Hi, Im new to this site and have just had lingual braces fitted on my upper arch 3 days ago. I soooo wish I was one of the lucky ones who hasnt had any problems with speech. I currently sound like a snake with major difficulties pronoucing my s's and c's, particularly when they are in the middle or at the end of a word i.e plurals. I cant bear it, its very embarassing, I knew speech was bound to be an issue before I had them but thought this would pass with practice. No matter how hard I try it seems impossible to stop the hissing sound so I feel that even with time this will still be an issue.
I was wondering if this has been an issue for anybody else and whether it did in fact disappear with time, and any advice they can offer would be great, as right now im feeling really negative about the whole thing.
Also, im kinda used to the way they feel in my mouh already and that doesnt really bother me but my ortho built up this glue on my molars to stop my bottom teeth crashing down on the brackets, however It means I have literally no biting surface whatsoever apart from one stump of glue!
Aargh it so annoying!
newbie and speech is awful...help!
Moderator: bbsadmin
Speech and
Lou Lou, I am in a very similar situation to yourself ! I’ve had my uppers on for two weeks now and have adapted well; tongue has toughened up with the pokey wires, I’m eating a wider variety of food, and have stopped using wax. However, my ortho has also built-up my molars to reduce my overbite, so the bottom teeth don’t hit my upper linguals ! I totally know what you mean, it’s like chewing food with a peg, I have no biting surface. I am taking twice as long to eat my food, most of which is soup or soft. The build-up was very annoying to begin with, it was worse than the actual brace, but I have pretty much adapted to it.
My speech is not perfect but I’m getting there. It doesn’t help that my upper arch is quite narrow so most of my problems speaking are caused by the wire that connects my premolar and molars on each side, it spans quite a distance. However, as treatment progresses this gap should contract and speech improve. It’s also very important to keep hydrated and consciously make an effort to pronounce words properly. Some people have found putting wax on stops the hissing sound.
You’re speech will get better. This is a decision I definitely don’t regret - I’ve already seen movement – my teeth have moved significantly in just two weeks !
My speech is not perfect but I’m getting there. It doesn’t help that my upper arch is quite narrow so most of my problems speaking are caused by the wire that connects my premolar and molars on each side, it spans quite a distance. However, as treatment progresses this gap should contract and speech improve. It’s also very important to keep hydrated and consciously make an effort to pronounce words properly. Some people have found putting wax on stops the hissing sound.
You’re speech will get better. This is a decision I definitely don’t regret - I’ve already seen movement – my teeth have moved significantly in just two weeks !
Hi Loulou,
if you're 3 days in and your only worried about your speech then you're doing pretty well! Mine (upper and lower)were so painful after 3 days that I wanted them removing and a refund! Yes I did sound like Sylvester the cat for the first couple of months but it WILL get better and before you know it, people won't even notice the speech difference. Believe me, cos I work in a job where I have to talk all day!
if you're 3 days in and your only worried about your speech then you're doing pretty well! Mine (upper and lower)were so painful after 3 days that I wanted them removing and a refund! Yes I did sound like Sylvester the cat for the first couple of months but it WILL get better and before you know it, people won't even notice the speech difference. Believe me, cos I work in a job where I have to talk all day!
Hiya, thanks for responding.
Yeah I totally know im not the only one in this situation, which is kind of reassuring in a way - even though I wouldnt wish this on anyone!
I know its going to be worth it the second I see some movement in my teeth. Ive actually got a whole week of work to try and work on getting used to it. Im such a foodie, so miss just being able to wolf yummy food down although im trying to be as inventive as possible with my diet. Im sure ill become a soup connossier. Im going on holiday in two weeks time as well, I was so looking forward to it, and now i just find myself trying to think of what I can eat out there. Soup isnt so appealing sat by a beach! I know if I stick it out things will improve. I must say I have evolved a sort of mushing around the mouth technique and just generally started getting used to swallowing larger bits of food, my stomachs going to have to work for its satisfaction!
With the speech, I have a narrow upper arch also, I do think this possibly has a big impact on how well your speech adapts. My tongue hits the side of all of my back teeth from the one in front of my wisdom down to my pre molars, but even when I cover these with wax, in fact even when I cover all of my brackets and wire with wax, I still get a slight hissy, slurry sound where im not forming my words correctly. Speech is better in the morning though, and is at its worse on long conversations in the latter part of the day, probably when the tongue gets fed up, I also find speech is better reading aloud by myself as opposed to talking in front of people, I guess because you are more self conscience.
Ill keep updating on how well I adapt over the next few days/weeks.
Strange thing is at the moment (4days in) my tongue isnt sore at all and have had no tongue upsets from pokey wires thank goodness, that sounds awful. Glad to hear your tongues adated to that. Im sure Ive spoken to soon and am going to live to regret that statement in the near future!
Yeah I totally know im not the only one in this situation, which is kind of reassuring in a way - even though I wouldnt wish this on anyone!
I know its going to be worth it the second I see some movement in my teeth. Ive actually got a whole week of work to try and work on getting used to it. Im such a foodie, so miss just being able to wolf yummy food down although im trying to be as inventive as possible with my diet. Im sure ill become a soup connossier. Im going on holiday in two weeks time as well, I was so looking forward to it, and now i just find myself trying to think of what I can eat out there. Soup isnt so appealing sat by a beach! I know if I stick it out things will improve. I must say I have evolved a sort of mushing around the mouth technique and just generally started getting used to swallowing larger bits of food, my stomachs going to have to work for its satisfaction!
With the speech, I have a narrow upper arch also, I do think this possibly has a big impact on how well your speech adapts. My tongue hits the side of all of my back teeth from the one in front of my wisdom down to my pre molars, but even when I cover these with wax, in fact even when I cover all of my brackets and wire with wax, I still get a slight hissy, slurry sound where im not forming my words correctly. Speech is better in the morning though, and is at its worse on long conversations in the latter part of the day, probably when the tongue gets fed up, I also find speech is better reading aloud by myself as opposed to talking in front of people, I guess because you are more self conscience.
Ill keep updating on how well I adapt over the next few days/weeks.
Strange thing is at the moment (4days in) my tongue isnt sore at all and have had no tongue upsets from pokey wires thank goodness, that sounds awful. Glad to hear your tongues adated to that. Im sure Ive spoken to soon and am going to live to regret that statement in the near future!
Hi LouLou. I've had a varied experience with my speech. Like you, I have a narrow upper arch so my tongue hits my molars on each side when I speak which can create some difficulties. It is definitely easier as time passes (I've had them on for 4 months). I've found that my speech can drastically improve or deteriorate after each adjustment. Last month I was slurring my words quite a lot - since my adjustment 2 weeks ago I've had virtually no problems and am talking normally.
I've found I speak better without wax. The wax is obviously a big help if a bracket or wire is poking into my tongue, but I never use it to aid my speaking as I've found it makes me lisp more. I sometimes wear it at night just to give my tongue a bit of a rest and this can help my speech the next day.
Anyway, it's early days for you still and your tongue and mouth are still adjusting to all that metal, so don't despair too much. Talking (and eating) will get easier and it will change all the time. I've also found that as time passes and I see more positive changes to my teeth, I'm less concerned than I used to be about my speech being a bit off. And remember, people don't hear it as badly as you do.
Enjoy your holiday. At least you can still drink what you like!
I've found I speak better without wax. The wax is obviously a big help if a bracket or wire is poking into my tongue, but I never use it to aid my speaking as I've found it makes me lisp more. I sometimes wear it at night just to give my tongue a bit of a rest and this can help my speech the next day.
Anyway, it's early days for you still and your tongue and mouth are still adjusting to all that metal, so don't despair too much. Talking (and eating) will get easier and it will change all the time. I've also found that as time passes and I see more positive changes to my teeth, I'm less concerned than I used to be about my speech being a bit off. And remember, people don't hear it as badly as you do.
Enjoy your holiday. At least you can still drink what you like!
Can relate
Hi Lou Lou-I can totally relate to your frustation, etc and I have been there, so I am speaking out of experience..I was SO discouraged!! But there is this passage called the rainbow passage (see it somewhere on line) and you just read out loud, speak out loud over and over and it will get better!! I have noticed that the top have been harder on the speech then the bottom (I got the bottoms on last June and the tops on in January)..and after 3 months, my speech was almost perfect! It was unnoticable after about 2 weeks, but just got so much better! Drink lots of water, and just try to read out loud a lot in the beginning etc. It WILL get better. I know how much it sucks...How long are yours going to be on for?
As far as eating things, I find pasta, soups, pancakes; soft stuff works..but I can now eat cheeseburgers, etc-just can't bite into things. In regards to oral hygiene-the waterpik is the best thing ever!! It gets everything out! I hae the portable one (cost about $30-40) at CVS etc..I hope these tips help you out--let me know how you are doing..
As far as eating things, I find pasta, soups, pancakes; soft stuff works..but I can now eat cheeseburgers, etc-just can't bite into things. In regards to oral hygiene-the waterpik is the best thing ever!! It gets everything out! I hae the portable one (cost about $30-40) at CVS etc..I hope these tips help you out--let me know how you are doing..
Hi guys
Ok so 6 days in and I feel a lot more confident about the whole process, thats not to say my speech is dramatically better although you do get to a stage where you are less concerned with it. I have been meeting with a few friends over the last few days and they have been totally honest with me and said they really cant notice it in short conversation, although when I am in full swing rabbiting on as per normal pre braces, there is a subtle shhhhing sound, although only with words with s' and c's. There are those words that trip you up unexpectedly, for example 'asparagus' but Im now more inclined to laugh about it than go cry!
I actually did a little experiment yesterday. I met a friend for lunch. I actually had some mezze, utilizing the mushy technique I have developed to full effect, I had some feta cheese yummy parcel things, halloumi, kofte and stuffed vine leaves, such is my determination not to live on soup whilst I still have these evil glue blocky devices in. It did however take my bloody ages to eat, never mind. So, anyway I thought it was a good suggestion to get a couple of bottles of wine over the course of the several hours it took me to eat. I was intrigued as to whether my speech would improve after intoxication (from being less self conscious) or whether it would worsen (adapted tongue technique faltering). Needless to say my friend advised me it got worse! Im also going to get me one of those waterpik things, I had blueberries and greek yoghurt for dessert and trying to get blueberries out of your teeth isn't good at the best of times (thanks for the tip!).
Im now feeling much more positive about the future, however I still have the bottoms to get on. Im having them fitted 5 weeks from now. I was originally going to have them 3 weeks after the top ones went on. I decided to change this date as it would only leave me 1 week to get used to both braces before I went on holiday, and I wasn't exactly brimming with confidence after just having the top ones fitted and blurting out to my ortho, Im ssscarreth to talk. Im thinking this is why I have no pain at the moment - I think my ortho just put them on for me to get used to them and they aren't doing anything with regard to movement at the moment, he was probably going to start yanking them in line when I went in to get my bottom arch fitted. As you mention LB, Im expecting change in speech to come with avengance, both when my lower brace is fitted and subsequent tightening.
So I know this sounds silly, but I don't actually don't know how long I'm going to have to wear the braces for. I know your supposed to ask all the questions, but I went in to this with a different attitude, I almost didn't want to know the answer to important questions like how long am I going to have this on for, as It was something I definately wanted done, and I didnt want reasons to make me not go through with it - like you will have to wear it for 4 years! So all I know is my ortho said within 4 months I will notice a big improvement and at 12 months I will have a perfect smile although Im aware I will have to wear it for longer. Stupid huh! maybe I should ask him next time I see him.
Phew, as you can see from my lengthly posts, I do tend to natter on a bit. Possibly why the speech thing is such an issue for me!
Ok so 6 days in and I feel a lot more confident about the whole process, thats not to say my speech is dramatically better although you do get to a stage where you are less concerned with it. I have been meeting with a few friends over the last few days and they have been totally honest with me and said they really cant notice it in short conversation, although when I am in full swing rabbiting on as per normal pre braces, there is a subtle shhhhing sound, although only with words with s' and c's. There are those words that trip you up unexpectedly, for example 'asparagus' but Im now more inclined to laugh about it than go cry!
I actually did a little experiment yesterday. I met a friend for lunch. I actually had some mezze, utilizing the mushy technique I have developed to full effect, I had some feta cheese yummy parcel things, halloumi, kofte and stuffed vine leaves, such is my determination not to live on soup whilst I still have these evil glue blocky devices in. It did however take my bloody ages to eat, never mind. So, anyway I thought it was a good suggestion to get a couple of bottles of wine over the course of the several hours it took me to eat. I was intrigued as to whether my speech would improve after intoxication (from being less self conscious) or whether it would worsen (adapted tongue technique faltering). Needless to say my friend advised me it got worse! Im also going to get me one of those waterpik things, I had blueberries and greek yoghurt for dessert and trying to get blueberries out of your teeth isn't good at the best of times (thanks for the tip!).
Im now feeling much more positive about the future, however I still have the bottoms to get on. Im having them fitted 5 weeks from now. I was originally going to have them 3 weeks after the top ones went on. I decided to change this date as it would only leave me 1 week to get used to both braces before I went on holiday, and I wasn't exactly brimming with confidence after just having the top ones fitted and blurting out to my ortho, Im ssscarreth to talk. Im thinking this is why I have no pain at the moment - I think my ortho just put them on for me to get used to them and they aren't doing anything with regard to movement at the moment, he was probably going to start yanking them in line when I went in to get my bottom arch fitted. As you mention LB, Im expecting change in speech to come with avengance, both when my lower brace is fitted and subsequent tightening.
So I know this sounds silly, but I don't actually don't know how long I'm going to have to wear the braces for. I know your supposed to ask all the questions, but I went in to this with a different attitude, I almost didn't want to know the answer to important questions like how long am I going to have this on for, as It was something I definately wanted done, and I didnt want reasons to make me not go through with it - like you will have to wear it for 4 years! So all I know is my ortho said within 4 months I will notice a big improvement and at 12 months I will have a perfect smile although Im aware I will have to wear it for longer. Stupid huh! maybe I should ask him next time I see him.
Phew, as you can see from my lengthly posts, I do tend to natter on a bit. Possibly why the speech thing is such an issue for me!