Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi, I'm 43 and getting braces on Monday. Dumb question: I have a bit of an overbite or deep bite (not sure really), but what is going to prevent my top teeth from bumping into the braces on the bottom teeth?

It's not a dumb question, there's a few different things they sometimes do.

a) a bite plate which fits into the roof of your mouth and stops you biting down fully
b) bite turbos which are like little shelves which fit onto the back of your front teeth to stop you biting down fully
c) cement build-ups on the molar teeth to keep your bite slightly open
d) not bracing the lower teeth straightaway

It depends how deep your bite is and how likely you are to bite off a bracket or chip a top tooth on a lower bracket. If they do not use any of the above methods, you might just have to be careful until the bite opens up a bit.

What Lisa said.

I have a deep - 90% - overbite, and my ortho said absolutely I would be getting turbos to prop my bite open. Most likely on the backs of my lateral incisors on top. If that doesn't work, they'll do the buildup on my molars. It will stay that way until my teeth shift enough for them to improve the depth of my bite.

I've invested in a personal-sized blender and resigned myself to not being able to chew well for a while.

OTOH, a friend's husband had them and was eating normally the same day he got braces. I guess I'll see.

Hi,

I have the turbos which I got on the same day as being braced, they didn't warn me about this.
Because of the turbos my back teeth do not close quite all the way but i am able to eat ok, they do take a few days to get used to though.

Good luck.

If you have a very large overbite does that mean your teeth will be to far apart to bite your lower braces? Or if you have a big overbite you will def need something to keep it from closing? Right now I have spacers and my teeth hurt so I constantly keep my teeth somewhat apart. The top teeth haven't touched my lower teeth since the spacers were put in because it hurts to much.

Twinjoy

In my case, nothing. My back teeth don't meet and my front teeth clash off the braces. It was quite scary at first, but you can learn to chew without closing your teeth!

Okay I have been braced as of yesterday and I have bite turbos on my two front teeth and none of my teeth touch. Please tell me how you learned to chew without closing your mouth. I find that there is very little I can eat other than liquids or very tiny stuff - almost smushed. I am so unhappy - of course it is all brand new right now too.

The turbos will be uncomfortable for a while until your teeth start shifting. I had to blenderize my food, too. Not fun, I know (I'm 53). THey have more torture devices up their sleeve than you can shake a stick at. I got used to all of them, except I could only handle one spring at a time. Those things were horrible. I cried my eyes out when he said I HAD to wear them- they kept getting hung, and I couldn't close my mouth when I ate. Oh, one more thing about the turbo- I was surprised that I finally got used to them, but(!), they did wear my teeth down in the middle where they hit (more bucks for the dentist, probably) . THe ortho told me that they were supposed to wear down, not the teeth. My luck. He told me I would only have to wear them 6-9 mo. and here it is 21 months later. I'm a basket case!!!!