Metal Mouth Message Board

Okay so my braces go on Thursday morning. With all of this talk about elastics I suddenly remembered that when I was a kid in braces (30+ years ago) I would be quietly minding my own business when suddenly an elastic would break and snap rather painfully in my mouth. Please tell me that the quality of elastics has improved dramatically in the last 30 years.

Also, has anyone used any of the mouth strips or guards offered? I think that the one that snaps onto the arch wire and covers the brackets might be good to sleep in. Anyone have any experience with those? I must admit that I am starting to feel a little nervous about the discomfort. I had managed to forget about that part until I started reading here. I do remember that I swallowed more wax than ever stayed on... any words of encouragement would be much appreciated,

well i am one day in my wax is staying on pretty well so happy with that, it so far has stopped any bits getting sore. I had some on overnight and it stayed put. Dont know what brand it is but is says GAC on the little case (it came in my goody bag yesterday).
The discomfort so far has not been too bad, just feels achy all over but some ibuprofen is handling it pretty well. I had expected alot more pain than what i am having, so no complaints here its a bearable pain.
I managed to eat a turkey and cheese sandwich today for lunch (kinda tore it up with my fingers and munched it on my back teeth) works well and doesnt cause me pain I havent got elastics at this point, not sure if i will in the future but i imagine so. I reckon they would have improved them over the years since everything else has improved (like the self-ligating systems etc)
goodluck for thursday, you will be fine

Hey I got elastics on the SAME day as my braces and mine were the very thin ones and they didn't snap at all so yes the quality has improved and I just got my braces on this September 8th 2011.

I know what you are talking about the Lip Bumpers. My office does not have those available because you're supposed to be tough enough to handle the minimal if any scrape-age that happens. They actually dont advise you use that because are you going to walk around like that all the time Id be a little emkbarassed

I find that it doesnt hurt or scrap at ALL with sleeping and I have Damon braces and these brackets although are smaller they are sharper in the mouth. You'll be just fine without it. and the elastics dont break ive snaped them in my face trying to put them on but they didnt break.

Hope that helped

Thanks guys. I feel better now. Thursday morning at 8:15a (yuck) my journey begins! I hope that I am one of the lucky ones with little pain Either way, I think I am ready. I went to the movies on Saturday and ate my last bag of popcorn for the next two or so years. Can we chew Freedent gum?

The energy to chew gum is more work than it's worth. I use to love chewing gum, now I act as though it doesn't exist. Lol. Good luck on Thursday. I am sure you will be fine.

BrAcEfAcE4547 wrote:Thanks guys. I feel better now. Thursday morning at 8:15a (yuck) my journey begins! I hope that I am one of the lucky ones with little pain Either way, I think I am ready. I went to the movies on Saturday and ate my last bag of popcorn for the next two or so years. Can we chew Freedent gum?

Gum actually has to be sugarless in order to chew it with braces. I had someone recently offer me freedent but despite being supposedly "non sticky" It contained a lot of sugar in it, also unhealthy for teeth in braces. You can have 5 Gum and orbit and all of that kind of stuff. No bublegum. But even the sugarless gum to chew it HURTS. But like they say chewing is the therapy that helps your hurting teeth in braces stop hurting that's why some orthodontists give out bite plates/Wafers, but Gum sugarless can help with the pain.

I loved to chew gum, until I got my bottom brackets.. then it seemed no matter which gum I tried.. it stuck in the brackets. I gave up after that.

drgnchsr36 wrote:I loved to chew gum, until I got my bottom brackets.. then it seemed no matter which gum I tried.. it stuck in the brackets. I gave up after that.

Awh you should try 5 gum it never stuvk to mine. It usually only sticks if you cradle it in your mouth instead of keep chewing on it