Metal Mouth Message Board

Yep! Mine are indeed the essix type. Other than using toothbrush and paste, would there be any harm in using Listerine or isopropyl alchohol?

Here's another idea that I haven't heard anything about but it sounds like a good idea. What about putting the retainers in Isopropyl alcohol, or maybe Listerine, which contains alcohol? I wouldn't think it would hurt the retainers since those products come in plastic bottles, and that's what the re...

My ortho said not to use a toothbrush and paste to clean mine, but gave me a couple sample tablets of Retainer Brite. It costs $12 for a 3 month supply at their front desk. Then when I opened up the envelope they came in, it had all kinds of advertising for other stuff. I kind of felt like a marketi...

How do you care for your retainers? The kind I have are the clear plastic kind that comes in 2 pieces and are worn at night. I don't know what they're called. What I do is simply rinse them under cold water when I get up in the morning and then let them air dry. Is that enough. I've only had them fo...

Braces off yesterday, retainers on last night, questions today..... My retainers are the plastic type. I have to wear them only at night. The lower one's edge is kind of sharp and really scrapes the inside of my mouth when I move my lower lip. I was wondering if anyone here ever tried to smooth up t...

My braces came off yesterday. Yes, it hurt. No so much when the regular brackets came off. They just snapped off with a "click". The molar bands weren't so easy. A couple of them just didn't want to budge, and the assistant was pulling on them and it felt like the tooth was starting to com...

Ok. I have stopped wearing the elastics. It sure is nice NOT to be wearing them too! And I did call my ortho and asked about whether my teeth could start to revert if I stop wearing them, just as my teeth would start moving back after debracing if i didn't use a retainer. I was told that this was di...

This will sound like a strange question, but about a month ago, my ortho said I can be debraced on Nov. 15th and I no longer need to wear my elastics anymore. I quit wearing them for the first couple weeks, but then started to think that maybe my teeth would start moving back to where they were if I...

I'm finding it kind of weird that most people have to wear their retainers 24/7 when my ortho said that when my braces come off in a couple months, I will only wear it at night. Why is their such a difference?

Thank you!!! I'm really hoping that this schedule will stick because the ortho still wants to close up a small gap near my front teeth. The gap has been there for about 8 months and hasn't changed at all. As for me, I'm fine with it. It's barely noticeable. I don't know if my ortho will feel the sam...

I just had an adjustment on my uppers yesterday. It was my most painful adjustment! My right side teeth still hurt today when I chew. Also, a bracket came off a front tooth when they were removing the top wire. But here's the good news: My ortho said the time is coming for the braces to come off at ...

Yes, I have had my wisdom teeth removed. No, I can't take a picture. No digital camera. Plus, it's not very easy to see. It is something I can feel when I brush over it or rub my finger over it, but there's hardly anything there to see when I try to look at it in the mirror. I have an ortho appt. co...

I have a sore spot on the inside of my gum on both sides of my lower jaw underneath the rear molar. It feels like something hard is trying to come out and is breaking through the gum. It's worse on the right side of my mouth, but it exists on the left side too. I posted in the past about a root poki...

Thank you everyone! I guess the ones I'm using could indeed be a bad batch. It's also possible, probably even more so, that it could be a sharp edge on a bracket since they usually only break on the right, and the break seems to come from the top. I'll mention all of this to my ortho when I see him ...

I'm closing in on the 2 year anniversary of having braces, and I've noticed that my elastics keep breaking on me, sometimes only an hour or so after putting them in. It's usually the one on the right side of my mouth that unexpectedly snaps. Why does this happen? Since it's close to by end-of-braces...