Metal Mouth Message Board

I had spacers for about a week on the top, then they replaced it with molar bands and a wire. I never had spacers on the bottom. That may happen in the future.

I had spacers before my upper braces and they definitely hurt! But for my bottom braces which go on in almost 3 weeks, He told me I was getting full bottom braces on November 16, and didn't mention spacers or set an appt. for them. I guess I don't need them this time. THank goodness!

-Hannah

ugh....i hate spacers, i had to have EIGHT of them four on top four on bottom, they had a very hard time getting them in too. I have to have my for a week, much i that week, i was soup bound. I hated them, my braces dont even bother me. But the spacers were pure torture.

Hoo boy, did I have fun with spacers! Brace date was 10/6, so my ortho recommended my daughter have them in a week and I have them in a bit longer. So, 9/26, I head to the ortho for records & spacers not knowing what fun I was in for. I needed 8 spacers. It took 2 techs and the ortho 30-40 minutes to 'install' them. I thought my jaw was just going to fall off! I ended up having one brass one, no room for the blue 'o-ring'. Three days later I take my daughter in. Just getting over some neck and shoulder pain from my first trip. I had one blue one fall out and the brass one driving me batty. There was enough room to replace the brass one and they replaced the one that came out. I went to check on my daughter - she only needed 3 and it only took about 4 min. for her 'installation'. Spacers for me were a new kind of pain and let's just say that by 10/6 I had lost 3 pounds.

No spacers for me, thank goodness. They don't sound too pleasant at all. I didn't have to have molar bands so I am assuming that's why I didn't need spacers.

Thanks everyone for your responses, I suspose I'm just lucky in not having those nasty spacers pre-bracers...

Caroline wrote:No spacers or bands for me. I kind of feel like i'm cheating

Same here

Yea, I was wondering that too.. i had top and bottom braces for 4 days and my ortho never said anything about spacers, so does that mean i'm not going to get then? I hope so.. they sound like a pain.. All i have to get done still is get one tooth extracted. Can't wait till that's over..

ok I went to ortho Monday and guess what???He fitted me for bands and some kind of wire for the roof of my mouth I was afraid to ask ??? Then he put more (3 ) spacers in .I hope I don't need them for the bottom. I feel like getting the pliers and pulling them out .I have sat on the couch all day with heat pack on my face all day + tylenol every 4 hours .I can 't wait till they come out next Monday ,that will be 14 days with spacers...not fun all
summergirl

I got uppers today and I had no spacers. I have only brackets (ceramics), no bands. Ortho said its not necessary.

spacers are my worst enemy. i've had 4 of them on top twice. the second time over 10 days due to the hurricane everything was shut down. finally today i went in and got my nance and guess what.. 2 more spacers, this time on the bottom

According to the ortho. I've seen (I am still shopping around), his office doesn't use spacers at all because they use a newer technology that doesn't require the spacers or metal bands... I don't remember the whole speech on the new technology, but he said it had something to do with a strong bond made with a special light so it was just bounded to the teeth?

Does anyone know anything about this?

My back molars met up almost flush, so I needed 8 spacers in all. Four on top, four on bottom. I really don't see how my ortho would be able to get the molar bands on without spacers.

So far so good, and I'm on day three of the prescribed week. The next appointment is for getting my upper braces and molar bands on.

The assistant had some trouble getting them in, and nicked my gums up a bit, but hey, the way I see it you gotta do what you gotta do. On top of that, there's not exactly an abundance of space to work around in - considering that it's my mouth she was working in. I am pretty confident that they are in correctly though, since the assistant summoned the opinion of the ortho before giving me a clean bill of... spacer correctness.

The first few hours I thought "Hey, this ain't so bad". A little soreness but that was it. AND THEN... I actually got hungry, and decided to munch a little. Aha! Talk about eating your words! Although it wasn't the worst pain I've ever had in my mouth, it was quite sore. Foods which required normal to excessive chewing were not wholly enjoyable any more.

So for the first and second day of spacers, soup was on the menu. In fact, soup was the menu.
Today (day 3) I actually ate a sandwich, without much soreness.
The only thing that absolutely killed me about spacers (on the first and second day) was not being able to play my violin. I was, to put it simply, having awful musical withdrawls.

They are not as terrible as I was told they would be - and I'm pretty sure that the assistant put the largest ones in.

I feel pretty lucky compared to some of you guys, and to those who are having trouble, I wish you good luck and less pain. I hope the results you get are worth every pain med that you have to take, and every sleepless night spent with sore mouth.