Have braces improved your speech?

[Marigold]

Before braces, I had a closed bite, narrow arch, and one crooked molar that pressed against my tongue. I would stumble over certain words and I had a slight hiss at words ending with s. Once I took a speech class and one jerky student mentioned this in his critique of my presentation. That happened years ago before I even knew I had ortho issues. I was mortified . Even up until a few years ago people would sometimes mock me when I said "s" words. All this has made me very self-conscious about speaking in general. I had no idea that it was because of my teeth!

So anyway, after nearly 2 years in braces the speech problems have gone away! Sure, having braces and elastics makes talking difficult for other reasons. But my arch has widened and my tongue doesn't seem to get stuck against my teeth anymore. I still feel self-conscious, but only because I know people are looking at my mouth. I can't wait until the braces come off.

Just wondering if anyone else has these issues, and have braces helped or made it worse?

[udubdave]

Made mine worse. Now I have a slight lisp, but I'm sure it'll go away once the braces are off.

[Mark1988]

I got my braces put on 2 days ago, this is the second time before when I was 12, now 22.I know its early but my speech seems so bad, I have a lisp, which I am sure I didn't have with braces before, its kind of freaking me out, I just hope its going to improve, 1st day was okay, but yesterday and today, everything just feels very tight, I am really thinking if I done the right thing getting these again, I can't remember them hurting this much before.
Is it possible my braces are tightened to much, I want to call my Ortho, but don't want to sound like some dork

[Viking]

No problems before, but now with braces my lips seem to get stuck on the braces when I speak. Once I got the question "Are you drunk?" when I spoke with a friend on the phone.....

[CountessDeSangre]

My speech seems to have declined a bit. I occasionally mispronounce words and I find myself repeating things. I can't wait to go back to the days when I was more easily understood.

[Angel269]

I am hoping that once my midline diastema has closed I wil have an improvement. Things aren't so bad now with my speech but at times especially words begingng with "f" can sound a bit bad but I have always done it and remember haing speech therapy at the age of about 5/6.

[xanidu2012]

Before braces I could speak very clear and pronounce all my words as perfect as possible since I've been braced up at times I have a lisp so bad it drives me and my family . My ortho says when that happens huge movement has occurred.
My 4yo laughs when I lisp and says "can you hear me now" cause my family constantly ask me to repeat myself. Its at these times I choose to be quiet . Lots of in my family

[Mirai404]

I find that braces improved my speech :)
Before I couldn't pronounce certain words and I can't articulate fluently. Now I can.

[redwine]

My braces have definitely affected my speech. I was lisping a lot when they were first installed, but speech got better after just a few days. However, my teeth are moving so quickly that every few days I re-develop a lisp. And I only have bottoms! After SARPE and everything that entails (in December!) I expect to have serious problems talking! In fact, thats the part of the deal that has me most worried... more so than swelling, feeling like crap, and everything else. In the end though, I expect I'll be thrilled.

[chimi]

It got worst... I have problems with f's, and it was the first thing my friends noticed!!!... Of course its my first week, I hope it will get better with time.

[Tobilei]

I'm another worse. I spoke well before. Now I have trouble with B's and F's and my S's kind of whistle out through my brackets in the strangest way!

Haha, at your cheeks getting stuck on the brackets. I've discovered this with mine. I feel like I have the strangest smile now that forever lingers just a little too long......

[Big Tex]

I don't know if it's better or worse, but my voice sounds different. Of course, I had jaw surgery. But a few people definitely said I sound different.

[Raleigh]

I am in my third day and it got slightly worse because I couldn't pronounce certain letters correctly. But it seems with practice I am slowly improving :)

[tfischer]

I hear myself talk differently so for me, braces have made my speech worse. I too have the lisp, sometimes, depends on the word. It also depends on how sore my teeth are - I don't talk as much since braces....

[MrsRJ]

[quote="Tobilei"]I'm another worse. I spoke well before. Now I have trouble with B's and F's and my S's kind of whistle out through my brackets in the strangest way! [/quote]

My speech is also worse, and I have that annoying whistle too, especially when I say anything with an F or S. I discovered it when I was singing in the car a couple of weeks ago. I ended up with a gap between my two front teeth because of my expander, but the whistling didn't start until after the braces closed that gap. Weird!