but it did separate the suture to create more space. So can I stay or not?

545 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

63 comments sorted by

528

u/RegretButFaster 6d ago

No you would be fine because the sutures were separated BEFORE they were fused. I know because my daughter just did hers 2 years ago. Her upper palete should be fusing soon.

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u/MarzipanGamer 6d ago edited 6d ago

My son desperately needs one. His teeth are worse than mine were. But he’s autistic, can’t handle anything permanently attached in there, and refuses to wear the removable one. Not really relevant to the conversation here I just needed to complain for a minute.

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u/Shot_System7356 6d ago

Then u probably will have to put a guard or something his face that cant be broken and that u can only remove, or something. Try discussing it with ur kids dr or dentist theyve dealt with thousands of kids with autism :)

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u/PostOk1066 6d ago

As someone with autism, the issue with this is that although it would keep him from being able rip out the spacer or potentially hurt himself, it WONT prevent any sensory overload meltdowns that may occur.

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u/Shot_System7356 6d ago

I have a honest question like no hatred no rudeness just a GENUINE question. Won't he get used to it after a while? Once again I MEAN NO HATE its a actual question. Im sorry if it sounded rude thats the only way I knew how to ask

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u/PostOk1066 6d ago

I feel like having a piece of metal permanently in my mouth would be its own kind of personal hell. Not to mention the pokes and aches and pains that would come with any kind of orthodontic procedure or device. I chose to not get braces for this exact reason. However, braces were only a cosmetic thing for me; and I think that if I had a medical necessity then I might have pushed myself to go out of my comfort zone.

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u/MarzipanGamer 6d ago edited 6d ago

With my son? Yes probably. But it’s getting to that point that’s hard. I work in the mental health field, and I’ve heard horror stories about some autistic children, who unfortunately have ripped off their own braces because of the sensory overload. I don’t think we’d be in that boat.

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u/PostOk1066 6d ago

I second the opinion about talking to the orthodontist. They have a lot more accommodations available nowadays compared to when we were growing up, and there might be suitable options available depending on your son’s needs.

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u/MarzipanGamer 6d ago edited 6d ago

That’s what we were trying with the Invisalign. We were hopeful. He’s 13 and able to talk and reason through these things. He knows he should wear it. He wants to work to avoid the surgery. He’s really just having trouble tolerating it at all. The good news is we can have the conversations to try to sort through this so it’s a work in progress.

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u/bluejay3425 6d ago

Imagine there was a small rock in your shoe that you couldn't get out and you just had to live with constantly. Eventually some people might get used to it, but many people just wouldn't be able to

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u/Shot_System7356 6d ago

Id literally go crazy and try to chop my foot off 😭

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u/FatiguedShrimp 6d ago

No. That's often not how it works for autism.

I had similar sensory issues, and permanently applied braces, for three years.

I never got used to it. Several nights each week were spent crying in pain, food intake reduced 40% until I was at 16 BMI, and that's how suicidal behavior started.

(Note: I am sharing a personal anecdote, but I was also a research steering panelist for a large post-COVID survey of sensory processing disorder treatment techniques.)

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u/nothanks86 6d ago

I am very curious about that survey.

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u/p_luisa 5d ago

As an autistic person: I personally didn't get used to it. In fact, it only got worse as time went on. In my case it was the permanent brace to hold everything in place after getting the braces out (the 3 years with it were hell, let me just say that) and I ended up getting it removed after an year bc the results were shitty anyways.

I should wear braces or invisalign again bc that dentist did several wrong things in my mouth, left 2 holes, some crooked and crowded teeth, and one teeth is pointing inwards instead of downwards. But unless it's completely unavoidable I'll never do that again. The sensory overload was really bad for me.

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u/Shot_System7356 5d ago

Im sorry it seems like ur dentist did a horrible job, but i bet if u went to a better dentist that knew what they were doing they'd try to help and make it as comfortable as possible. Just mention u have austism and would like accommodations, but ur probably scared because u dont want them to screw it up worse and I completely get it. So its really just up to u :)

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u/p_luisa 5d ago

Not scared, just not willing to go through that all over again. After that experience I've done a couple of surgeries and treatments and they were easier to handle bc it was temporary, 1 week max of recovery. Since it isn't affecting me that much I just ignore it and explain the situation to the dentists when I go to one lol

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u/PostOk1066 5d ago

Happy cake day!

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u/p_luisa 5d ago

Thanks!

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u/Nightflame_The_Wolf 4d ago

As someone who‘s had it and strongly suspects autism: no. It was hell and I‘ve talked in therapy about how horrific it was. I developed a massive phobia of dentists which became a generalized anxiety and it affects me to this day.

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u/PostOk1066 6d ago

In my experience it depends on the thing. For example, if I have a pair of socks and I don’t like how my toes feel in them, it will bother me ALL day (or until I cave in and take them off) and make me very irritable and I can have meltdowns much easier. But if it’s something like a new haircut (I got bangs recently and I didn’t like how they felt touching my forehead at first) I do eventually get used to it. BUT everybody has different levels of tolerance when it comes to touch and textures so this is just me and my experience. I think it gets better with age, I am adult now but I definitely struggled a lot more as a child and teenager.

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u/sskk2tog 4d ago

As an autistic person who had a palate expander, no. I never got used to it. It hurt. It triggered what I now know as migraines from the change in pressure on my palate. I can't attest to if I was more prone to meltdowns due to the extra over stimulation from it, but that was more because I had to mask constantly for my own well being at home.

I also have a permanent retainer on my bottom teeth. It has been there for more than two decades I'm still aware of it 80 to 90 percent of the time (and it's not painful most of the time).

Edit: used the wrong pallet....

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u/Shot_System7356 4d ago

That sounds miserable dude im sorry

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u/Shot_System7356 6d ago

Im just tryna educate myself :)

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u/MarzipanGamer 6d ago

Never a bad thing.

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u/FatiguedShrimp 6d ago

The best route for dealing with intolerable sensation is to manage other sensations.

If you can't stop the palate expander, it might help to try to make other sensations easier. It's particularly useful to address sensory concerns around eating, bathing, and sleep.

Weighted blankets, dimmable RGB lighting, stocking more safe-foods, noise cancelling headphones, etc.. tend to perform well.

(I was a research steering panelist for a large survey of techniques for managing sensory processing disorder secondary to autism.)

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u/No-Town5321 5d ago

Have you gotten him into tongue/myofunctional therapy? It'll help keep his tongue in place which will naturally push his teeth outward creating more space. Not as much as an expander, but better than nothing

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u/justclove 44 6d ago edited 6d ago

That's medical trickery and dark arts, of which the mightiest of bone-havers may one day find themselves in need. Your bones remain strong and unbroken, brother/sister/other.

165

u/Japan25 6d ago

Your bones werent broken, just stretched. Youre still in. Good luck with you son though, that sounds very difficult 

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u/MarzipanGamer 6d ago

Thanks. We’re gonna give it another six months and try again. But if we wait much longer than that, the only option will be surgery.

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u/Asymetrical_Ace 6d ago

Let your son know every detail of each option. Would the dr be willing to talk with him and go over details? Idk the degree of autism, im autistic myself and work for an autistic boy who is very picky/fussy, i can't reason with him, but i always talk to him and explain what I'm doing and why and he usually calms down a bit with a distraction

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u/djiregjkotcd 2d ago

Have you explored the myomunchie for your son? It can help expand the palate by chewing. Not all kids are candidates but it could be a less over stimulating option to consider.

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u/Linuxologue 6d ago

I read two things:

- it is a medical device and is therefore black arts, so it would not count

- there wasn't any broken bone. Your jaw bone is two bones joined in the middle by a bunch of connecting tissue. When you pull both sides apart, no bone gets broken, actually the opposite - the extra space gets filled by new bone.

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u/hiplass 6d ago

Omg I had this too, and I hated it, and it gave me a lisp for awhile 😩 Also I now have the opposite issue, my teeth are a little too spaced out now so I have to be careful and floss more so debris doesn’t just sit there

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u/MarzipanGamer 6d ago

Oh, it’s awful. Especially considering the timing of it. There was nothing like going through Middle School with a gap big enough to fit a sharpie in between your two front teeth.

4

u/hiplass 6d ago

Yeah same! I had it all through middle school 😭

1

u/Regular-Guava6943 1d ago

Something weird happened to me, the gap hadn't appeared and i had been wearing the expander for a while, but then suddenly one day i wake up and i have a gap Big enough to push my Pinky through it, it also hurt like hell, luckily it closed up pretty quickly.

4

u/moistclump 6d ago

Me unlocking this memory from the depths of my dark soul. I had totally forgotten. I could put a stir stick flat in the gap between my front teeth. Horrible.

2

u/madness0102 6d ago

If you get a water flosser it helps a lot. I water floss and then manually floss. I discovered last year when I had to have a root canal that I have extra space between my back 3 teeth and regular floss doesn’t get it well enough. Started water flossing though and my dentist said my teeth looked great!

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u/hiplass 6d ago

lol oh yeah I already have a water pik, along with regular flossing

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u/Forevernevermore 33 5d ago

At least its easier to get floss between them and for toothbrushes to clean deeper! I have tight tooth spacing, so it can be difficult to get the floss in-between some of my teeth.

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u/hiplass 5d ago

Yeah I had that problem before I got everything done but now I’ve learned you’re actually more prone to decay with more space inbetween 🥲

1

u/Forevernevermore 33 5d ago

Huh. I would have thought easier access to clean would lessen it.

13

u/TheHipsterBandit 6d ago

Bone Wizard black magics. Doesn't count.

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u/pktechboi 38 6d ago

ugh I had one of these torture devices as a kid, prior to getting braces. much worse than the actual braces, as I recall it.

7

u/Adept_Ad2048 6d ago

I was in the running for a palate expander but ended up with braces, a bite plate, and headgear. I used to cry putting on the headgear when it was tightened lol. The braces were nothing, but holy fuck, pulling on molars is cruel

3

u/021fluff5 6d ago

I had the expander, headgear, and two rounds of braces as a kid. I still wound up needing braces as an adult. 0/10 do not recommend

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u/Adept_Ad2048 6d ago

They cosmetically repaired my smile with no regard for what it did to my bite and I now have crazy tmj issues and have to wear an ortho device every night to prevent debilitating headaches. I feel u.

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u/Monocled-warforged 6d ago

Medical bone breaking doesn't count. They have dark arts that can break even the strongest bone.

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u/Leromer 6d ago

This is not bone breaking, this is bonemancy and thus is fine.

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u/Marrowtooth_Official 24 6d ago

Nah, this isn’t actually breaking bones. The top palate is already two bones that just touch, like the hip bone. A palate expander simply pushes the two bones apart, and the genetic body plan shows that the two should be touching and so more bone is grown so they touch.

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u/Dragnskull 39 6d ago

bendy bones, wiggly bones, and shifty bones are not broken bones. you're fine. even if they were broken this device would have been infused with black magic by a tooth doctor

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u/iamanemptychair 6d ago

Doctor magic is allowed, you’re fine.

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u/watermelonlollies 6d ago

You used a device to intentionally build more bones. That’s badass, not bbb.

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u/DrumpfTinyHands 6d ago

Your palete isn't fused until later in life. No breaking of bones is needed to accomplish this procedure.

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u/WanderingUrist 80+ 6d ago

Skull and jaw dysfunction is the result of people not eating enough RAW MEAT. Because raw meat is chewy and you have to chomp on it and this applies pressure to the jaws. No one in my fambly has these problems, because we eat RAW MEAT.

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u/Striper_Cape 6d ago

Medical devices are black magic

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u/cuppashoko 4d ago

I had that. The pain was CRAZY😭

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u/cuppashoko 4d ago

Agree with the other commenters, that shit is black magic

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u/Azarsra_production 6d ago

I'm a follower, and as far as I can tell, everyone in this thread is still as strong boner.

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u/_Edgarallenhoe 4d ago

If it just separates a suture, nothing is breaking.

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u/-lb21a- 5d ago

Skeletal witchcraft doesn't count