Metal Mouth Message Board

I just got my top braces off this morning and I was told 24 hours a day for 3 days and then 12-14 hours a day for 2 years. I thought that was weird, but I'll take it, because I'm a snacker and I was dying today having to brush my teeth every time I want to eat or drink some life-giving caffeine.

I'm scheduled to have my top braces come off in 2 weeks but he said my bottom teeth need a few more months to make sure everything is solid, so they're staying on.

I had a very narrow arch, so the nubs on the inside of my molar bands hurt more than anything my first few weeks of braces. They put ligatures around them, which made it easier to deal with, but I still had to stick wax on them as well for a few weeks until my mouth adjusted. Now that my arch has wi...

Having one or more teeth randomly hurt is completely normal! As for the wires, you can put dental wax on them for the short term to stop them from poking you, and then give your ortho a call. You should be able to go in and have them cut the ends of the wire off so they're not hurting anymore. Hang ...

I found that anything you make in a slow cooker works. I lived on slow cooker chicken Tikka masala for a week. Good luck!

Have you tried ibprofun? I find that Tylenol does nothing for me but that ibprofun knocks out the pain. Other than that I just hold onto the thought that it's only going to hurt for a few days. I hope you feel better soon!

I think it can really depend on the office. Getting my top braces on lasted 2.5 hours because the office was busy and my Ortho was working on multiple patients whenever the techs were ready for him. My bottom braces went on in about 1.5 hours.

It's 27 months for me, and I'm just over 3 months in. I keep telling myself that it's way to early to be counting down, but alas, 24 months to go.

I'm moving forward! I had my second adjustment yesterday and I got the good news that it's time to put my bottom braces on. That's exactly what I wanted to hear and it turns out that it's going to happen on my "best case" timeline, so I'll get my braces on next Monday and hopefully be used...

The first week I kept jumping at my reflection, but that passed pretty quickly. You get used to your new look and it doesn't seem so strange after a few weeks. Welcome to the club!

The first week was the worst. I can eat most things now (still no biting into things though) and the only spots that continually bother me are the sharp points on the inside of my molar bands. I have swallowed so much dental wax from those, but it gets me through. It's exciting to see movement and y...

My orthodontist didn't say when I'm getting the lowers. He said they always start with he top braces to let people get used to them. I hope I get them soon, actually, just because that's where the more obvious crooked teeth are (my biggest problem is crowding and really narrow arches that aren't not...

I'm sorry you're in so much pain. That sucks. I got my braces on last Monday and I'd say it was bad for around 3 days. Ok, maybe 4 (I'm remembering Thursday now. There was a meltdown that necessitated buying brownies.) I only have braces on the top teeth so far, but I'd say the pain for me so far te...

I've had my braces for a week and my roommate (who didn't know yet that I had braces) bought home a bag of my favorite potato chips for me. I was like, hey, I can figure out how to eat these without using my front teeth to bite.

I'll admit I have this fantasy of the timeline being an exaggeration to prepare me for the worst, but as everyone on this board has said would happen, nobody at work cares or mentions them, so it's not the public ordeal I worried about.