I am brand new to this forum and to lingual braces and the adult world of braces in general. I am 41 one years old and had braces as a teenager for the upper teeth only. I have always had a weird malocclusion/crossbite in that the mid line of my upper teeth does not meet the mid line of my lower teeth at all. The lower teeth are about a full tooth and a half over to the left if you see what I mean. My very oddly aligned jaw would take a LOT of work and anyway it does not bother me as long as the teeth themselves are not crooked (I hope I am making sense!). However the bottom teeth are a little crooked/crossover at the front, hence my decision to get lingual braces. As my second premolar was taken out by a bad dentist many years ago my orthodontist will use this space to straighten out my lower teeth. In fact that will mean that the lower teeth will be even slightly more to the left of the upper teeth but I am willing to accept that if the teeth themselves are straight. I hope I am making sense!!! So, my first question is has anyone made this type of decision where they have accepted maloccusion (hopefully that's the right term!) as long a the teeth themselves are straightened out?
I had my lower lingual brace put in 3 days ago. It is on 10 teeth only. The upper lingual (to straighten mild overlapping) is being put in in 6 weeks and will be on 8 teeth only. I thought I may as well perfect my upper teeth while I am at it! My speech is hardly noticeable and I have no tooth pain but my tongue is in absolute agony!!! The sides of my tongue in particular feel like they have been grated by a cheese grater even though I am using the wax / silicon etc. I had the beginning of 6 mouth ulcers last night (3 on each side) so I applied that one time stuff that come out of the cotton bud and stings like crazy but does help. I have also used a Difflam spray, salt water etc. Does the tongue get better in time? Does the tongue actually toughen up and how long does it take?
Looking forward to your feedback and if I can figure out how to post a photo of my teeth I will do just that!
Hey! Congrats on getting your linguals! Glad it is going mostly well so far. I have had upper and lower linguals for 3 months now and happy to say for the most part, my tongue has completely adjusted. However, every night I have to sleep with wax on the bottom right side on the back three molars. For some reason those brackets have continuously bothered my tongue overnight. It's never a daytime issue.
Only other "negative" thing I will say is that for me, uppers and not lowers were what caused speech issues. However, at this point I have no speech issue whatsoever and by week 2 it was 90% better.
Again congrats and hope you see some great progress soon
That makes me feel so much better ShelleyT. Thank you for posting! It's day 6 now and right now I am feeling slightly better although not sure if that is just the painkillers! Certainly it's the end of the day when I feel worst. I guess my mouth gets tired! I have about 8 (!) mouth ulcers but have used Oralmedic Mouth Ulcer Treatment which hurt like hell but then gives a lot of relief. I have even used some lidocaine. Oh and wine helped too On a positive note I lost 2kgs. Anyway, fingers crossed that I am starting to turn the corner. I was seriously thinking of having it taken out but I will try to stick with it.
My upper brace goes on after Xmas. Thank God not before! Was the upper brace as painful? Mine will be on 8 teeth only so I hope less pain at the back of my tongue. Is your speech fully back to normal?
Luckily I found the top is not painful at all! Now that speech isn't an issue at all, I hardly even notice the top at all and they are actually completely invisible, unlike the lowers which I have found quite visible, but not an issue at all. After my first adjustment, I had a period of 3-4 days where for some reason my tongue kept catching on the front brackets on the top, which was kind of annoying but does not sound nearly as painful as what you are going through now! I really do think it will get better so hang in there.
On speech, I feel like no two people are the same with linguals so you may not have issues! Mine was not really a lisp- more that my mouth sounded "slurry" for a couple weeks. I think I heard it more than others, but now I don't even notice a small difference. It got loads better by week 3.
That is great to hear! I think I will handle slurry speech better than the pain. I've heard about the rainbow passage. I will have to practise it a lot!
