newbie questions

[brace36]

finally braced up after liftime of wanting it. scared but no pain yet. is this normal. am now 15 hours post brace and there is tightening and some rubbing on lips bt no 'baseball bat on face' pain yet? will it come later or will i be lucky enough to be ok?

I want to buy a waterpik and have read posts which suggest waterpik ultra is the best. are there any cheaper alternatives around? I will have more updates and questions so thank you for reading.

[brace36]

I should have mentioned that I only have an upper brace for crooked front teeth. its white but not ceramic if that makes sense.

[brace36]

sorry only me again! can i buy the waterpik from US amazon as its cheaper. will it still work in the UK? where did everyone buy theirs from?

[BellaBraces]

US electrical items run on a different voltage to UK so I would not get one from the US

Can't help on cheaper alternatives as I went for the Phillips Airfloss which is even more expensive!

[Ellebraced]

Pain is different for everyone. My pain wasn't too bad, just hard to chew certain foods first couple days but mostly I have had VERY little pain the whole time just some tightness after adjustments or toothache feel sometimes.

Good Luck and Welcome to the braced club!

[juliebraces]

From what my friends have said the pain from the spacers is worse than anything you'll have with braces. May not be true for everyone, but the spacers are hurting me pretty bad right now!

[OldBikerBag]

Another rookie question:

What are the little white "beads" for that are on the arch wire? I have two on my top wire, on each side of a specific tooth and one on the lower wire on one side of the corresponding tooth. These two teeth are the only ones that have been slightly twisted to rest behind another tooth.

[jem]

Hi OBH,

Do you have white coated archwires? My first three archwires were white coated and my ortho placed little blobs of white composite material on them to stop the wire sliding too far in either direction. I now have a Damon silver coloured wire and that has two little tubes crimped onto the wire to act as stops.

Hope this helps

Jem

[OldBikerBag]

Both of my wires are silver. Hmmm....I guess maybe they're waiting until there's more room on the arch to pull those two teeth even with the rest ...?

When did y'all actually notice a change in your bite? I keep thinking I do, then I look at it in the mirror and realize it's wishful thinking.

[xanidu2012]

Wow 15 hours and you're just feeling the tightening I wish that had been me. After I got braced up about 6 hours later I wanted to have these things taken off. But everybody's pain ratio is different. I've been told that it hurts for a while, teeth loosen up but then when you go back for adjustments (wire tightening etc) its pain all over again. This is going to be a fun filled 24 months.