Metal Mouth Message Board

Well... its been a little over a month since i have been braced and let me tell you I can't be more excited to get my ligs changed! I was very good in the beginning but then started back up with my coffee in the morning, some other staining food and managed to YELLOW up my clear ligs beyond belief. I am going to brush and floss well before I go to the ortho of course but do you guys think it would be too much to ask if I can brush and floss when they take the archwire out? I don't want to hold things up - maybe they won't be busy and won't mind if I take 2 mins to take care of that. So... I've heard from you guys that pearl color doesn't stain much? Or should I try white? I don't think I am ready for a full-fledged color yet...although I can pass for yellow right now with the staining that I have done.

I don't see why brushing after the archwire is out would be an issue. Everytime my ortho does anything, even changing out just the front 6 ligs, they make me brush. It feels so good to floss without the archwire! and the lig color, I think I will be switching my uppers back to smoke. I had clear (they turned yellowy-orange), smoke (barely noticeable and no discoloration even with curry), silver (no discoloration but more noticeable), and the tester glow in the dark (it's turning some dingy color, can't really tell what color.)

I've had silver most recently. They are very discreet. I've found them difficult to stain and I've tried really hard.

Well, I had my "adjustment". He didn't change the archwire b/c he said that my teeth hadn't moved enough yet. He also said to come back in 2 months... I hope my treatment doesn't get prolonged. Funny b/c I was told that these type of braces move faster and treat faster... now I am told that there wasn't much movement? how frustrating.

Anyway, since he didnt take the wire out I didnt get the chance to floss sans archwire but i did do a good floss and brush before i went anyway.

I spoke with the assistant about the colored ligs... her honest opinion was that the smoke color look a little dingy so she showed me pearl and another one she called "tooth color". She and the ortho said that the tooth color don't stain as easily so I chose them. They are kinda like pearl but have a bone-color tinge to it - I would consider them a little more opaque than pearl.

Ok, so here I am -fresh ligs and waiting 2 more months till me next adjustment . I'm gonna have to figure a way to get my teeth movin!

I just had my first adjustment today also and after having the archwires taken out, my ortho told me that I could go brush and floss. I was up doing my thing for at least 5 minutes and they didn't tell me to hurry up or anything, just some comments about how easy everything is without the wires in and how a lot of her patients are excited to brush wire-free.