Metal Mouth Message Board

So I got the Essix retainers on Friday. Ugh. Takes some getting used to! My ortho also wants me to go back in 3 months, just to see how things are going. And I am only to wear these things at night - every night for the first year, and then once or twice a week thereafter. Strange, no "24/7&quo...

Thanks for sharing your experiences, everyone! This is very helpful. :) I am going in on Wednesday for the de-bracing, and will know more about the "retainer plan" then, so I'll keep you posted. Very good to hear that some people have found a new ortho for their retainer only, at not too h...

Thanks, Meryaten! In my infinite blondness, I thought that once you get the retainers from the ortho, you are done, and never have to go back again unless you lose one... Ooops! Good to know that it's not monthly visits, but I guess then I might have to find a new ortho in the state I'm moving to fo...

Hi all, as my de-banding date nears, I asked the ortho assistant as to what kind of a retainer I will get. She said Essex, because the (plain) Hawley requires monthly follow-up visits to the ortho for adjustments. Is that true? Hawley-wearing people, please comment! I tried searching the forum, but ...

I work in a pretty conservative business environment, and have had my braces on for a month now, and no one has said anything negative. Mostly curious questions as to how they feel; or sympathetic comments from people who had them as a kid. That aside, when I told my boss I'd be getting color ligs, ...

I went with ceramics on top, just because I didn't want to look like a teenager with all metal. I already look about 10 yrs younger than I am, and it's hard! LOL. So at first I had clear ligs, but they made my teeth seem HUGE and you couldn't tell what that was on my teeth unless you looked closely....

Thanks for the replies, and the words of advice, Meryaten, ABraces and Platinum! For peace of mind, I did go see my perio today, and he said I don't have an infection. My gums are fine, and nothing shows up on the x-ray, so it's not an abscess. Like my ortho, the perio said this feels like a bony ri...

Hi all, just wondering if this has happened to any of you, and if so, what is it? I tried to do a search for this on the board, but didn't really come up with anything. I have a little white-ish pimple-like thing the size of the head of a needle pin on my gum, right where I would guess the root of t...

Yeah, I feel the same - it's pretty scary to put that relatively large object in such a seemingly small space. What if the constant pushing of the gum down to clean the space will eventually lead to the gum staying down? But the ortho assistant told me that this is the best way to clean those spaces...

Thanks for checking, Meryaten - yes, my gum is now a bit sore from all the poking, but at least it seems (or well, smells) like I got the offending remains of whatever it was out of there. :) Yeay! As for the space at gumline - I guess it really depends on the spacing of your teeth and shape and str...

For me, the Crest Pro Health blue mouthwash leaves residue on the wire, little "stringy" fellows - but only on the wire, not on brackets or teeth. If I rinse a few times with water, or just touch one of my broxy brushes to that blue residue, it comes right off. Does that mean my wire has b...

I had complained to my ortho assistant at my first adjustment today that there might be something stuck underneath one of my molar bands... So she tells me to use the proxy brush, and I tell her "it doesn't fit anywhere, except where one of my molars was extracted, which is not where my problem...

Angel - no pain, that's great :) Oooh, blue ligs! Did you do colors on both top and bottom? I'm just back from my first adjustment, too - and also no wire change, just ligs. I chose purple ligs for the bottom, they look great! Clear on top, or else my boss would have a heart attack... Wouldn't want ...

Wow, I am glad I found this old post - I think one of my molar-banded teeth does not pass Meryaten's "sniff test", and the gum has been sore lately and bleeding a LOT when I floss... My braces have only been on for three weeks, and I think it was the spacers before the molar bands that cau...

Angel, I have my first adjustment this Friday as well. Will be interesting to hear what they do to you - ligs change, or wires too, etc, so keep us posted, and of course, fingers crossed for no pain