Stalemate: Braces vs The Expander!

[ (April 14th, 2013)  (60 days post surgery, 20 days since full expansion, 34 days post braces) ]

I know I know, it has been over a month since I posted.  Life has been busy, I'm lazy, [enter more excuses here], blah blah blah, etc.

Anyway, I stopped turning the expander on March 25th (40 days post surgery, 35 days after starting to turn expander) after a whopping 58 turns!  Fifteen of the turns came after the braces were put on my top row of teeth. 

My last orthodontist appointment was on March 25th.  They said that I may have overexpanded my palate.  They told me not to worry because most of the time, the palate will retract a little bit.  They locked the expander in place and said it would have to stay in my mouth for about 6 months.  This will give the palate time to fuse back together.  They said it will take 2 - 3 months for the gap to close.  My next appointment is 8 days from now (April 22nd.)

March 25th was also the last check in with the oral surgeon.  He said everything was going great and I didn't need to see him again unless the orthodontist decided I needed lower jaw surgery after my braces come off. 

After the turning stopped, the gap has been s    l    o    w    l    y closing which I'm not too happy with.  I figured the braces would turn it up a notch but not so much.  Living with the gap is annoying as you can imagine but I keep telling myself it's going to be worth it in the end.  My teeth are becoming less sensitive to the point where crunchy stuff is tolerable.  The problem with that is, I'm not supposed to eat crunchy stuff because it could damage the braces (awesome timing!)  Here's some pics.



March 18th (Fifty-one turns, eight turns post braces era)

March 25th (Fifty-eight turns, fifteen post braces era, fully expanded!!!)

 

April 14th (Thirty-four days post braces, twenty days since full expansion)

You can see a little gap forming between my front tooth and the one next to it!

Here are some pics from before surgery and after full expansion.  There are some slight facial difference.

 



 

 

This is before expansion, thirty-three turns and fifty-eight turns.

 



 

 

I'll try not to be lazy and post sooner than a month away.