Metal Mouth Message Board

I have had these things on for 23 days today.

Somedays I just want to rip them off. Other days I am fine with them on.

It seems like everyday a different tooth is sore or feels lose. My front teeth are the worse. I am about to go insane. Then some days my bite feels sooo off and that drives me nuts as well... At times they feel so sore that I just want to bite down and get rid of the feeling...

How long will all this last? I have to have these on for 18 months at the lease. Will it be this way the entire time?!?!?


I have made some drastic movement in the past 23 days. So thats nice to see. But some days I just want to rip em out!!!!!

I am so sorry Insane...

I've been braced for two weeks and I really did find that the soreness went away once I started chewing. When I first started chewing I actually set a "goal" of the number of bites I wanted to chew. Once I accomplished that I increased the goal number and continued this until the soreness was decreased enough to where I could chew an entire meal. It took about 1.5 -2 days after I started chewing for the soreness to be gone almost entirely.

Good luck to you and your progress towards an "insane" smile...sorry I couldn't resist!

yes i highly recommend chewing when sore. when i was first braced, i thought chewing was too painful and felt i should wait it out. it wasn't until i started chewing that the pain went away. recently my central incisor has been bothering me so i decided to try biting into some soft foods and today its so much better.

Well I cannot bit into anything, it aches really bad, and when I do bite into something it feels like my teeth are lose and falling out. I HATE that feeling.

I guess my goal this week will be to use my front teeth more. Since I have been using my back teeth the most for eating.

Thanks for all the tips!!

I had a lot of crowding and movement in my first six weeks (you can click the link to my story and see the pics if you like), so I had pain SOMEWHERE in my mouth for about that long. Some days it was horrid and I had to take OTC painkillers, other days it was just a little tenderness. After that first six weeks, however, I only experienced pain or discomfort right after an adjustment. I was unable to bite into things for that time frame too, because, as you said, it felt like my teeth were going to fall out. Stick with it - it WILL get better!

I have been in braces for 10 days and I know exactly what you are talking about. I'm experiencing the same thing. I have the urge to bite down and I'm not sure if I should be doing that. cn't help it though! I also have a soreness that seems to shift around. It will be worse in one tooth and then that tooth will suddenly be fine but another one is sore!

Chewing on my back molars seems to be fine now. I agree with everyone else that chewing is important to get rid of that pain. I figured out that I chew on my left side almost all the time and after a few days, my left side was fine for chewing. Then I tried chewing on my right side a few days later and it HURT! I then made a conscious effort to chew on my right and within a day or two, it was better.

Oh, I'm sorry you are feeling so bad. But I can definitely relate to the pain you are experiencing right now. The pain for me, went away after 4-5 days after getting my braces put on and just a day or two after an adjustment. But, I gotta say, I've woken up from the pain a couple of times these past few months and they weren't pleasant experiences at all. The otc pain meds weren't working too well but taking a couple eased the pain a bit sometimes, sometimes being the operative word.

As far as chewing, the first few days of getting braced, I really couldn't eat anything. I tried chewing things as recommended by others here but I just simply couldn't chew. So, I relied on really soft bread (not the grocery store kind. I've had to go into these specialty bread stores or bakeries to get top notch bread that's EXTREMELY soft), pureed soup (sometimes even soaking the pieces of bread in them for a while and then eating it with a spoon, as funny as it may sound), yogurt (I recommend Yoplait Whips, yummy), and Jamba Juice smoothies. But, after a few days, it got better to a point where I could start chewing things semi-normally without wincing in pain. So, I hope it will start getting better for you soon.

Best wishes

I have had mine since May 3rd. I just had an adjustment done and it is driving me nuts! I have a powerchain on and it is making the top right side of my mouth sore and I can't chew on that side

I know exactly the fustration you are going through...I couldn't eat anything properly for almost two months sorry to say. I liquidised everything, I had my braces put in on Nov 22nd, so had liquidised turkey and ham for Xmas. The initial pain drove me up the wall, I just couldn't see when it would end...but I will tell you that the good news is that it does eventually settle, and you do get to a point where you can eat just about any solid food. good Luck!!

Thanks for the words of encouragement. When he did the adjustment the other day, I had tears streaming down my face it hurt so bad. It's getting better. I have a bew found appreciation for JellO!

My teeth hurt too much to chew for about the first 3 months. I can't remember if they became less painful because I started to chew again, or if I started to chew again because they had become less painful. Bit of a chicken and egg situation there

I do remember, though, that I became so sick to the back teeth of eating nothing but yogurt and mashed potato, that I MADE myself eat a chicken and basil in-herb-bread sandwich, which was delicious. It hurt, and I made a horrible mess, and I ended up with lots of food wrapped round my braces for the first time. But it got me eating again. My teeth are still too tender (two years later!) to bite into anything, so I just pull/cut things into bite-size pieces and put them in my mouth instead.

Try eating something soft - if it hurts too much, don't worry, just give it a try again in a week or two. Eventually you will be back onto 'real' food, but it's not unusual for it to take some time to get back to normal.

I'm in the same boat - my teeth still bug me enough to prevent me from eating everything I ate prior be being braced. The first week, I ate strictly yogurt, pudding, mashed potatoes, hash (ground roast beef w/ mushroom soup), and ice cream. I'm still having a hard time chewing two weeks after the fitting, but I'm making myself chew. Cereal softened in milk is working well, pasta, peas, stuff that's chewable but still soft. I doubt I'll be able to handle crunchy for a while - I had a tablespoon of crunchy peanut butter the other day and I ended up having to swallow the little peanut chunks whole cuz I couldn't mash them up like normal...

Hi hi i'm a mummy too!!

My ortho is from a small clinic in Singapore and he emphasizes alot on using gentle forces - he was actually surprised when i told him i read so many horror stories about pain on this website and he had to keep reassuring me, "it's not that painful, it's not that painful" and even showed me how thin the wire was ("can't cause that much pain, right?") before he put it in the first time... When i told him i was terrified of what i'd heard about spacers, he let me have my braces without molar bands!!

So... he was right. The first week or so was sore, yes, but it was manageable as i could just eat with my back molars and cut food up into smaller pieces. But i can safely say that since that first week till now (i'm in my 5th month already) i haven't had any major pain at all. Even the 1-2 days after each adjustment sometimes don't give me any sensation or discomfort... amazing!

And my teeth have moved quite a fair bit since then... so i'm really happy with the pain v. progress thing

(He has a website at www.embrace.com.sg - take a look!

i don't know if it's a matter of different pain thresholds (i have a v v low one btw) but if your braces are causing you excessive pain, it may be that your ortho is using excessively strong forces (which is bad for your teeth) - but i'm not really sure about this 'cos i'm not a dentist sorry

Cheers MOO (Mother of one)

I understand. I am jealous of the no "painers" It has been 5 months and I still have days that I hate to chew (or sneeze). Biting into anything is still out the question.

On the upside, I have found that you can eat almost anything if it is cut into small pieces. Since it takes longer for me to eat I tend to eat less. It will get better so hang in there.

Ms. Viola

Hi Insanemommy, I really feel for you. I got my braces the same day as you (upper only at present) and have luckily been pain free so far. My ortho did say he was using a "gentle wire just to get them moving", so I suspect I will have more pressure (& presumably some pain or at least discomfort) in the future, particularly I imagine when I get elastics (in September I think).

I have had some twinges in 2 teeth over the last 24 hours or so and am glad, at least it proves something must be happening, I certainly can't see/feel any evidence of anything moving. I guess it will take a few months before anything is obvious. It's a bit of a Catch 22 I suppose, God knows I don't want pain, but at the same time it does prove something is happening