Metal Mouth Message Board

Is there a type of guard or anything I can wear while I'm sleeping? I just got six month smile braces a few days ago and it's taking a bit to get used to. I'm a side sleeper and I don't want the braces digging into my cheeks. Thanks for the help!

Talk to your orthodontist and your dentist. I'm a grinder...so I had a night guard before braces...the orthodontist thought I would stop because of my brace, but he was wrong. My dentist took a mold of my top teeth and made a special flexible night guard that was a bit over sized to accommodate my teeth moving. It can be done. My treatment time is much longer than 6 months, so I will have them re-made pretty frequently as things change, but every case is different.

Your cheeks will toughen up quickly; usually within a couple of weeks. While lots of people use wax during the daytime, night is really the best time NOT to use it, as your mouth doesn't move much (so it's not that painful), and the gentle rubbing will help the necessary calluses form quickly.

You will get used to it and your cheeks will toughen up soon. I am also a side sleeper and I keep moving around at night going from sleeping on my back to one side to the other and back and I had the same concerns you have.

I'm around a month in to my treatment and since I was concerned about the braces digging in to my cheeks as well, I had wax on 24/7 for the first couple of weeks and I found that it was just a pain in the neck to keep up with it. So after the first couple of weeks, I'd only put wax on the bands on my first molars because the attachments on them drove me nuts, yet it didn't help a whole lot and I kept getting blisters right where the bands are. So, I just decided to quit on the wax completely and I find it to be way better since those blisters/callouses have hardened up and now don't bother me anymore.

I find if I kind of puff out my cheeks with air first thing in the morning, before I try to talk or move my mouth much, I can disengage the braces from my cheek tissue and free things up a little bit.

I think it would be best to try to get used to it. The sooner you get used to it the better. You shouldn't move much while sleeping so I don't see a lot of problems going on except for the first few days maybe. All the best!

Although I've only had my braces on for a few days now, I actually have a different opinion. Based on my own experiences over the years as a callused musician, I feel that my soft tissue thickens up best when the irritant pressure on it is varied and non-continuous. So I've gone wax-free during the daytime when the pressure sites are always changing. But at night when the pressure is fairly firm and persistent (I'm a committed stomach sleeper!) I definitely wax the 2-3 spots that are the most tender. It's kept the rawest spots from turning into bad sores and I hope to graduate from the wax altogether in another couple of weeks. I think a full mouth guard would annoy me personally, but I can see how one could be useful!

For the first few months my brackets seriously dug into my cheeks and they were really cut up and painful... eventually the inside of my lip and cheeks just got immune to it... guess the skin just got harder as a defence mechanism! lol

I started having a problem with my class II elastics rubbing a deep grove into my cheek and my Ortho gave me some little triangle shaped guards to use. Apparently they use them to keep areas in your mouth dry when doing small procedures. They have a paper like coating and adhere to the inside of your cheek. They aren't completely unnoticeable when you put them in but they work great for allowing your cheek time to heal up.