I had my very first visit to a chiropractor last Friday. I went because I had a sudden onset of neck pain and one shoulder being lower than the other. I’m pretty sure I did it to myself with a set of aptly named dumbells. For issues with bone and muscle alignment I believe that the chiropractor is exactly the right person to ask for treatment. Unfortunately every single chiropractor I’ve met or heard about claims to be able to cure all the ills of the human body with proper alignment and sometimes with homeopathy or herbal supplements. I’m leery of taking nutritional advice from a bone and muscle guy. But I had a bone/muscle problem, so I went.
The place I went is essentially a drive thru chiropractor. You walk in, within 5 minutes he’s cracked all the appropriate joints, then he lays you on a mechanical massaging table for 15 minutes. All done. Having my neck cracked was extremely unnerving. According to all the movies I’ve watched when a person has their neck torqued to the side and it goes CRACK, that means the person is now dead. I am not dead, but the back of my brain is convinced that it should have killed me. The neck crack completely solved the neck/shoulder/arm problem I was having. The chiropractor also aligned everything else down my spine. Apparently I’ve been living with one leg shorter than the other. Since that was a longer term tweakage my body was not so happy about the shift. My back has been stiff and sore ever since. The chiropractor warned me that this would be so. The very suspicious part of my brain says that he is smart enough to deliberately disalign my spine and cause me pain to ensure a return visit. A different part of my brain believes the explanation that I’ve grown accustomed to being off balance and the change to balance will hurt. A third part is just griping that I didn’t hurt last week and now I do. I’m still waiting and seeing if the aches and pains will go away. I like the idea of fixing a long term disalignment, but I’m nervous about going back again. I don’t want my neck cracked again. I really don’t.
On the theme of appointments, I took Link to the dentist today. Link has a serious case of shark mouth. Human teeth aren’t supposed to come in rows, but Link’s do because there isn’t enough room in his small jaw for those big grown up teeth. I went to the dentist expecting to be referred to an orthodontist for braces. I also expected to be scolded because Link hasn’t been wearing his dental device (an occlusigude) which is supposed to prevent his teeth from growing in crooked. I think the dentist expected to scold me too, but then he took a look at Link’s mouth. He hmmed. He looked some more. He agreed with me that wearing the occlusiguide would have made the problem worse because the out of place teeth would have been pushed further out of place rather than into place. He looked at Link’s teeth some more. He talked about extracting a few teeth to make more space. He took x-rays. After the x-rays (which showed a veritable pileup of teeth attempting to emerge into the same tiny spots) the dentist brought out a brochure for a company that makes spacing retainers. The theory is that since Link’s jaw is still growing, we can nudge it into growing large enough for his teeth by providing a subtle 24×7 pressure. I agreed that this made sense. The dentist said that this was the most logical next step because he really didn’t want to pull teeth unless it was absolutely necessary. Have I mentioned that I really like this dentist? I forgot that I did because it has been so long since I’ve taken the kids in. But I like that he believes in preventative care rather than teenage braces.
So we made impressions of Link’s teeth. He thought that was pretty cool. Then I made the delightful discovery that we have enough of a credit at the dentist’s office left over from fully insured Novell days, that we didn’t have to pay anything out of pocket for this set of retainers. Now I just need to train Link not to lost them or break them while he is at school.
And THAT is God’s Hand… Very cool. I agree that sounds like a splendid dentist… What’s he charge for wisdom teeth extractions? I have this one that’s about to start with the pains, and will need to be asked to leave…
And THAT is God’s Hand… Very cool. I agree that sounds like a splendid dentist… What’s he charge for wisdom teeth extractions? I have this one that’s about to start with the pains, and will need to be asked to leave…
You could have tried the chiropractor I went to for the first (and last!) time… tie dye shirt, barefoot and wanted me to take hormones instead of getting adjusted. I couldn’t run out of there fast enough!
You could have tried the chiropractor I went to for the first (and last!) time… tie dye shirt, barefoot and wanted me to take hormones instead of getting adjusted. I couldn’t run out of there fast enough!
I couldn’t run out of there fast enough!
… because my back was still killing me.
I couldn’t run out of there fast enough!
… because my back was still killing me.
*chuckle*
Thankfully, I was there for preventative treatment (I’m a martial artist)
I’m still looking… I want someone like found. In, out and done!
*chuckle*
Thankfully, I was there for preventative treatment (I’m a martial artist)
I’m still looking… I want someone like found. In, out and done!
Thoughts
I don’t want my neck cracked again. I really don’t.
You always have the right to refuse treatment. Next time before you let him touch you even to diagnose, say that you would like him to discuss what the treatment will be before he performs it. You can tell him right out that you don’t want your neck to get cracked, and he should not do it. If he does, don’t go back, and lodge a complaint with the American Academy of Chiropractic Physicians.
spacing retainers. The theory is that since Link’s jaw is still growing, we can nudge it into growing large enough for his teeth by providing a subtle 24×7 pressure.
Not sure exactly what a “spacing retainer” is, but it sounds a bit like the palate expander I had to wear for around a year when I was 8 years old (3rd grade). Basically there wasn’t enough space in my mouth for all my adult teeth that were coming in, so the palate expander was to widen my whole skull to make space for them, before we could use braces to align them properly.
It affixed to my top molars and took up most of the space in the roof of my mouth, so that once it was in I could barely talk clearly enough to be understood. My dad and I like to joke around and he thought I was kidding, and I burst out in tears because I was really trying my hardest. I got the hang of it in a few days, but it was embarrassing until then. Then candy would always get stuck on top of it, between the expander and the roof of my mouth, which was also embarrassing or uncomfortable, and sometimes it rocketted out and straight down my throat, which hurt.
The worst part though was the pain when every night my mom would turn the key. I’d open my mouth and my mom would stick her hand in with a key and insert it into the palate expander in the roof of my mouth and give it a turn. What this did was push out on my molars and bit by bit, night after night, push apart the two halves of my skull to make more space for my incoming teeth. It HURT. I would always get teary eyed, frequently cried, and mom sometimes would as well. Looking back on it as an adult, I think it hurt more than migraines do, and in a more insidious manner – throughout all of my head, not just parts of it. I think I had it for six months to a year.
I was never particularly given a choice whether to go through this procedure. But I feel like had I seen a reason to be against it, my parents would have listened to my objections. So I have to conclude that neither I nor my parents really understood what it would all be like, just how painful it would be. If I had children and a dentist/orthodontist recommended a palate expander to me, I would ask about all other options rather than putting my child through it – for example, why did they recommend a palate expander for me rather than just pulling some teeth? At least when you have teeth pulled you have a painkiller, and it’s a one-shot deal instead of nearly a year’s worth of pain. If in the end it was only for cosmetic reasons, not health, I would definitely NOT do it.
Ask your dentist whether the process will be uncomfortable or painful for Link, ask him to rate on a scale of 1-10 (or a happy/sad face scale) how painful it will be, ask him whether you can give Link any painkillers. Be sure to talk with Link about it as well, and get his opinion. Had I known how it would be, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t’ve consented.
Thoughts
I don’t want my neck cracked again. I really don’t.
You always have the right to refuse treatment. Next time before you let him touch you even to diagnose, say that you would like him to discuss what the treatment will be before he performs it. You can tell him right out that you don’t want your neck to get cracked, and he should not do it. If he does, don’t go back, and lodge a complaint with the American Academy of Chiropractic Physicians.
spacing retainers. The theory is that since Link’s jaw is still growing, we can nudge it into growing large enough for his teeth by providing a subtle 24×7 pressure.
Not sure exactly what a “spacing retainer” is, but it sounds a bit like the palate expander I had to wear for around a year when I was 8 years old (3rd grade). Basically there wasn’t enough space in my mouth for all my adult teeth that were coming in, so the palate expander was to widen my whole skull to make space for them, before we could use braces to align them properly.
It affixed to my top molars and took up most of the space in the roof of my mouth, so that once it was in I could barely talk clearly enough to be understood. My dad and I like to joke around and he thought I was kidding, and I burst out in tears because I was really trying my hardest. I got the hang of it in a few days, but it was embarrassing until then. Then candy would always get stuck on top of it, between the expander and the roof of my mouth, which was also embarrassing or uncomfortable, and sometimes it rocketted out and straight down my throat, which hurt.
The worst part though was the pain when every night my mom would turn the key. I’d open my mouth and my mom would stick her hand in with a key and insert it into the palate expander in the roof of my mouth and give it a turn. What this did was push out on my molars and bit by bit, night after night, push apart the two halves of my skull to make more space for my incoming teeth. It HURT. I would always get teary eyed, frequently cried, and mom sometimes would as well. Looking back on it as an adult, I think it hurt more than migraines do, and in a more insidious manner – throughout all of my head, not just parts of it. I think I had it for six months to a year.
I was never particularly given a choice whether to go through this procedure. But I feel like had I seen a reason to be against it, my parents would have listened to my objections. So I have to conclude that neither I nor my parents really understood what it would all be like, just how painful it would be. If I had children and a dentist/orthodontist recommended a palate expander to me, I would ask about all other options rather than putting my child through it – for example, why did they recommend a palate expander for me rather than just pulling some teeth? At least when you have teeth pulled you have a painkiller, and it’s a one-shot deal instead of nearly a year’s worth of pain. If in the end it was only for cosmetic reasons, not health, I would definitely NOT do it.
Ask your dentist whether the process will be uncomfortable or painful for Link, ask him to rate on a scale of 1-10 (or a happy/sad face scale) how painful it will be, ask him whether you can give Link any painkillers. Be sure to talk with Link about it as well, and get his opinion. Had I known how it would be, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t’ve consented.
Re: Thoughts
Wow. That palate expander sounds hideous. That isn’t what is under discussion for Link. His retainers will be removable. In fact he has to remove them to eat. His upper jaw seems to have enough room, mostly we’re concerned about his lower jaw. My brother wore a lower jaw expanding device for a couple of years without misery. In Link’s case this isn’t just cosmetic. The pile up of teeth preparing to happen in Link’s lower jaw will not be particularly useful as teeth in the long term.
Thank you very much for sharing your experience with me. I now have a clearer picture of potential hazards. I will be very careful that this dental appliance does not make Link miserable. Worst case is that we spend money for a retainer that sits unused because it is too painful to wear.
Re: Thoughts
Wow. That palate expander sounds hideous. That isn’t what is under discussion for Link. His retainers will be removable. In fact he has to remove them to eat. His upper jaw seems to have enough room, mostly we’re concerned about his lower jaw. My brother wore a lower jaw expanding device for a couple of years without misery. In Link’s case this isn’t just cosmetic. The pile up of teeth preparing to happen in Link’s lower jaw will not be particularly useful as teeth in the long term.
Thank you very much for sharing your experience with me. I now have a clearer picture of potential hazards. I will be very careful that this dental appliance does not make Link miserable. Worst case is that we spend money for a retainer that sits unused because it is too painful to wear.
Re: Thoughts
Yay / whew that it won’t be what I had.
I will say about the palate expander that I liked the (cosmetic) results, but as a child I didn’t understand enough to ask the questions that I guess my parents didn’t think of either, and it wasn’t a pleasant experience. I’m not a big believer of suffering for beauty, and I’m not clear if in my case there were functional issues.
Re: Thoughts
Yay / whew that it won’t be what I had.
I will say about the palate expander that I liked the (cosmetic) results, but as a child I didn’t understand enough to ask the questions that I guess my parents didn’t think of either, and it wasn’t a pleasant experience. I’m not a big believer of suffering for beauty, and I’m not clear if in my case there were functional issues.
Re: Thoughts
Yeah, I had a lower-jaw expander for a year or two. It was this little “horseshoe” device that fit around my tongue. It still had the turn-key thing, but all it meant is that it was a little tighter going back in when we gave it that quarter-turn.
Of course, my orthodontist didn’t account properly for the wisdom teeth coming in, and “corrected” my overbite to an open bite. So, I’m not sure he entirely knew what he was doing anyway.
Re: Thoughts
Yeah, I had a lower-jaw expander for a year or two. It was this little “horseshoe” device that fit around my tongue. It still had the turn-key thing, but all it meant is that it was a little tighter going back in when we gave it that quarter-turn.
Of course, my orthodontist didn’t account properly for the wisdom teeth coming in, and “corrected” my overbite to an open bite. So, I’m not sure he entirely knew what he was doing anyway.
Heh. 🙂
Reminds me of the
quackexcuse me, I mean “chiropractor” that CIGNA referred me to in Tracy, California. He wanted to cure my back pain by giving me electric shocks in my earlobe and glueing magnets to my back. He was so obviously faking the “Look how much stonger your leg is with a magnet stuck to your back!” that I almost walked out right there and then. I finally talked him into a half-hearted “adjustment” that didn’t do a thing. By the time he’d twisted my back further by pulling me sideways to do his little electric-shocky earlobe thing, I ended up walking out of his office in more pain than when I went in.I went home, called up CIGNA, and told them the guy they’d referred me to was a complete quack, fraud and charlatan, and that he’d made my back pain worse, not better. They didn’t care. It wasn’t their problem. I never did find a good chiropractor in Tracy. It was easier to just drive forty miles or so over the hill to San Jose.
The two best and most effective chiropractors I have ever been to were both guys who didn’t get into any of the “Conventional medicine is eeevul!, vaccinations are deadly, magnets will make your nerves work better, you should drink a quart of this magic $12-per-quart ionized water a day” crap; they just knew the skeleton, knew their drop table, and weren’t afraid to use it. Both of them were in San Jose, California. One was Todd Bragg at Bragg Chiropractic, the other was Sean … something, I can’t remember. (Sean used a motorized-roller spine-massage table as well. It was very relaxing.) There were times during my recovery from the major accident that happened to me in 1999 when I hobbled into Todd’s office on my crutches, and walked out carrying them. For two weeks after I first got out of the hospital, he even made house calls, because on the day they discharged me my sacrum had slipped out of place and pinched my iliac nerve, and I was in so much pain when I tried to move that I couldn’t even roll over in bed unaided.
I really need to find a Todd Bragg on this coast. That’s all I ask for in a chiropractor: A guy who knows the skeleton, knows his drop table and isn’t afraid to use it, and thinks of chiropractic care as complimentary to traditional medicine, not as some mystical Jedi hope trying to overthrow the evil Medical Empire.
Heh. 🙂
Reminds me of the
quackexcuse me, I mean “chiropractor” that CIGNA referred me to in Tracy, California. He wanted to cure my back pain by giving me electric shocks in my earlobe and glueing magnets to my back. He was so obviously faking the “Look how much stonger your leg is with a magnet stuck to your back!” that I almost walked out right there and then. I finally talked him into a half-hearted “adjustment” that didn’t do a thing. By the time he’d twisted my back further by pulling me sideways to do his little electric-shocky earlobe thing, I ended up walking out of his office in more pain than when I went in.I went home, called up CIGNA, and told them the guy they’d referred me to was a complete quack, fraud and charlatan, and that he’d made my back pain worse, not better. They didn’t care. It wasn’t their problem. I never did find a good chiropractor in Tracy. It was easier to just drive forty miles or so over the hill to San Jose.
The two best and most effective chiropractors I have ever been to were both guys who didn’t get into any of the “Conventional medicine is eeevul!, vaccinations are deadly, magnets will make your nerves work better, you should drink a quart of this magic $12-per-quart ionized water a day” crap; they just knew the skeleton, knew their drop table, and weren’t afraid to use it. Both of them were in San Jose, California. One was Todd Bragg at Bragg Chiropractic, the other was Sean … something, I can’t remember. (Sean used a motorized-roller spine-massage table as well. It was very relaxing.) There were times during my recovery from the major accident that happened to me in 1999 when I hobbled into Todd’s office on my crutches, and walked out carrying them. For two weeks after I first got out of the hospital, he even made house calls, because on the day they discharged me my sacrum had slipped out of place and pinched my iliac nerve, and I was in so much pain when I tried to move that I couldn’t even roll over in bed unaided.
I really need to find a Todd Bragg on this coast. That’s all I ask for in a chiropractor: A guy who knows the skeleton, knows his drop table and isn’t afraid to use it, and thinks of chiropractic care as complimentary to traditional medicine, not as some mystical Jedi hope trying to overthrow the evil Medical Empire.
Re: Thoughts
Yeah, palate expanders (aka, “splitters”) are *not* pleasant things.
However, it can be for a bit more’n just cosmetic results – a good bite DOES make a difference to quality of life. *shrug* IMO – not that I enjoyed that nightly quarter-turn AT ALL!!!
-John
Re: Thoughts
Yeah, palate expanders (aka, “splitters”) are *not* pleasant things.
However, it can be for a bit more’n just cosmetic results – a good bite DOES make a difference to quality of life. *shrug* IMO – not that I enjoyed that nightly quarter-turn AT ALL!!!
-John
Link is the first person I ever heard of to enjoy getting a dental impression made.
About the breaking the neck thing… first, a broken neck does not equal death. I know several people… incuding a client at work… who have had a broken neck and are neither dead nor paralized. Even with broken bones, if the nerves are not cut by the bone shards, not really a big deal. Second, to break a neck you have to tilt the head to lock the vertebrae in place. As long as the neck is kept straight a muscle strain will occur long before any damage could possibly occur. Thirdly, if you don’t want him to touch your neck, tell him. You can decide that… however, that may be exactly where your trouble is.
Also you might look at your pillow… a proper pillow may reduce or eliminate the need for neck alignment at all.
Just some thoughts… feel free to ignore at will 🙂
Link is the first person I ever heard of to enjoy getting a dental impression made.
About the breaking the neck thing… first, a broken neck does not equal death. I know several people… incuding a client at work… who have had a broken neck and are neither dead nor paralized. Even with broken bones, if the nerves are not cut by the bone shards, not really a big deal. Second, to break a neck you have to tilt the head to lock the vertebrae in place. As long as the neck is kept straight a muscle strain will occur long before any damage could possibly occur. Thirdly, if you don’t want him to touch your neck, tell him. You can decide that… however, that may be exactly where your trouble is.
Also you might look at your pillow… a proper pillow may reduce or eliminate the need for neck alignment at all.
Just some thoughts… feel free to ignore at will 🙂
Re: Thoughts
Hi Sandra and commenters
I’ve been lurking your blog for awhile now, after finding my way over from the Schlock page. I wanted to make a follow-up comment though to some of your thoughts on your son’s dentist visit.
As several of your readers commented, the palate expander, or expansion plate, is not the most fun of experiences. I’m not sure from your description if this is exactly what your son has been prescribed, or if he has received some less permanent form of this.
However, I *was* going to mention that when I had an expansion plate in my teens, I had a completely different experience. My dentist/orthodontist believe that traditional plating was too severe of a practice. My plate was not cemented into my mouth (but I was also 15, which may have been a consideration, as the doc knew I could be trusted not to leave it out for long). I only had to turn my expansion plate once every 8 days or so, which made it an almost completely pain free process. If you turn it every night, you are essentially breaking the bones of the roof of the mouth (no wonder it hurts so much, duh!).
I share my experiences with this, because perhaps if that is the path your son is headed down, you could ask about this with your dentist and see if you could take this sligtly slower, but much less severe path. I have no idea how to quantify “how much movement” is enough, particularly to fix your son’s particular needs, but in my own experience I had the plate on for about 4-5 months, turning it once a week or so, and it expanded my upper jaw enough to let my upper wisdom teeth come in, which previously wasn’t going to happen.
Finally, if I’ve kept track of the ages of your children right while reading your blog, it seems Link is fairly young still. I had a rude surprise in that at 15, the dentist discovered that my bottom jaw was still growing, even though I had reached my adult height a year before. It was because of this that I needed the expansion plate…I would personally recommend putting as much of a wait on things or taking things as slowly as possible. I got my braces put on at 13, off at 14 and then on again at 16 because my jaw kept growing. So sometimes it seems, waiting until kids are older is actually a good thing where orthodontistry is concerned…
Hope things all work out for you and Link in this arena…
Re: Thoughts
Hi Sandra and commenters
I’ve been lurking your blog for awhile now, after finding my way over from the Schlock page. I wanted to make a follow-up comment though to some of your thoughts on your son’s dentist visit.
As several of your readers commented, the palate expander, or expansion plate, is not the most fun of experiences. I’m not sure from your description if this is exactly what your son has been prescribed, or if he has received some less permanent form of this.
However, I *was* going to mention that when I had an expansion plate in my teens, I had a completely different experience. My dentist/orthodontist believe that traditional plating was too severe of a practice. My plate was not cemented into my mouth (but I was also 15, which may have been a consideration, as the doc knew I could be trusted not to leave it out for long). I only had to turn my expansion plate once every 8 days or so, which made it an almost completely pain free process. If you turn it every night, you are essentially breaking the bones of the roof of the mouth (no wonder it hurts so much, duh!).
I share my experiences with this, because perhaps if that is the path your son is headed down, you could ask about this with your dentist and see if you could take this sligtly slower, but much less severe path. I have no idea how to quantify “how much movement” is enough, particularly to fix your son’s particular needs, but in my own experience I had the plate on for about 4-5 months, turning it once a week or so, and it expanded my upper jaw enough to let my upper wisdom teeth come in, which previously wasn’t going to happen.
Finally, if I’ve kept track of the ages of your children right while reading your blog, it seems Link is fairly young still. I had a rude surprise in that at 15, the dentist discovered that my bottom jaw was still growing, even though I had reached my adult height a year before. It was because of this that I needed the expansion plate…I would personally recommend putting as much of a wait on things or taking things as slowly as possible. I got my braces put on at 13, off at 14 and then on again at 16 because my jaw kept growing. So sometimes it seems, waiting until kids are older is actually a good thing where orthodontistry is concerned…
Hope things all work out for you and Link in this arena…