Lingual braces AND expander

[Sugarelle]

Hi, I've had my lingual brackets on my top and bottom teeth for a few weeks and I've recently had an expander put in aswell, so feeling pretty sorry for myself right now. I'm handling it pretty well tho (I think), but, I don't have the wires on my top or bottom teeth yet, don't think I'm looking forward to that as my tongue is not cut up yet and I'd like it to stay that way, don't like my chances

I'm finding that my speach is taking a while to get better, just when I think it's better the next day it seems worse, can't find the right spots to put my tongue when saying particular words - the expander bar is in a prick of a spot, although there's not really anywhere else for it to go if I want my teeth to be better I'm sure I'll get use to it eventually.

One of the things I'm struggling with is brushing my teeth 4 times a day, I kinda eat just when ever so I find that my attitude is "oh well, I'm about to eat again so I'll do it later", gotta stop that.....

Anyhoo, I really like this website, I find it really helpful with people's opinions and luv to hear about people's tips and tricks, I'm sure I'll be a regular for some time to come.

See you all later

[ellieb]

Wow that is rough! I can't imagine how I'd talk if I also had brackets inside my teeth. I hope you won't have to have the expander too long.

[Sugarelle]

Hiya, I have my expander for about 5-6 months I get my wires in on 4 December after they take ANOTHER tooth out..... but, I figure the result is going to be awesome so that helps me get through it all, oh, and pain killers they help too.

[ellieb]

I'm on my 6th and final expander month.I had two, both all wire. The first sat tight to my teeth and I eventually got really comfortable with it. My current one has bigger, stiffer wires that cross my mouth and I still sound odd with it. bad lisp and lots of other sounds are issues too. No real pain, so far, just humiliation.

[Sugarelle]

Awesome, you get it off soon - I can't wait for that last month. I've noticed that there are different expanders, I saw one that I think may be an older type, in the middle it's more like a spring coil and then there's the one that I've got which is a bit of a rectangle one with a number written on it (max number of turns) and then it's got the 2 bits of wire that join up to the teeth on both sides with the caps around the teeth.

I couldn't turn mine last night as I was getting alot of pain on one of the teeth that it's attached to. It's a root canal tooth, I only have a tiny bit of it that is my own tooth, touch wood it's been really good for 15 years now, haven't had it capped either. The dentist put a steel capping on it for the expander, so hopefully it stays together when I have it taken off, I'd be pretty upset it if decided to fall apart after that

I'll have to put a couple of pics up when I can as I've got to wait til I've posted several posts before I can put pictures up. I'm keeping a little diary of pictures and notes so I can look back in a few months and see the progression - I'm pretty excited to see movement