Metal Mouth Message Board

Just wanted to give my account of what's happened.

Pain: A slight to moderate amount for the first two days. Now, three days later, I don't feel any of that tenderness whatsoever. But then again, I had some experience with this kind of discomfort beforehand since I wore expanders. Maybe I've just gotten used to it.

Speech: Fortunately, I think wearing expanders helped me because it created a lot of room for tongue movement. Also, towards the end of the period when I wore expanders, I became somewhat adjusted to particulars of talking while wearing contraptions in my mouth. Experience helped a lot.

That said, when I got the linguals, I could feel that I was lisping by about 10% or so. That really wasn't acceptable to me because I talk a lot for work, and I'm also self conscious like that so I relied on wax. I had to place it strategically. I had experience having used wax before while I wore the expanders. But fortunately, after these few days, I can tell that I was getting adjusted to the linguals fairly quickly. I might throw away the wax maybe within days with respect to speech.

Tongue soreness: Haven't had much at all because, like I said before, my tongue had a lot of wiggle room as a result of the expanders. However, there is one spot on the bottom right corner that kind of sticks into my tongue when I eat so I use wax for that corner when I eat.

Food: This is my biggest issue. I have an overbite. And my front lower teeth have been pushed upwards because of crowding. So, when I bite down, my front lower teeth hit the metal on my upper front teeth before my molars can make contact with one another. This means that I can't really chew my food well at all. I have to swallow half-chewed food. It takes me a long time to eat a meal. I've had to carefully think about what I can eat. Soups are good. Pasta is ok. I tried to eat a Subway sandwich, and it was a disaster. This is really the only part of all this that has got me bummed out.

Then, there's the food that's caught in the linguals. It feels like I've swallowed only half of the food that I've put in my mouth.

I fear that I'm just going to have to live with this until I get these blasted things off my teeth. grrrr...

Hi there and welcome to the world of wires! Good to hear you have the speech thing sorted. Lisping at the beginning is pretty normal I think, but disappears pretty quickly (in my experience). I'm sure you'll be able to stop using the wax pretty soon. As for sore tongue, I find this can come and go depending on adjustments and poking wires as teeth begin to move. This is when the wax becomes a life saver!

Eating - what you describe is exactly what I went through when I first got my braces fitted. I had to mash everything into baby food consistency in order to eat it......I was worried this would be the way I ate for the next 2 years. However, about 2-3 weeks into having braces I suddenly realised a couple of my molars were meeting and I could chew a bit better. Then pretty quickly most of my molars met and I've not had a problem since (I'm about 5-6 months into treatment now). I can eat just about anything now without any problems - except a couple of days after adjustments when everything is sore! So don't be too demoralised on the eating front, it should get better as your teeth start to move.

As for getting food stuck in your braces - yeah, it's not pleasant and can be really annoying if you can't brush your teeth straight after. You learn to deal with it though.

Thanks for that. I'm thoroughly encouraged by your own eating experience. I feared that I might have to live like this for a very long duration, but perhaps that might not be the case at all. And if I get over this particular hump, I'll probably reach that plateau where I won't even notice that I'm wearing contraption in my mouth. That would be sublime.

Speech: it's gotten even better after just one more day. I'd say it's down to about maybe 3% reduction overall now. And even then, my own ears tell me that it doesn't sound like it would be noticeable to another person, which means I'm very satisfied overall. So, yeah, like you said, it looks like this concern will be fleeting for me as well.

As for the food getting stuck, it's an annoyance, but it's also very negligible all things considered.

Thanks again. I'm uplifted. Best of luck to the both of us in our quest.

Hey Mclovin,

Gratz on taking the step! I'm about 7 weeks in now and I love my linguals, I speak perfectly and I never even notice them anymore apart from when I eat. My teeth have moved loads and I already smile a lot more than I did.

Keep positive and good luck!