Metal Mouth Message Board

I posted in someones braces story where there was talk of spacers. But I have decided to start a thread here as well as i have a question or two.

First of all are spacers and seperators the same thing?
I got what my ortho referred to as seperators in today and they are these little blue elastic things that he magically placed between my teeth. I here a lot of people get pain with spacers and Im wondering if thats what I do actually have, i have had them on for about 5 or so hours no and I dont even know they are there YET!!! Im also wondering if these things do get more painful or is it some different type of spacer/seperator that gives the pain. I saw a pic in one of the braces stories of some "spacers"and they were like these metal hook things that were between the teeth.

Anyway Im just curious and wondering if i should keep the pain killers in tow just in case....

Yes, spacers and separators are the same thing. They are usually the little blue o-rings, though sometimes, metal ones are used.

Some people have lots of pain, a lucky few have none whatsoever. Those who have pain, say that they are the spacer pain is the worst, that nothing else after even comes close. It really depends on the individual

Yes, bring along the pain killers in case. The pain sometimes starts the next day.

Thanks guys. Yeah I have those little blue o rings. I ate spaghetti last night and that was ok. And no pain when I woke up this morning, the teeth do feel a little tender, but then I ate toast and yep I felt it. I guess this is a taste of things to come. I have to be thankful I dont have those metal ones. My teeth are very tight.

Lil' Tina wrote:Can someone please help me... I just got these spacers in my teeth about three days ago, and they are the mose uncomfortable little things in the world... I keep reading on them and everyone is saying that the discomfort should go away in a couple of days after they have been placed on my teeth.. but guess what?? Its been like two days and they feel like they are gettting worse..Grrrrrr!!! Not only do i feel my teeth shifting which are also killing me, my gums (where the spacers are) feel OD sore...(the kind of sore that you get if you've flossed to hard)

Does anybody feel my pain?? If so please tell me something, anything that will keep me from ripping these little blue things out of my mouth...

Thank you in advance for your help and advice,
Lil' Tina aka Very New to Braces

If it is any consolation, day 3 was the worst day for me with spacers. They started to feel better by day 4 and by day 6 they didn't hurt at all.

Hang in there - I'm sure that this discomfort will pass. Ibuprofin helped me quite a bit.

I had mine in for one whole month (with a brief respite of about 5 minutes after week 2, but my ortho put 'em back in again), and the pain didn't really go at all. Suck it up, is my advise; you can't do anything about it. Just think though, that this is the worst part over and done with quite quickly

hey,


I had my spacers put in 4 days ago. the second and 3rd days were the worst and i was in horrible pain. Today the pain isnt so bad but i still cant eat anything hard. I'm trying to not think about it though because i'm assuming everything that comes after this is going to hurt way worse =/

I hope you feel better! Take lots of advil thats helped me a bunch

Nah, the molar bands are fine, I dont feel mine one bit.

Lil' Tina wrote:

Can anyone let me know if the band gives a similar feeling as the spacers???

Thanks

No, not for me at least. It felt very strange for a few days, but not painful. I go used to it quickly.

The only thing that bothered me about the molar bands was that there are little hooks on the lingual (tongue) side that were cutting up my tongue pretty badly. I went back to my ortho after about a week (after using lots of wax) and she just cut them off. My bands haven't bothered me since.