Metal Mouth Message Board

I got my braces off in early February. I have an Essix type retainer on top and a permanent one on bottom. I know I'm supposed to be wearing my retainer 24/7 right now, but there are times when I have it out for a few hours at a time. Dinner parties, during communion services at church, etc. Every t...

I'm getting my braces off in the next month or so. My ortho wants to do bonded retainers both top and bottom, and I'm not too excited about that prospect. My fiancee had braces as adult, and had hers removed 4 years ago. She had a bonded retainer on bottom for a while, hated it, and had her ortho re...

Joy....yet another thing that I may have to experience? I'm thrilled. I learn something new here everyday. I'm seriously NOT looking forward to this little tactic...or elastics. Can y'all tell I'm anti-braces today? lol You know, for all the talk about them here, I can't complain about elastics too...

I got a pretty unpleasant bit of news today. My ortho is planning to remove some of my brackets and reposition them at my next appointment. As fun as it was to have them put on originally, I'm really looking forward to this. I'm also kinda wondering how this will actually happen. I have ceramic uppe...

I had a few very close friends (drinking buddies) make a lot of jokes about them when I got them, but it was all in good fun.

All of my co-workers that have actually said anything have been very positive.

You'll probably be ok unless you're also getting bite turbos. I had them bonded to the backs of my front teeth the day I got my upper braces, and I sounded like an absolute moron for about two weeks. It was incredibly difficult to talk as they were poking me in the tongue all the time. I finally got...

I went in for my most recent adjustment about a week ago. I got my bite turbos off, which was great. (I had the kind bonded to the backs of my front teeth.) They also changed up the configuration of the elastics they're using to try to close gaps between my upper incisors and canines. The odd thing ...

I have self ligating ceramics on top (In-Ovation C) and thankfully haven't experienced that problem. If I had it to do all over again, I'd probably just go with metal on top too. They don't bother me anymore, but my upper brackets are sooooo much larger than my lower ones and have more "pokey&q...

I had fairly large gaps in front of my upper canines on both sides. I've been in elastics for a few months now. There are hooks clamped to my upper archwire just outside my incisors, and they have elastics that go back to my upper first molars. I don't change these elastics, and from the difficulty ...

From the sound of it, your bottom teeth are going nowhere. The bottom arch is serving as an anchor for the elastics to pull your front 4 teeth back. Curious---do you have powerchains right now? There's no way the elastics going from my top arch to my bottom arch could be pulling my four front teeth...

Probably should have been a little more specific... I totally get how they could work to close gaps, etc. but in my case, that's not what they're doing because there are no gaps they could act on. I have some huge gaps between my upper incisors and canines. There are some hooks clamped to my upper a...

I got class II elastics today from my upper canines to my lower 2nd molars, along with some other elastics along my upper archwire designed to pull my front teeth back. Though I totally understand how the other elastics will pull my four front teeth back, I'm a little skeptical that my entire lower ...

Not metal, but I don't believe they're composite either. They were preformed, not built up. I believe they're some sort of plastic or acrylic. They're white.

They must put some stress on the lower incisors because one of mine actually shifted slightly, creating a gap. It was the one the bite turbo on the left top incisor touches. I don't think it's a big deal though. I had an appointment Monday where they put a larger, square wire on bottom and a power c...

Well, this isn't quite that long ago. The first time around, I got mine on in 1989 and got them off in 1993. No cavities, no crowns, etc. I was always a little surprised that they did 8 bands on bottom and 4 on top since my bottom teeth were basically straight when I got braces - it was my top teeth...