iBraces installed today

[phxccie]

Just found this board and wanted to share my experiences.

I'm a 34yo guy -had both top and bottom iBraces 'installed' today (what am I - a car? ) - treatment should be about 18 months.

I had this procedure performed at our local Ortho school - wow what a teaching event! The procedure was performed by a student Ortho (heck of a guy) & a company rep (super knowledgeable - you could tell she had done this a 100 times before). There were about six other onlookers, which was really not bothersome as there is only so much real estate around the chair.

So far:
1.) My tongue is taking a beating - I'm trying to eat somewhat regular food but there seems to be quite a learning curve in trying to figure out how/where to bite.

2.) Brushing after eating is disgusting - I feel like a small salad bar fell out of my mouth while brushing. My trusty Sonicare was covered in a portion of my dinner. Nasty.

3.) I lisp like I did when I was 6 - so much for all that speech therapy. I'm doing my linguistic exercises to keep things flowing. Hopefully this will lessen before my next real business meeting next week.

4.) Wax is my friend.

5.) The warm saltwater thing seems to help some of the discomfort.

I made the observation today that being an Ortho involves 50% dentistry/advanced dentistry + 35% mechanic + 15% chemist.

[lionfish]

Welcome to the forum, phyxccie.

What you're experiencing right now is normal. Your tongue will toughen up, give it around 2 weeks.

It sounds as though you're doing all the right things, so hang in there, it will get better.

[phxccie]

... well I'm now on day 19 of my journey.

I "turned the corner" around day 9 or 10 - I suddenly could speak more clearly and the sides of my tongue started to heal. Eating has become less of a challenge - though I really do favor chewing stuff back at my molars and cutting up food (whatever it is) into 'strips'.

I've reduced my wax usage to almost nothing except when I KNOW I'm going to be talking a lot.

My lisp is slowly lessening... I went from a "Cindy Brady" level, to a mild occasional lisp as I try to talk too fast or have had too many beers I don't know how many times I've read the "The Rainbow Passage" to get my speaking just right.

I know some people have had no issues and some people had lots of problems... I feel like I'm middle of the road.

I go in for my first 'adjustment' on Dec 10 - so we'll see what that brings.

[xTc]

Does wax help with speech?

I'm thinking of getting upper iBraces, only concern is the speech thing..

[phxccie]

For me the wax helps because I tend to hit the side of my tongue against the braces as I get more tired of speaking.

Again... it took about 9 or 10 days before my speech became truly intelligible again. If you can arrange to keep a 'low profile' with work for that first bit of time, I think you'd be better off. Of course, I had to meet with customers within about 6 or 7 days of having them on - that was messy. I'm now very cautious about my diction and really have to force myself to speak even more clearly.

That said... there are people in these forums that claim they never had speech issues... maybe you'll be lucky and end up in that group.

[xTc]

For me the wax helps because I tend to hit the side of my tongue against the braces as I get more tired of speaking.

Again... it took about 9 or 10 days before my speech became truly intelligible again. If you can arrange to keep a 'low profile' with work for that first bit of time, I think you'd be better off. Of course, I had to meet with customers within about 6 or 7 days of having them on - that was messy. I'm now very cautious about my diction and really have to force myself to speak even more clearly.

That said... there are people in these forums that claim they never had speech issues... maybe you'll be lucky and end up in that group.

Yeah, I think it takes at least 4-5 weeks to truly get used to anything foreign in your mouth.. I used to wear braces as a teenager, the retainers made me speak horribly, but after a few weeks you get used to them..

Has anybody said to you, what's with the speech? Or anything along those lines?