Metal Mouth Message Board

I have had linguals for the last 6 months. During my treatment, my gums have become very swollen and painful. On friday, I was at the ortho and they actually had to take the wires out to let my gums heal. I still don't have them back in yet. I visited my dentist today for a cleaning and she recommended that my linguals be taken off (her partner told me the same thing 3 months ago) . It seems that my body is recognizing the brackets as a foriegn object and it fighting them off. The whole reason that I chose linguals was that they are invisible.
I haven't been back into my ortho yet, but she wants my wires to remain off for the week. So, I don't know what my options are. Hopefully, Invisalign at least on the top. Has anyone else had this problem? Please share! Thanks.

That is bizarre. I wonder, though, about the foreign object theory being confined to linguals; wouldn't this be a possibility with labial brackets as well?

Hope you can find a workable solution.

I haven't heard of anyone else with this problem, but that's not to say that your dentist isn't correct. Has it got steadily worse over the course of the 6 months? Maybe it's something that needs to change in the cleaning process... my gums have grown down towards the brackets as I don't brush so well behind my teeth.... so maybe they've grown, and so are now closer to the brackets and therefore more likely to be irritate by them? Just a thought.. not sure whether that would be the case or not.

I'd go with your orthos suggestions as you need to trust them to know what's best really!

Sorry can't be any more help than that

Hey! Just an idea from a newbie (upper linguals bonded 3 days ago). The brackets on my upper incisors are positioned very close to the gumline. I noticed on day 2 that I had a reddened, slightly swollen patch at the gumline and partly on the palate. I found that a salt water rinse helped relieve this a bit, but then it came back. I think this is happening because at the moment I am trying to master some speech issues, and with some sounds I seem to be "mashing" my tongue against the brackets to force the sound out (OK, not the way to go in the long term!). I also had to make a 2-hour presentation yesterday, and by the end of that I was so tired I was also "mashing" my tongue on the brackets on the side of my mouth and sure enough the reddening appeared there as well. I wonder whether this could be affecting you? I hope you can find a way forwards with the linguals, sounds like you've already come a long way.