Metal Mouth Message Board

I'm having some trouble trying to get the cuts in my mouth to heal because wax does not stick to just the wire without a bracket. I had extractions so I have just wire going across and the cuts in my mouth are thin, 1/4 inch (or so) lines but they are painful! With offending brackets it is easy to slap on some wax while the cut heals but I can't get the wax to stick on just the wire.

Any suggestions?
I am trying to stay hydrated and I do several salt water rinses a day.

When I hacked up my lower lip taking a basketball to the face last week I found a trick that has helped a lot. I had been putting an ice pack on my lip to control the swelling and decided to put it on the inside of the lip where the cuts were. I was pleased to discover that it reduced the swelling of the cuts themselves and they were less prone to snag on my braces.

I have done it 2-3 times since then, when my lip gets irritated, even though my cuts have healed, and I find the irritation diminishes and they snag/scrape a lot less - which is what causes the irritation in the first place.

Word of caution - we learned in first aid that you need to be careful when applying ice directly on skin/tissue. You can do damage if you allow it to come in direct contact for too long. Be careful!

Word of caution - we learned in first aid that you need to be careful when applying ice directly on skin/tissue. You can do damage if you allow it to come in direct contact for too long. Be careful!

Word of caution - we learned in first aid that you need to be careful when applying ice directly on skin/tissue. You can do damage if you allow it to come in direct contact for too long. Be careful!

Word of caution - we learned in first aid that you need to be careful when applying ice directly on skin/tissue. You can do damage if you allow it to come in direct contact for too long. Be careful!

*Sorry for the multiple post. It was posting even though I kept getting error messages.

You can try rolling the wax into a little sausage before you stick it on the wire, then make sure that you attach the wax to the brackets on either side of the offending wire, so that they are like wax anchors, with the "sausage" covering the wire.

I've also heard of people using wax on just the brackets around the offending wire, with the idea that the wax will lift your cheek up on both sides so that it sits away from the wire in the middle.

I hope that makes sense , good luck!