This girl got a palette expander inserted into her mouth yesterday. The above picture was her happy face prior to the insertion. She asked a ton of questions of the dental assistant like what tools they’d use, would her tongue get in the way, when would she get her braces….. The assistant was great about answering all of them. Ri seemed relaxed and unconcerned about the procedure. She has expressed some worry the night before; she had heard from friends that it hurt. But she seemed calm and collected with me as she sat in the chair playing with her molds.
She showed me what her cross bite looked like and how the palette would help correct it. She knew more than Jon or I did.
The assistant took out her spacers and noticed two were missing. She became worried that the palette expander would not fit her because the space had not opened up between her teeth. Ri looked dejected.
“You mean I may not get my expander today?”
The assistant told her she’d give it a try and low and behold, with a little pushing and prying, they fit. The palette expander on the top covers most of the roof of her tiny mouth. The bottom is just a wire behind her teeth. The assistant told her that she’d have to take it out in order to put glue on it to keep it firm in her mouth. Ri pleaded “will you put it back in today?”
She was relieved to hear the assistant say yes.
And so the glue was spread on the expander and re-inserted in her mouth. She didn’t cry or flinch or scream once (meanwhile there was one little girl wailing in the next room – poor thing). Here are the after shots.

My machine. She is unbelievable. Here I was fretting about having to cancel meetings in the afternoon because I thought she’d be hurting and beg to stay home but I should have known that would not be the case. I should have known that she’d crank it out like she always does with everything. She is my trooper-girl.
She sounds hilarious when she talks because she’s not used to the expander yet. She sounds like a two year old. But does she care? Not at all. She laughs it off and after trying to pronounce a word correctly for the tenth time, finally does. She pats herself on the back and smiles at me. Then tries another.
I adore this girl.