Metal Mouth Message Board

Thanks!!
I'm still at the point where I forget I don't have braces anymore and I'll eat something and wait for food particles to get stuck, but... nope! Ha ha.
Now that it's over and done with, it seems like the whole treatment process went by really fast.

I just got my braces off this past week (yay!) and they sort of clip each bracket off with pliers. It didn't hurt one bit and it probably took about 30 seconds to do both top and bottom. After that, they sanded off the glue. This part gave me some pain, actually, but I think my teeth are just sensit...

I let myself pack on a few extra pounds before surgery, because I lose a couple pounds just when I have an orthodontic adjustment so I knew I'd lose some significant weight after surgery. I wasn't wired shut, but I was heavily banded for about a week and a half. I lost 10lbs or so and have since gai...

I had a heck of a time talking with a splint in and actually... pretty much resorted to writing on a pad of paper or typing in a word document or gesturing. My surgeon seemed to be under the impression that I should have been able to speak perfectly fine banded and splinted up, but although it was p...

I'm about 6 weeks post op now (I had a BSSO) and I'm really, really glad I did it. The first two weeks after surgery, I wished I hadn't. It was hard to look at the big picture when I felt miserable, was swollen, couldn't eat, etc. But now that I'm pretty much back to normal (besides some numbness an...

Well, I haven't flossed once since I got braces so... about a year and a couple months now?
I actually used to floss every day before braces, but it just became too tedious with all this metal in my mouth. Hopefully when they come off I can get back to flossing again...

I would usually drop a couple pounds after every adjustment, but then gain it back again. Though after having jaw surgery, I lost roughly a pound a day (according to my bathroom scale) and lost 10 pounds total. Although I can eat a lot more these days, I haven't gained very much of it back at all. (...

I was given the go ahead yesterday to start drinking out of a straw if I was so inclined (I'm 4 weeks post op), but from the sounds of it, I could have started drinking out of a straw ages ago if I'd wanted to.
(But I agree with everyone here - it's best to ask your surgeon first!)

I had BSSO about a month ago now and wasn't wired shut. I was heavily banded and had a splint between my teeth for the first week and a half and then the splint was taken out and most of the bands were taken out except one on each side. Now even those are gone. I was on a liquid diet for the first w...

I was never specifically told by my oral surgeon to sleep with my head elevated or not sleep with it elevated. Sleeping with my head elevated was just most comfortable for me the first week or so post op and I knew it would help reduce the swelling. I'm nearly a month post op now and I sleep on my s...

I completely understand where you're coming from. I'll be studying abroad for 9 months as well and there is no way I'd want to deal with braces abroad (for the same reasons you listed). In my case, my ortho knew way before I even set out on my ortho journey that I'd be going to Japan and that I want...

My midline was already off before I had surgery, so perhaps I'm not the best person to comment on this. However, I'm under the impression that one's bite gets worse before they have surgery? And I assume that your midline will be perfect or very near it after surgery because your surgeon will be lin...

Wow, that sounds exactly like what I had done on the 28th of May! And your description sounds extremely close to what I've been dealing with too. My teeth were (and still somewhat are) sore from being so tightly banded. Right now I still have some heavy bands on, but not nearly as much as the first ...

Hmmm... It's hard to recall. I want to say at least a couple of months. Now that that part of treatment's done, it feels like it was no time at all though at the time it felt like forever!
Good luck with your treatment!!

Not sure if I had the exact same thing as you, but for a time I had two wires on my top teeth. One went through the brackets like normal and the other was tied right on top of that one with metal ties. They did that because they wanted to widen the top a little bit/moved my molars outwards so that t...