Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi everyone, this is my first post on ArchWired! I'm so glad I found this site, and also glad I found this thread!

I'm 23 years old and I'm getting Damon braces on June 7th. I've wanted braces for a long time (I had retainers for years as a kid, but when it came time to get braces, apparently I refused, and my parents didnt force me to get them. I wish they had!), but couldnt afford to pay for them.

Well, I got engaged on St Patty's Day, and my parents surprised me wiht an early wedding present by offering to pay cash if I wanted to get my teeth straightened, so I said YES!!

I went to a highly recommended and well known orthodontist - a father/son team with over 35 years experience. So, to make a long story short, I'm getting all 4 of my wisdom teeth out (they are all impacted, and one even has a cyst around it), and I have an old baby tooth that needs to come out, plus another one on the opposite side...I guess to even it out? I'll have my Damons in for 20-24 months, then a retainer on 24/7 for a few months, and a bridge (I think thats what its called) behind my lower teeth for life. My orthodonist assured me that the braces would be off before my wedding (July 25 2009), and I can pop the retainers out during the ceremony and reception.

I'm VERY NERVOUS about the extractions and how my teeth will look with gaps in them. I'm also concerned about this "sunken face" condition I've read about. Are these legitimate concerns or am I just being a worry-wart?

I'm looking forward to participating on these boards when I have my braces!

I think what you're referring to as a "bridge" is actually a lower bonded lingual retainer.

About the sunken face thing, I wouldn't worry about it. Your ortho sounds like he's got a great deal of experience and wouldn't extract teeth if it was going to make you look bad!

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding! This is all so exciting for you!!!

Best wishes on all of it!

Jenn

Thats great, Katz!! Very happy for you that you have such great parents that would do this for you, and the timing of getting them off before your wedding is so awesome!!

Whats funny is that while I was still single, I joked to my friends that I was getting married July 25, 2009. But now that I'm with the man I am going to marry, we have been talking about different dates and that date is one of them!!! We were going to originally get married in 2008, but my sister got engaged and is getting married July 12, 2008... so we changed our plans to let her 'have her year'. And its completely weird that I picked that date a long time ago, because I'm very superstitious and into numbers, I normally only pick things were all the numbers add up to 9. That date adds up to 7, a number I try to avoid. But my boyfriend's lucky number is 7 and we started dating on the 7th day of a certain month. Ok... thats just my weird story for the day!!


Anyways... its only 4 more hours until I get my Damons on!!!! Soooooooo excited. I am at work and we had a bbq for lunch to celebrate Easter. I ate as much stuff as I could that I wouldn't be able to eat after tonight, also brought in a big bag of apples so I could eat as many as I want throughout the day!! lol... Don't worry, I brought my toothbrush and floss.

Loved your story Dallison! I can relate to the number thing

Congrats on your wedding date AND getting your Damons on today!!!

Please write us and tell us how it went!

Jenn

I definitely will!! I'm pretty excited, but a little bit nervous at the same time.


If people only ever saw me in pictures, I wouldn't worry about braces because my teeth look perfect in pictures.

See: (I'm on the left)
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e107/ ... ison-1.jpg

But up close, they look like this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v43/d ... /teeth.jpg
(sorry that ones crappy quality, took it with my camera phone thats very outdated).

I'm excited for when they look great in picture and person!!!

Wow! You're right! I looked at that first picture and thought, Hmm she only has bite issues....

Then the second one showed that you also have crowding.

Pictures of me before always looked like I had two missing teeth.

I look forward to watching your progress!

What are the bite issues you see? lol

GOSH, NONE!!!!!

Me and my big mouth!

I only said that because when I saw your first picture, your teeth looked so straight.....

Again, Congratulations on all of it!!