Metal Mouth Message Board

Is it common for just brackets and wires to cause drooling? I'm not much of a drooler now, but once in a while (this is gross) I wake up during the night and have to turn the pillow over. Happens almost exclusively when my nose is clogged with a cold or something and I'm breathing through my mouth. ...

I'm very fortunate to have a good dental plan and a flex spending account at work. My insurance covers 50%, paying up to $2250. The part that's not covered by insurance is going to be paid from my flex account (pre-tax money). The great benefit of the flex account is that you tell them how much mone...

I don't know a ton about it, but I'd imagine it can be done for cosmetic reasons as well as to simply make some extra room without doing an extraction. In my case, my ortho is going to try to make all my bottom teeth fit into place without an extraction, but there's not much room. At the very least,...

Hey, platinum. Yeah, due to crowding the lower canine is pushed forward and protrudes over my top teeth when I bite down. It may be a little more difficult to see in the pictures, but the adjacent incisor is also pushed back and twisted a bit. My ortho is going to try to fit all my teeth where they'...

Thanks for all that information! I'm planning to shop for some supplies later today when I'm out getting groceries. If I have trouble finding the various items I need, I'll probably end up ordering one of the DentaKits to make my life easier.

I've got an Oral-B and it has been going strong for at least three years now (probably more, I just can't remember when I got it). It came with two handles, and I foolishly dropped one on my tile floor, which caused the case to crack open. Not wanting to expose the innards to water, I threw it out. ...

I just ordered a few packs of these the other day. I don't have my braces on yet, but I figured I'd get ready since I've heard horror stories about using floss threaders. I'm hoping that this ingenious little device makes flossing easier.

To help soothe your mouth, rinse with warm salt water at least once a day. If your mouth is sore, increase the rinsing to 5+ times. This is recommended for the length of your treatment ... and I'm sure this is part of the reason I've been pain free for over 17 months! Thanks for the tip. I've seen ...

Thanks. I'm quite happy with the top, they're almost perfect. I've got a bit of a snaggle (technical term) on the bottom, but nothing too severe. Makes flossing a bit difficult, and my bite is a bit funny as a result.

Thanks for the welcome, Denise. I'm a bit anxious about next Wednesday, but I'm mostly looking forward to it. They say it will be about 18 months. I guess we'll see. Anyway, just pulled out the camera to commemorate the start of this process. Those spacers were a bit of a pain. The first time 'round...

First off, thanks for this great site. Lots of useful information! So, I decided last year to get braces. I don't have especially bad teeth, but they're not perfectly aligned and I tend to grind when I'm stressed. My dentist keeps telling me that this is causing my teeth to wear much more than the s...