Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi all,

I though I'd spend a few minutes to write a bit about my lingual experience - I remember reading this forum for hours some months ago when I was deciding what to do with my teeth, and the people here have been such a great help for which I'm really thankfull - so hopefully I can give something back and help other people make their decision too.

I'm 28/male, located in Austria/Europe. I've had classic braces for about three years at the age of 12. Unfortunately it seems that my Ortho messed it up, and a few years later my teeth were terribly crooked once again. I really wanted to have a nice smile, but wearing braces (even ceramics) was not an option for me, as I did not want to spend years with a metal smile once again.

Linguals seemed the way to go, but I was worried about the effects on my speech a lot, so I did a lot of research, reading medical publications, message boards etc., and stumbled upon the new generation of lingual brackets from "Lingualtechnik" in Germany (known as Lingualcare in the US). The individually made gold brackets seemed to be a lot smaller than traditional linguals, addressing most of my concerns.

So I found a doctor certified for using them in my area and made an appointment. I also had the chance to talk a patient wearing them, and did not notice anything wrong with his speech - that was when I made my decision to go this way.

All that was almost half a year ago - I had some examinations done, moulds, and after 3 months of waiting time it finally was bonding-day, where I received my upper linguals.

I was able to talk almost normally after getting of the chair, but there were some sounds that did make problems, and my tongue took about three days to adjust to the brackets and learn which new positions to use for those specific sounds. After a week, my speech was 95% back to normal.

I also need to mention that I was the only one "hearing" a difference, nobody I talked to (friends, family, girlfriend) noticed anything about my speech, with or without being aware of my brackets.

The wire which I initially got was a "Flexisoft", not putting too much pressure on the teeth, so I did not have any pain at all, but of course eating was a lot different. My back teeth don't meet anymore, and it takes me about 70% longer to finish my meals than before.

The worst experience so far was the extraction of two upper teeth, and the 1.5 weeks after that, where I was not able to eat anything but soups, porridge and pudding.

That was 2 weeks ago, and today I had my first checkup with my ortho. He said that now that he has got enough room to work with the movement will finally start, I received a stronger wire ("16-22"), some elastic rubber rings and some other weird stuff, and I'm already beginning to notice the pressure.

In about two months I will get my lower linguals and will need to have one lower tooth extracted (ouch). I will let you know about the progress I make

For cost comparison, I'm paying 6800 Euros for a three year treatment with a permanent lingual retainer afterwards. Traditional braces would have been around 5000 Euros in my area.

All in all, I'm soooooooooo happy with my new linguals - nobody is noticing anything, and still when I smile I know that with every second my teeth are moving a fraction of a millimeter into the right position.

So in short: go lingual!!!

I agree. I had the same concerns with traditional and ceramic braces and also had concerns with Invisalign, so opted for Lingualcare. I have a class II div II case (moderate crowding), laterals protrude past my front teeth.

After 2 months now of Lingualcare on both my upper and lowers, I love them!! I have seen excellent progress. My lower teeth are nearly perfect already, though they were never as bad as the uppers. My uppers probably look 80% perfect already.

After only a week, my speech was basically normal. Even eating is basically normal, though I'm always careful to not eat anything too hard, as I don't want to risk popping any brackets off.

All in all, as you are, I'm very pleased with Lingualcare. I paid $9500 USD for my case, but this also included an initial 4 month period of upper (maxillary) expansion with an A.L.F. appliance (a lingual wire that helps expand the maxillary).

I sympathize with others who want straight teeth but hate the idea of traditional labial braces. I'm a huge fan of Lingualcare so far!

Im a huge fan of linguals as well. I have had some problems with biting off some brackets, but that is because my bite is changing so much.
I love that no one can see them and also I dont have to see them. In one and a half months I have noticed some huge changes! Though my teeth are no where near being straight. I still have two teeth that are not bracketed because room needs to be made.

My speech was normal after about one to two weeks and I was told during this time I only had a slight lisp. The lisp sounded worse to me than others apparently.

I paid just under double for upper linguals and only did this because I didnt need bottom braces. Well worth the extra though.

Hi guys, nice to meet you & thx for your feedback.

It also seems to me that the slight lisp that I still have (especially since yesterday, when my ortho put in the first thicker wire), is MUCH more noticable to me than to anyone else. It's probably a matter of you knowing the way you speak for 20 or more years perfectly, so the slightest change is noticed.

As for eating, I have had to stop eating certain stuff that I did enjoy eating before, like popcorn in the cinema or spare-ribs. I avoid eating hard stuff, don't want to bite off a bracket and also the teeth hurt a bit when too much pressure is put on.

I also eat a bit less since it takes longer, and I also stopped having evening "snacks" while watching TV etc. - it's just too much hazzle focusing on eating and having to clean the teeth afterwards, so I guess braces are good for your weight/fitness too

Hi

I am another happy person with linguals. In my case they are ORMCOS.

I would say it took me a week to adapt, mainly because I cut my tongue with the wire the first day. After the first week nobody could notice anything different and nobody at work knows I have braces. I have told some people that I have known for a long time and they say they don't notice anything different.

My only concern is that after 5 weeks my teeth haven't moved much. I went to the ortho a two days ago to change the elastic band, he said it is going slow. Apparently everyone is different and in some cases it takes longer to move teeth.

My treatment is for 21 months and the cost is about £4,000 (lingual in my upper and labial tooth coloured in my lower). The cost with labial in my upper and lower was about £3,000. I don't usually show my lower teeth when I talk and I thought it would be more difficult to addapt if had upper and lower lingual.

The cost is for the whole treatment and includes 6 months with retainer after the braces are removed. Treatment time with linguals was exactly the same as for labial braces.

The good thing is that I will be able to see the improvement during the approx. 2 years that I will have braces. I hope in a few months the space from the teeth removed will have closed and my teeth will look a lot better.

I can now eat everything but takes me longer because my back teeth don't close properly.

My teeth don't hurt, they were only painful if I touched them during the first few days (probably because they haven't moved much yet).

I am glad to hear so many happy people with linguals