Metal Mouth Message Board

I'm supposed to be getting ceramic braces on my social six next week, with metal everywhere else. Thing is i'm kind of having second thoughts. Will they be easily noticeable? Should I just go with all metal?

Any thoughts at all would help. Thanks. (:

I am having second thoughts about my ceramic uppers. Finding them so hard to get used to. It's only been five days. I figure out of fairness I will try to make it to week two. If I still hate them I will talk to my ortho about paying for the metal uppers.

They stick out so much further and are really irritating my upper lip. I am used to the bottom metal already because they are so much smaller and comfortable IMHO. Just wanted to relay my experience. Yours may be different.

I've had ceramic braces since May and at first I hated them -- I thought they were big and ugly but now I LOVE them, especially now that my teeth are getting straight. I believe the straighter your teeth get the nicer ceramics appear. They just sort of blend in with your teeth after a while and most people either don't notice them or comment how good they look. What I believe people are actually noticing are my teeth straightening out and with ceramics I think it's just more noticeable than with metal (if that makes any sense)

Anyway, I'm so happy with my decision to get ceramics.

Hello!

I have ceramic braces and I love them! They are hardly noticeable. It took my co-workers two weeks to notice I had braces. The only downfall is the white/clear ligatures. They stain fairly easy and you need to watch what you eat.

Good luck!!

Hi,

I have self-ligating ceramics on the tops and 'traditional' ceramics with clear ligs on the bottom. I agree with other people who have posted that the ceramics are vastly less noticeable, and that benefit outweighs the slightly increased discomfort of slightly bigger brackets.

However, I think it depends on what your teeth look like as to how noticeable they are. Unlike hal2me, quite a few people have noticed mine. However, anyone who has noticed has made positive comments and I am glad overall that I don't have a very metallic smile.

The worst bit is the ligs staining (looking forward to getting them changed soon) - luckily only a problem on the bottom and my bottom teeth don't show much when I talk/smile etc.

Blackapple: Stick with it - you do get used to them, but it takes time. I am possibly slower than others in doing so, but after about a month I was OK with them. both top and bottom arch has irritated me at some point but I really don't regret getting them over metal. Good advice is to stay well hydrated, use loads of lip balm, and I use bonjela at night sometimes if irritated (dental anaesthetic gel - don't know where you are - it's a UK product, but there will be equivalents elsewhere if not the exact thing). Also have been known to make a sort of 'braceguard' out of orthodontic wax on those occasions when it's getting on my nerves - sometimes do this at night after cleaning teeth as it helps to give my mouth a break, but just use a little bit on the parts that are sticking in to your upper lip. I do sympathise, because it can drive you nuts, and can't comment re what metal feels like, but I suspect it would also be quite annoying at first.

Good luck all!

I have the ceramics on the top and I think they were more noticeable at first since I was having an overbite corrected and they sort of stuck out a bit, but now that the teeth are straighter it's a lot better. It also helps for pictures or social events so its not obvious from across the room that I have a brace face! I can at least ease into it instead of it drawing so much attention as having an all-metallic mouth.

As far as the ligatures what I have done is used the Pearl colored ligs since they are iridescent and resist stains a lot better than clear and white.

I guess it depends really on length of treatment and social situations what your preference is!

I had way more problems with canker sores with the metal braces on my bottom teeth than I did with the ceramics on top. If I had to do it all over again, I'd still take ceramics on top even if they cost a little extra.