Metal Mouth Message Board

The good news is - YES, they will close up. The bad news - it's going to take a long time.

I had 8 teeth removed also (4 impacted wisdom teeth and 4 premolars). That was about 10 months ago and my two gaps on the top have closed up but the two on the bottom have a bit to go yet. I've heard from other people on here that it takes about a year for the gaps close, so it seems a fair estimate.

Once you have the brackets and wires on, the gaps are a usually bit less noticeable.

Yeah.... I was definitely hoping to hear they would be gone in the first six weeks...bummer How long was it before you noticed a change in your teeth?

I noticed some change in a few weeks and more in a few months. Mine were so crowded and crooked that even a year into it, I can tell there's been a lot of movement, but it still looks horrible to me. I get so jealous when I see people post pictures on here and a few months after getting their braces, it almost looks as if they could be done! But everyone's different, everyone's teeth move at a different pace.

But you were brave enough to start the journey and you're already a year into it:) A year seems so far away to me:( Do you mind if I ask how old you are?

I'm 31 as of a few days ago! :-/ The year went by pretty quickly actually, but I think that's because I have things to worry about that are way worse than my stupid teeth!

Seeing six weeks kind of made me giggle. I had my extractions in September of last year and I still have gaps in the upper and lower teeth. They're not huge and you can't tell from the front anymore, but they are there. Probably a few mms on the lowers and half a cm on each side on the uppers.

Good luck! You won't really notice it after awhile, except when you make a whistling noise when you talk or accidentally drool.

A gapped tooth girl can dream can't she

They actually aren't bothering me too much anymore. The rubberbands hide them pretty well:) Even though they hurt...man it's just give take give take isn't it?

Yeah, it's kind of funny how the threshold for dental procedures has gradually lowered over the past few years. After a gum graft, extractions, placement of TADs, root canals, I feel like I could take on just about anything, maybe even the SARPE that was floated before I started the braces.

That said, dry socket in two of the extraction sites after the extractions still wins for most painful. Plus the packing material turned me off of the taste of cloves and meats that were cooked with cloves (i.e. baked hams) for awhile.

I hear that! When I had my four impacted wisdom teeth out I had drysocket on both sides...shiver...and when i went in for emergency care my oral surgeon wasn't in, so I got the "other guy", who must have had stock in that friggin clove concoction!!! When I went back two days later to have the packets removed (I actually preferred the pain) my oral surgeon went WOO! I can't believe how much of this stuff you have packed in there!

I actually get nauseous hearing the word clove

It's many years since I had my 4 impacted Wisdoms out. I still remember that awful taste of the packing material; I was constantly using breath mints for a week or so. Seriously that was the worst part of the whole ordeal. I believe they put that stuff in to prevent dry socket in my case (BIG teeth, big holes in jawbone). And the holes took at least a month to close up.