Metal Mouth Message Board

Feeling a little frightened now by my friend's description of her ordeal when spacers and metal bands are put on her teeth! Sounds painful! I'm getting 2 teeth extracted and spacers in this week. The day after that, I have a presentation to give! Sob...
I'm worried about cleanliness after bracing too. I think I'm one of those unlucky ones who gets decay problems more than others, and metal bands sounds difficult to clean. Any advice on how to keep oral hygiene A1 while I'm serving the 2 years sentence?

everyone's ordeals are different.

I remember asking tons of people about braces. The funny thing is people who told me it hurts never had them lol. They said, "well I hear it hurts!"

most of my friends and family members told me their experiences and most of them did NOT have horror stories to tell. They all were extremely happy they had the braces. Of course it's not going to be completely smooth sailing but doesn't pain come with being beautiful

Don't worry about it. I got spacers and metal bands a month ago and what hurt was the difficulty they had fitting the metal bands- my molars are wonky, and they had to fiddle quite a bit, so the pressure on my front teeth from peoples' hands in my mouth made them hurt like I had had the archwires put on, even though I hadn't yet. Nothing too awful, it did hurt to floss but I didn't need advil or anything.

It won't be anything you can't handle- people love to talk about how much things hurt. It makes for a more dramatic story, no? Stock up on advil and wax and you'll be fine. And relax! It isn't surgery, after all!

As for cleanliness, a good power toothbrush and a waterpik will do nicely.

Good luck!

There were so many topics post on this forum about the higene, i think even most of them have something to do with the higene or with how to keep on well..
And about what hurts.... well, mine didn`t hurt at all, or what could be called "hurting", i have some tighteness first days when my wire is changed and some looseness on my teeth and sometimes it hurts to press my teeth together, but it is not that pain people can discribe. And i have never taken any ibuprofen nor other pain killers.
Placing molar bands and wire is a big pressure, but it isn`t pain either. If you have your molars in good condition, then putting on molar bands is not a big deal.
Good luck and read all you can find here about higene, so, then if you have more questions... you`re welcome to ask...

Thank you all for your replies and kind encouragements! I'm trying not to worry too much.

Meryaten, wow... the glue of molar bands releases flouride! That's the first time I heard of it! Its a very comforting good news.

Yup I did a research on the hygiene part in this forum and I've put them into word documents and printing out... I'm going to read it through to make sure I don't leave out anything!

jt2lang, as I'm having 2 extractions AND spacers in at the same time, I'm worried about the combined effect of the hurt! I'm hoping, since my first 2 extractions healed well, I will not have to worry too much about the extractions as long as I take care of the wounds like I did to the first 2. Hmm... I'm trying to be optimistic but can't help worrying as its an important presentation I can't miss. Fingers crossed!

Thank you to all! Best wishes...

Hi everyone! Would just like to let you know I've had my 2 extractions done and spacers in! The spacers did not hurt at all! I worry too much! I think I am even ok enough to give my presentation tomorrow. But this time, the extractions hurts like hell... It hurts so much more than the previous time. The blood clots well and now, 6 hours after the whole thing, I can eat porridge and drink water. No hot ones of course.

Wow, everything was done and now, I'm only waiting for my braces and bands to go on next week!

I'm glad things are going well so far!

Genie: It's nowhere near as bad as you are invisioning it.

-The spacers annoyed the crap out of me for a week, but they got taken out.
-The brackets didn't bother me much except they felt weird when I ran my tongue over them.
-The cleats rubbed on my tongue but my ortho flattened them against my molarband and I haven't had a problem with them since (except when I bend them eating hard foods ). The wire pokes a little here and there throughout the process.
-The extraction didn't hurt at all... the shots of novocaine hurt, and I'm not even afraid of needles! Because I was getting on an 11 hr flight two days after my extraction, I got my ortho to write me a prescription for Tylenol 3 (stuff they give to people who get their wisdom teeth taken out). The bottle is still sitting in my medicine cabinet. In all honesty, the pressure from the braces "hurt" more than the extraction.

There's going to be some discomfort that will go away once you adjust to the braces (drink lots of water, and wax is your best friend). I know I was blessed with a fairly pain free experience, but please don't let others scare you... it's not THAT bad. Good Luck!

Hi LadyTrouble, you're right, I'm leaving the painkillers for pain after I'm braced. I didn't take any at all after extractions.

Hi LadyTrouble, you're right, I'm leaving the painkillers for pain after I'm braced. I didn't take any at all after extractions.

Keep them handy, but you may not need them after the braces are on either.

I'm confused as to why everyone seems to find spacers scarier than extractions!!

Speaking from experiance within the past 2 months - None of it hurts that much, for me there was a bit of pain after extraction but nothing that a painkiller wouldn't sort out. Otherwise, Spacers and bands were fine and didn't hurt. Obviously everyone is different, but I think that the thought of it always turns out to be much worse than it actully is.

Feeling a little frightened now by my friend's description of her ordeal when spacers and metal bands are put on her teeth! Sounds painful!

I do find that some people who have already been through it all tend to exagerate on how painful it all was!!

As for cleanliness, just follow the advice given on this forum...