Broke My Appliance :(

YUP. This happened. Lovely.

I'm honestly not even sure how this happened (but I do have a hunch of why it happened and may explain it in a later post). One day last week I was at a friend's house staying the night, as we were working together on our college work. I went into her bathroom to clean my appliance before bed, and I heard a small click on the floor. The little bit on the front had fallen to the floor.

I had a WTF?!?!?!! moment.

It was midnight in Ireland but 2 PM where my dentist is, and I called him straight away. He asked me to email him pictures, describe if there was any wiggling on the intact piece, and then he'd get back to me with what to do.

I had told him there was absolutely no wiggling on the intact, jaw-widening part of the appliance. There was what appeared to be a small chip on the end of the small piece, which is why I'm assuming it fell off.

After a few days he advised me to continue on as normal with the widening bit, until I see him at home in three months and he will then fix the appliance (or order me a new one?)... and also start me on the lower appliance as well to get my lower teeth moving, as well.


Well, I also had told him that to "play catch up" I had moved my appliance a full turn instead of the half turn a week. He advised against continuing this, because he said since he is not here to monitor my changes properly, he wants to go slow. Also, he said that if I go slow the end outcome would be better. He also said that if I go to fast without him, my bite will experience problems.

So this means I'm back at a half turn a week. I'm now at 9 turns, which at one full turn the jaw is meant to expand .25 mm. I guess that means my jaw has expanded 2.25 millimeters in the 5 months I've had the appliance.   That 2.25 millimeters can be seen in the picture above, as the space in between the two pieces that is now there wasn't when I began treatment. 

(In my last post I mentioned how I lost 6 weeks of wear since I received my appliance in September. So although I've had the appliance for 5 months, I've only gotten 3.5 months of wear out of it.) 

So at this rate, I should be near 5 millimeters of expansion by the time I see my dentist in May. I hope he is happy with what he sees. :)