Argh! What have I gotten myself into!

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#1 Post by **OceanGirl** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 12:04 pm

For the first 10 months of being braced I only had them on top. I had an expander and a retainer (both I could remove) on my lower teeth that fit together to help fix my jaw and overbite. Had very little pain or discomfort while doing the expanding or any pain from the top braces (last 2 teeth on each side weren't braced)

Fast forward to yesterday. Got my bottom braces on all my teeth plus braces on my 2nd last top teeth as well. PLUS a bite plane retainer which I CAN'T take out. There is the bite plane behind my 2 front teeth and has metal running to my back teeth where it is glued in. My mouth feels SO full. It feels weird having brackets on my lowers and on my back teeth. My bottom teeth all feel loose. I'm getting elastics at my next appointment. So now I talk like I have a really bad lisp. I can't say S or TH. I'm ready to rip everything out of my mouth and give up. It wouldn't be so bad if I could take out the bite plan. It is SO hard to eat anything. I'm not sure I can do this for very long. He said if the teeth moving goes well when the elastics go on then I should be debrased in 6-8 months. Its easy for him to say.. He doesn't have a mouthfull of metal! Argh!

#2 Post by **weird_wired** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 12:15 pm

It sounds like you have more devices going on than me, but I also experience quite a shock moving from just uppers to both uppers and lowers.

It really does feel like a mouth full of metal, and the lisping thing is a real problem. The only tip I have is to stretch your mouth ludicrously widely (think Julia Roberts if it helps!) to try and reduce sibillance. You may not want to do this in public, but down the phone it might be feasible. I had to do a voice-over the other day and nearly wept at how awful it was sounding, I had to try again and again. But I got there in the end (albeit with some intensive audio editing).

#3 Post by **hannah164** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 4:40 pm

I'm so sorry Oceangirl that sounds horrible!

I remember when I got my bottom braces on a few weeks ago I thought he couldn't have jammed anymore in my mouth! I also got a new wire on top because of two new brackets on top, powerchains, and bottom braces!

I was supposed to get turbos for my deep bite but my ortho saw that I didn't need it anymore because of my bottom braces only my front teeth meet my bottom ones!

Maybe you could call your ortho and talk to him about getting a removable bite plane or turbos instead! I know it feels like your ortho doesn't understand at all what you're going through because he doesn't have all this metal, I totally understand!

Good luck and hope it gets better!

-Hannah

Top braces: 4/28/04
Bottom braces: 11/16/05

#4 Post by **venusasaboy** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 1:20 am

you'll get used to it in about two weeks. that's how it was for me when i got my TPA expanders and braces and I couldn't eat at all or talk and my tongue was bleeding and man, I was ready just to tell them to take it out. And my friend had the same thing and actually did get them taken out and just gave up!! But i didn't and eventually it got so much easier. I still kind of have a lisp now but it's not even noticable and sometimes i forget i even have anything in my mouth. you just have to give it a week or two.