Metal Mouth Message Board

My Essix retainers have no impact on my speech at all. Was a bit weird the first time I wore them, but after than no problem.

Hi. I had a lingual brace and couldn't floss during that time. I used interdental brushes, which were a godsend, but not as good as flossing. When I got the braces taken off I got permanent retainers top and bottom on the inside of my front 6 teeth. But it's easy to floss with them. For my molars I ...

Judyth Congrats on taking the plunge. Hang on in there! Keep in mind how fantastic your teeth will look at the end of this process. I had braces on for 21 months, 3 less than anticipated. I absolutely love my teeth and having them straightened has given me so much more confidence - I didn't realise ...

My molars all touch with the exception of one of my upper premolars. It was moved to close a gap I had due to extractions and was a bit too short to touch my bottom teeth. I asked my ortho about this and he told me that it would move naturally to close the gap between top and bottom. I've been keepi...

Hi there. My first advice would be to not expect it to be pain free - your teeth will have moved a bit and some pain taking off the retainer is normal. My ortho was very reassuring on this point. He showed me the best way to remove it and it seems to work for me. You have to get your finger behind y...

Well I was debraced last week and have had the Essix retainers for 4 days now. The debracing itself was fine, slight jaw ache after 2 hours, but more than worth it! Felt slightly nervous as he was taking the brackets off some of my teeth, but it wasn't painful at all. The Essix retainers are absolut...

Something similar happened to me. I put it down to the fact that as my face became more symmetrical as the braces evened out my bite, it had an effect on the structure of my face, including around my eyes and my eyelids. Like you, I lost weight rather than gained it, so that wasn't the reason. It wa...

Due to be debraced on December 1st - hurrah! 3 months earlier than my original anticipated debrace date. I could have been in the November debrace club as I turned up at my scheduled appointment and was told there and then they could come out - my ortho seemed as pleased as I was, hope it's not cos ...

I have Incognito braces, and had the brackets fitted to both the uppers and the lowers at the same time. However, I only had the wire put into the lowers. This is because I had to have an operation to remove an impacted canine from the roof of my mouth, and the upper wire would have got into the way...

Lots of people told me they didn't think I needed braces, but like you, I would be very self conscious about my smile and when I laughed or smiled I would try to hide my teeth just like you describe. Since I've had my braces (I have linguals) I smile all the time and love the fact that I can show my...

Congrats on getting braced! Don't worry, you'll be eating just about everything again soon. When I first got my linguals fitted my molars didn't touch so I had to live on mashed potato and fish that I could also mash for about a month! I was soon back to normal. And I can relate to that 'bouncing' o...

My ortho is great, he'll answer any question I have. Usually, when he's working he's talking technical with the assistant with the odd aside to me, but if I ask him afterwards he'll always take the time to explain. If there is a bit of time at the end of the appointment and once I've had the photos ...

Absolutely no regrets, taking the plunge to get braces is one of the best things I ever did. I had a bit of a lisp at first, but nothing major - most of the speech problems I experienced were with my lowers. I think it's much easier to adjust if you only have the linguals on one arch, so you'll prob...

I also had two extractions on my top arch. I'd had two teeth taken out of my bottom arch when I was younger, so for that and a couple of other reasons, the ortho advised the upper arch extractions to sort out my bite. Anyway, the wire across the gaps did cause a few problems, because your tongue hit...

Yes, I have Incognito lingual braces. Regular flossing is just impossible as far as I can tell, so the Tepe brushes are a godsend.