Metal Mouth Message Board

Got my braces yesterday. I spoke to the Dr about my tongue thrusting issue. As a teen (first time in braces) I was such a bad tongue thruster that when I got home from school in the afternoons and tried to put my retainer back in it had to be PUSHED in because my teeth had shifted so much during the day. Needless to say, as a teen I decided that the best way to deal with that was to stop wearing the retainers altogether.
So the ortho tells me that tongue thrusting in adults is such an established pattern that it is almost impossible to correct by retraining. I am thinking, "Then why am I doing this at all if they are just going to get forced back out?" Apparently his view is that as my teeth get out of the way my tongue will have the room it needs to rest in a more normal position.
Long story short I ask him if there is something that we can put to help remind me to place my tongue in the correct position. I am thinking a little bead or such which will serve as a reminder... He tells me there is a prong they can put on the back of my front two teeth but it is uncomfortable. I tell him go for it. OMG. It is like tiny pins poking the tip of my tongue a million times a day (which only goes to show how bad my tongue thrusting was). Well I can tell you it works. My tongue is exhausted from the effort of trying to stay away from the evil thing. The only safe place is the roof of my mouth where it is supposed to be.

It is very hard to swallow with my tongue up in the place it is supposed to be. I seem to be avoiding it as much as possible. I am going to drown in my own spit

Wow, that does not sound like fun. I wonder how successful it is in the long term?
Hope it starts to feel better soon.

Oh my word! I had that torture treatment at age 14 or so along with braces either before or after, can´t remember. And now I´m back in braces at age 54. had no idea they still used that method to retrain the tongue. My ortho asked me if I had ever had speech therapy which I haven´t. I imagine I still tongue thrust and hope the braces work better this time as I´ll get a permanent retainer.

oh geez that sounds bad hope it works for you!

Those spikes are in my treatment plan as well, totally dreading it. I found a research article that was encouraging to me: http://www.marquette.edu/dentistry/curr ... hGroup.pdf One of the cases they mention is an adult with a significant open bite and she ended up with a good stable result. Please post back with your experience in a week or so, I am curious as to how long the adjustment period is, and how terrible it is in the meantime! Good luck to you, and try not to go crazy

I actually have gotten used to it already. I frequently find myself placing my tongue under the spurs in order to go back to my familiar tongue thrust position. When I realize I am doing, I place my tongue where it is supposed to be. If I didn't have the spurs, I wouldn't be reminded to move it. I never knew that I was not swallowing/placing my tongue correctly. In school when I saw a video that showed a profile of someone swallowing I thought it looked really weird. I never realized that that was how it should be.

Thank you so much for posting the link to that study. I think that I will ask my ortho when my treatment is done to leave them in place (I say that now... maybe in two years I will feel differently). I don't ever want to go back. I find that I am breathing through my nose only. I used to breathe through my mouth and nose at the same time. I feel like my breathing is better the new way. Anyway, I am hopeful!

Despite what your ortho told you, an adult CAN learn a new tongue position without torture devices. I had a really bad tongue thrust as well, and no speech therapist in the area retrain my tongue. My ortho gave me a set of exercises to do, and over about 6 months I learned to keep my tongue in the right place. It takes time and a lot of exercises, but you'll get used to it eventually. Don't beat yourself up about slips - it may be a "two steps forward, one step back" program for a while, but you will learn it. Just stick with it.

One really good tip I learned from an online therapy site: you can't thrust your tongue while you smile, so for a while grin (with your teeth showing) every time you swallow. It feels silly, but it helped me learn to drink water properly, which was the trickiest part for me. Food goes down easily, but I'd lose water out the sides.

I found a wonderful site of tongue thrust correction exercises which I enthusiastically performed for two days. Kind of how long I last working out at a gym lol. For me, my little prongs serve as "boot camp" for my tongue - I have to do it whether I want to or not!!!!!!

Good for you, I hope I can adjust to it quickly too. I've read that they are controversial, but it seems like small potatoes compared to the surgery that some people go through.