Posted by: @realhuman

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I’m about to buy a 3-way/Y-plate Schwarz expander, but I’m unsure which design is better for my goals.
I want to improve my tongue posture with mewing, fix my bite, and hopefully improve my facial aesthetics. My biggest concern is that a full-palate expander might feel too bulky, block my tongue, and make breathing harder. The more open horseshoe design looks more comfortable, but I’ve read that full-palate expanders create more real maxillary expansion, while horseshoe versions cause more dental tipping.
A good friend of mine bought a horseshoe expander around six years ago and had good results, but I’m not sure if that was from the expander itself, from mewing, or from both. I’m also wondering whether his results were true skeletal expansion or mostly tooth movement. If there was skeletal change, did it come from the expander alone, or from the expander plus the ability to maintain better tongue posture because of the open palate design?
If anyone has experience or advice choosing between a full-palate vs a horseshoe removable expander especially for someone whose goals include tongue posture and facial improvement I’d really appreciate the help.

In all cases the removable expander seems to mostly just move teeth in adults