Metal Mouth Message Board

I would call and make an appointment. This started happening to me about 4 or 5 weeks after I got braced. It was awful...I was so tired because the clenching kept waking me up at night! My ortho made a "bite plane" for me -- which is basically like a retainer but the plastic part is a litt...

It's you and me, Lucyloop ! I can hardly believe it but I've put on about 4 pounds in the 3 months that I've had braces :oops: I don't mind terribly because I'm pretty darn thin anyway (I wasn't always, believe me!). But I chalk it up to having to eat so much dang soft food! I can't eat my super-cru...

Lovely!!!! You must be so pleased

And, might I add, you had very nicely-shaped teeth to begin with. But now that they're perfectly straight, they look just that much nicer

Thanks, Karen, Flora and Leslie ! :D Those extractions on the bottom have really helped to move things along. My teeth probably wouldn't be budging at all without those bicuspids gone. I had powerchains (which you can't really see in the pictures) stretching from my back molars to my canines on the ...

Ok, it's been 3 months... I've been a big wuss about posting pics because my teeth are so tangled (and yellow!), but I'm so excited at how much my lower teeth have aligned. I still have a ways to go, but I can hardly believe it so far! :D Sorry...no idea how to make these smaller. Will work on that ...

Take it from someone who drank a 2-liter bottle of soda (Dr Pepper or Pepsi) a day until she was 19: It's difficult, but you CAN quit the soda addiction!! It was over 10 years ago when I quit and I haven't had a cavity since then (knock wood!) I never realized that all the caffeine probably contribu...

Calcium -- either from dairy or a pill -- blocks both iron *and* zinc. So a multivitamin that contains all three (and they usually do) is something of a waste. I agree: water is the best thing to drink any time! Of course, coffee's also good ;-) But, just to complicate things even further, coffee (c...

Mine just has two wire "hooks" that curve under my bicuspid on either side. Other than that, it can't be seen. Although, the plastic part is really really thick, so it interferes with my speech. I only have to wear mine at night for now, but if I had to use it during the day, I'm pretty su...

Many people aren't aware that the calcium in dairy foods blocks iron from being absorbed. Some folks, upon trying a vegetarian diet, overdo it on the dairy because they're overly concerned about "getting enough protein" and might become anemic because of that. As Karen said, it's definitel...

Ahhh, the evil Day 2 strikes again! Hang in there, Today53!!! Day 2, at least for me -- and probably for many of us here -- was absolute MISERY! My ortho had warned me but I didn't believe him :oops: I had pokey things stabbing me in the cheeks, my brackets were tearing up the inside of my lower lip...

The teeth next to my extractions are tilted about 45 degrees. It looks like they're about to pop out of my gum at the root. The ortho has seen me a few times like this and hasn't said a word, so I'm pretty sure it's okay.

I was quite concerned about this too. I had two teeth extracted due to overcrowding and was shocked at how huge the gaps were! Then I got to worrying that my back molars would be all out of alignment if they had to come forward to fill the gaps. I would stare at my teeth in the mirror trying (unsucc...

Same thing's happening to me. It's horrible! I told my ortho and he made me a bite plane, which is basically a thick retainer that keeps my teeth apart during the night. He said I can't really wear a regular night guard with braces since my teeth need to move. I don't have to wear it during the day....

My tried-and-true remedy (had tons of canker sores as a kid) is to melt a good old, regular aspirin on it. Stick the aspirin on the sore and let it dissolve as slowly as possible. You won't even know the sore is there afterward.

I had my wisdom teeth removed "surgically" about 3 years ago. They had never erupted through the gum, and were growing in sideways (which is common) and causing all kinds of problems. I know the prospect of surgery seems frightening. I was scared to death! But it turned out to be rather li...