Dental palate expansion for kids??

Dentist is recommending something for the kids- putting a lateral palate expander in there. Supposedly by age 4 the distance between molars on each side should be like 30mm but the 6 y/o has 25 or so. Teeth are coming in on top of each other in the 8 y/o, too. 
Is this for real or a rip-off?

I'm not sure if it's the same thing, but the orthodontist put something called a "TAD" in the roof of my middlest kid's mouth to expand the top row a bit to make room for her giant teeth.  She didn't exactly enjoy the experience, but my eldest had to actually have a third-of-a-dozen teeth extracted in order for all the teeth to fit, and I think the TAD was a better option.

Yeah, it's a thing--I had one in elementary school. Not the most fun few months of my life, but it did work. 

wae said:

I'm not sure if it's the same thing, but the orthodontist put something called a "TAD" in the roof of my middlest kid's mouth to expand the top row a bit to make room for her giant teeth.  She didn't exactly enjoy the experience, but my eldest had to actually have four teeth extracted in order for all the teeth to fit, and I think the TAD was a better option.

Fixed that for anyone who didn't like the way that sounded in their heads. 

I have to have some sort of undiagnosed neurodivergence for that to have bothered me this much that I made a post out of it. What a waste of my time and effort.

It's legit.  I had one when I was a teen.  It sucked.

Let's be honest. ALL dental work sucks when you're a kid.

I had one, not fun but not the end of the world either.

In reply to mtn :

I'm sorry..  I just like words and I can't help myself.

The medieval crank device? Yeah it's real - both my kids had it. I don't recall huge complaints so it must not have been horrible. Slow and steadily increasing the spacing. 

I had four molars removed before having four wisdom teeth pulled - I suspect the crank device is a better solution. 

Works extremely well and is very commonly used by orthodontists.  On the plus side, using one generally shortens the time the kiddo needs to spend in actual brackets/wires

As someone who is currently going through the process of getting dental crowding fixed as an adult, I'd say probably better to fix it now than later.