Palatal Expanders

Board-Certified Specialists in Orthodontics and Pediatric Dentistry

located at: 12314 Potranco Rd, San Antonio, TX 78253.

One of the benefits of using orthodontic treatment for children is that we can use your child’s inherent growth to correct or even prevent malocclusions (“bad bites”). One appliance we use to help make this happen is a palatal expander.

Palatal expanders slowly make more space inside a child’s mouth by widening the upper jaw. This sounds frightening, but it’s quite mild and simple. The reason is that the upper jaw grows as two halves that don’t quite join until puberty. Until they join, we can carefully pry them apart and maintain that for several months.

There are three general reasons that we use maxillary expansion:

Crossbite — If the upper jaw is small, the rear upper teeth will bite into the lower teeth. This is righted by expanding the upper jaw.

Crowding — Even when not all permanent teeth erupt, we can generally anticipate there won’t be sufficient room for them. Expansion of the jaw early in life prevents teeth from needing to be pulled later.

Impacted Teeth — If one of the teeth has not yet erupted and is being blocked by others, it can be widened to erupt to its rightful position naturally. This is usually the case with canine or eye teeth, the sharp ones found below the eyes.

Expanding the top jaw also has other benefits: it can widen your child’s smile and make it more attractive, reduce the number of teeth that need to be removed, improve breathing, and even shorten the time your child needs to wear braces. And it can shorten overall orthodontic treatment time (the amount of time your child will need to wear braces).

How Expanders Work

An expander is tailor-made to fit your child and rests on several upper back teeth. It has two halves joined in the middle by a screw. To make it work, you’ll turn the screw a tiny amount each day using a special key. This creates gentle pressure between the two bones, slowly moving them apart. Once we’ve made the needed changes, the appliance stays in place for a few more months so new bone can grow and the jaw can stabilize. Most kids wear their expander for about 3 to 6 months total.

What to expect

Your child will feel pressure or discomfort for a few minutes after turning the key, but it’s often not as painful as tightening braces. Speaking and eating may initially feel different as the tongue adapts to the new appliance. You might notice a small gap between the front teeth, reassuring confirmation that the expander is working. Soon enough, your child’s permanent teeth will have just the right spacing—neither crowded nor spread.