Metal Mouth Message Board

After my adjustment a little over a week ago, I've had a bad pain in my gums on the top and bottom of the left side. I first had it when I took a drink from the drinking fountain at the ortho's office after my first adjustment. It felt terrible! Very temperature sensitive! Since then, the pain comes and goes, even waking me up in the middle of the night. It's been over a week now and seems more frequent. Sometimes it comes up all of a sudden. I asked the ortho assistant about it when I got my cleats removed and she thought it was normal. On April 20, I have a dentist appointment for a cleaning and X-rays. I'm afraid the x-rays might show some root damage or something.

Does anyone else experience this kind of pain in their gums, especially right after an adjustment?

genxsis,
I started to experience the same type of pain a few days after I had a stronger set of chains put on my upper braces. My gums became extremely sensitive to cold and even air hitting certain areas of my gums while speaking. Other times, the intense pain appeared for no apparent reason. I went to my dentist and he took x-rays and examined me but found no problems and couldn't figure out what was causing the sensitivity. I ended up going to my ortho a few days later and he explained to me what was happening. In my case, I had my upper 1st bicuspids removed 2-1/2 months prior to that and my canine teeth were starting to move into my extraction sites. He said that each tooth has a "seal" and when you have teeth extracted, the "seal" is still there. When my other teeth started to move into the extraction sites, this broke the "seals" where my 1st bicuspids had been located. He said that sometimes in adults, this can cause extreme sensitivity to cold, etc. He said the problem will clear up in time, but they took my chains off and are giving me a 3 week break from them to allow my mouth some time to rest. My gums started to feel better the same day the chains were removed. They are still just a bit sensitive but I haven't had the intense pain that I was experiencing. Was your dentist able to figure out what the problem was when you went in for your cleaning?

Thank you for asking! Actually, my cleaning appointment didn't reveal anything, except that I have developed a group of 3 cavities. Yikes! And another thing is that he wouldn't take x-rays because he said that braces just mess up the whole picture and don't allow anything to be revealed because of all the metal. I'm curious as to how your dentist took x-rays, and my dentist didn't even bother to try.

At any rate, he did recommend that I use an anti-sensitivity toothpaste like sensodyne to relieve the sensitivity. I tried using the anti-sensitive version of Aquafresh for about a week and the problem has apparently been solved. In a week, those cavities will be filled, and 2 weeks later is my next adjustment. It seems too soon!