Metal Mouth Message Board

I just got my ceramic brackets on my uppers 2 months ago. My lower brackets and wire go on Dec 9. The ortho is afraid that my bite is such that without further intervention, when I bit, my upper teeth would snap the lower brackets off. So, the doctor mentioned some sort of prevention by putting some bonding on my back molars for a few months, until my front lower teeth are closer to their final positions.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Does the molar bonding (or whatever it's called) have an effect on speech? Is there an effect on eating and chewing? On jaw muscles? Anything else?

Thanks,
Craig

I currently have one of those in place on one of my back molars. It was cemented on because I did bite one of my brackets off (hurt a lot). It's a little difficult to adjust to for the first day or two--not really from a speech stand point but it makes eating/chewing difficult. Once you get used to chewing with this on (your teeth most likely won't allow you to bite down all the way) you're fine. Right now even with one in place I've gotten to the point where I can chew pretty good. Cut your food really, really small. Having one of these on is not as bad as bitting off your bracket and you'll adjust quickly.

I had those for the grand total of about 24 hours before they drove me crazy, haha....but mine were on there and shouldn't have been because of a cross bite....but not being able to put my teeth together at all was really annoying to me....but in the same respect, biting a bracket DOES hurt......6 of one..half a dozen of the other I guess...would trust your ortho on it!

I guess it could be worse, I have the cleats on a total of 12 teeth, 3 in each quadrant...not sure what it was about the bonding but man did it drive me up the wall...I hadn't eaten the day I got my braces on and then things took WAY longer than they were supposted to when I did get them on...little background, I had my upper right canine pulled and replanted the same day I got bracketed becuase it was 180 degrees off...ie the lingual side was to the front....so by the time they were finished all I really wanted was something to eat, and I got french fries at the school cafeteria thinking they would be nice and soft to eat....but when I realized I couldn't chew...it got to me....but mine were painful...not to the teeth per say but I couldn't align my jaw in any comfortable way...so the next day I called my ortho and asked if this was right and he said that if they were causing me pain, then something wasn't right, when he checked the bite, they found that the crossbite was messing it up. Ya know....just posted about biting a bracket and what do I do but jinx myself and bit one, lol. Ah the joys!

I've got molar buildups on both sides and they have not been a problem. They haven't affected my speech or caused any other problems other than making eating a bit more of a challenge. The key to eating is to cut your food into really small pieces and not to take large bites. My lower braces will go on in about six months after my upper teeth move. Before I got my braces I couldn't fathom how I could live with them for that long but after having them it really is not that bad. Good luck!

I've had molar putty build ups on two of my back lower molars simce the start of treatment, 18 months ago. I was told it would only be for the first 6 weeks, but there's no sign of it being removed yet.

I'll be honest and say I found it very hard to get used to - I couldn't eat normal food with them in initially, so was on a mush diet for 3 months, until I finally got hungry enough to have a messy attempt at eating a sandwich. To this day, I find some foods impossible to eat because only 1 pair of molars on each side meet, thanks to the putty, e.g. salad leaves, spinach, asparagus are off the menu. It also gave me jaw ache because it was cranking my bite apart by about 8mm, in a position my jaw was not used to sitting in. I've ground a few chunks off the edges in my sleep.

That said, even -with- the putty, in the first month or two I still managed to clang my lower brackets with my top teeth and it was very painful and uncofortable. It would have been much worse without it.

I'm used to it now. But it took a long time and has been the worst part of the treatment for me, but with a deep bite there's not really any choice. In my teens I briefly had braces (and no putty), but because I bit my lower brackets off in my sleep so many times, my mother got fed up of having to take me to get them re-attached and called a halt to the treatment.

I have them now two on the bottom. Don't fret. The first day/week they took some getting used to while eatting. I LOVE them now, they keep me from killing my teeth at night and they will keep me off my brackets on the bottom I hope. If I had to wear these the rest of my life I would. (I won't) But I do love them they make me feel safe now.