Metal Mouth Message Board

Yeah, I am more blah the closer I am to my deband date because I'm so anxious for them to come off. I only have 9 days to go!

Hi everyone,
This is my first post so i hope i post it right lol.

Have been hovering around these boards for a while but never acually got round to registering. Been having a bit of a downer about the whole braces process recently so finaly registered so i could have a bit of a moan. It's quite ironic that this was the last thread posted, i didn't have to start one.

Anyway at one visit to the ortho i was told i was in the last stages and would be done in 4-5 months. Well that was five months ago and i still have 3mm gaps on both sides of my upper teeth. In the words of my ortho 'the've just stopped moving' and then strapped on the same type of power chain thats been used for the past five months with a see ya in 4 weeks! Don't get me wrong i trust her to know what shes doing. Up until this point i've been very happy with my treatment. It rubbed it in a couple of months ago that i've now gone over the estimated time when i found out i had completed the payments. Its quite funny that i was upset when told about no more ortho bills. lol

I'm just so fed up with the whole thing. I got braces to change one of the things i hated about myself and give me more self confidence when dealing with people and now i just don't go out anymore (well with the exception of work!) because i just don't have the energy to deal with the reactions i get off people (and 99% of them are good). I used to be fine and postitive about my braces when i first got them and now i just get so self consious and WANT THEM OUT!

Am i the only person who started off OK and then went downhill? I think i'm losing my mind sometimes. Anyway i'm not crazy i promise. Hopefully will have some movement soon and stary to feel good again.

Thanks for reading if you got this far,
louise

Most of the time, I'm just oblivious to my braces. I do all the required maintenance but just don't think about them that much. Other times, I'm just really *over* the whole thing and think about how great life will be without them. The constant maintenance, picking food out of them, etc. does get very old. I'm thankful for them, of course, and how great my teeth and bite will be afterwards. But I'm really looking forward to being done even though it will be another 12-18 months.

I can absolutely relate to so many of the posts on this thread. I got braced about 16 months ago and was led to believe I'd be in a retainer by now. Suffice it to say, I'll be wearing these suckers for maybe close to another year AND getting jaw surgery. Sigh.

One of my biggest pet peeves, though, is going in for an adjustment, having the ortho look at my archwires and say "Oh yes, there's still a lot of action in there. We won't be changing anything today."

I guess my best advice (to others and to myself) is to keep your eyes on the prize, hang in there, and visit this board to get a fix of support from the awesome people on it.