Hello again friends, after a long time.

After RND / maxillectomy (and later Radiotherapy) my mother (45) has had limited jaw motion. For exercising, she was initially given a small metallic contraption -- an angle (or hinge, if you like) whose open end you put between you teeth, and increase the opening gradually using a screw that goes through the angle. Roughly like a screw jack.
The problem with this device was that the pressure of opening is borne completely by the front-teeth alone.

So, at great expense we acquired a Therabite device (not easily available here in India). This spreads the pressure uniformly on the jaw, and the mechanism of its opening is more natural. But in a few months we've started facing problems with that too.

Firstly, the bitepads they came with got worn out very quickly as the teeth dig into them and tend to slide outward as the device is opened. We got a replacement set shipped from the US, again very expensively, and they too didn't last.*

[img:right]http://i50.tinypic.com/axyb06.jpg[/img] Secondly, the jaws of the device (the white part) are of flexible construction, so the actual opening the mouth gets is much smaller than what's indicated on scale. More so if the teeth slide outward along the angle. If I tightly my mother's head and the device as she exercises (to prevent teeth sliding), she seems to easily reach the maximum opening the device allows. In reality however, she can't put in more than two fingers into her mouth!

Her jaw range has actually reduced since she started using the therabite. We have checked all the settings on the device, and done what we could think of in improving her method of using it (suggestions are welcome). Now, she has switched back to that jack-like device which is visibly straining her incisors, as expected.

I suspect we might have ended up with a bad piece of equipment, but Support for the therabite is harder to find here than the device itself. So if you are someone who's used it before, please tell me:
- how quickly you had to replace the bitepads
- if the jaws on your device are prone to bending under pressure.

Thanks in advance!

I would like to add that am really grateful for the support this forum has given me in the past, and feel bad for not being more active here and contributing towards helping others.

--Ankur

*As an experiment, this time we had ordered the thick Edentulous version of the bite-pads, which was made of even less durable material.