Day 30: Suture Has Split! And Pics.

Today at my orthodontic appointment, my ortho confirmed that my suture has split. It was on the evening of day 22 that I thought I heard/felt my suture split. In the next few days I felt like my molars no longer met each other the same way, and the turns were easier. By day 28 I had serious pain around my MSE and it felt like it was digging into my mucosa on the left side. I wondered if the expander was flexing or slipping and that what I thought was bone expansion was just the expander bending and my molars tipping. I didn’t turn my expander yesterday because the pain was too much, I took painkillers to fall asleep and painkillers again today.

When my orthodontist saw my mouth she immediately said it was infected, and that it looked like real expansion was happening. She said my face looked wider. She was expecting more expansion, but oh well. We did occlusal x-rays that confirmed there was a split. Later this afternoon I’ll go back for a cleaning on the infected area. I should have kept my mouth cleaner. She said salt water rinses work way better than mouthwash, and I had been using mouthwash.

Frontal X-ray: very small gap in mid-palatal suture, not yet evident in teeth.

There is not yet a visible diastema in my teeth. My front four upper teeth are flared a bit and very tight, I wonder if they are slightly rearranging themselves as the gap opens up. I feel rather giddy about getting to the point where I know the expansion is working, even if it is happening slowly.

Occlusal X-ray: visible emerging gap in mid-palatal suture

The infected site: look at the back two screws, especially the right back (my left). Nasty, open sores.