Metal Mouth Message Board

I thought I would post a topic to make most feel better about their braces! How long did you go before you noticed movement? I have had my braces for 6 weeks and nothing has changed except my bite. I have even had 1 wire change to a stronger wire and my teeth do hurt quite a bit. I dont understand how they can hurt (some are loose) and not move! I compare pictures I have taken each week and they are the same as day 1. I have gotten used to braces now but get discouraged when I look in the mirror and read about others progress which seems to change weekly. I am begining to think I will be stuck with the same mess that I started with! On top of that the lack of eating is killing me. I was at my ideal weight before braces at 6'2" 192 lbs. I am now down to 178 lbs. I can't complain much Im still eating a lot better than most of the people in New Orleans.

Nothing happened for a long time with mine. Since you have damons and you're in week 6 I'm guessing they still have you with a really thin wire. I had a thin wire for quite a while (october to march!), then they switched it up to a rectagular, thermally activated wire and I was in instant misery (I didn't eat solids for 5 days) and my teeth started sliding all over the place.

It was exactly 2 1/2 years until I saw noticeable movement-when my impacted canine finally decide to come down. Before that, there really wasn't anything that I was able to notice, but if you compared my before and after molds there probably would be some differences that are not visible to the naked eye

Eve

I was thinking about making a post about this same thing today. I was very discouraged after taking my one month pictures today and realizing that not a thing has changed. My teeth have hurt from day one and they've gone through phases of feeling loose and all, but alas no movement except that my bite is off. I guess I'll have to content myself with the floss sliding more easily between two of my teeth as improvement....

Please don't get discouraged! I had very little movement the first 6 weeks, but once I hit 8-10 weeks, my teeth started shifting like crazy. (and this was before I even had my archwire changed)

Give it just a little more time. You should start seeing some improvement soon!

try 11 weeks and no movement. Nothing. nada. zip. no movement. I take pictures every 2 weeks to compare and they are exactly the same. It's like the dentist is secretly torturing me by making me wear these braces. All of the pain and embarassment with none of the benefits.

For me, there was NO movement for six or eight full weeks. Then all of a sudden my teeth really straightened out. BUT since then, a full TEN MONTHS has gone by with NO movement whatsover. This is really discouraging. I just got rectangular wires put in, but I have felt no pain whatsoever. So who knows if I will see any movment in the months to come.

I didn't notice movement for MONTHS!

Then the movements are so gradual and you look at your teeth
every day. You heard the saying "a watched pot never boils?"

Take photos and you'll start noticing changes.

Chris wrote:I didn't notice movement for MONTHS!

Then the movements are so gradual and you look at your teeth
every day. You heard the saying "a watched pot never boils?"

Take photos and you'll start noticing changes.

why is that a saying? I watch a pot and it boils all the time.

I haven't noticed much change at all, but when I walked into the ortho yesterday she looked at me - across the room - and said "Wow! What a difference already!" and I just went UHHHHH? so when I got home I looked back at pictures I've been taking and there is actually change. I think it's a case of the movement can be so gradual you don't notice it yourself as you're looking at them all the time. It's a bit like you don't notice your kids getting bigger but when you see someone you haven't seen for ages they go "wow haven't they grown!!"

Hope this helps anyway!

PS can sympathise on the eating front - I had powerchains put on yesterday and I'm in AGONY!

Chances are they are moving but it is so subtle a movement that you really don't know it is happening. Do you have any teeth that you couldn't floss between and now you can? That's one way to tell things are happening. My teeth hurt on and off and something has just got to be going on, even if I can't see it yet.

sparklecopy wrote:

Chris wrote:I didn't notice movement for MONTHS!

Then the movements are so gradual and you look at your teeth
every day. You heard the saying "a watched pot never boils?"

Take photos and you'll start noticing changes.

why is that a saying? I watch a pot and it boils all the time.

Well, perhaps I'm dating myself here with that old quote. When you want something to happen quickly it never does. Yes, I know it does eventually, but usually not when you're in a hurry.

There are a lot more out there that can relate to this than I thought. Thanks I do feel beter. It seems that about 1/2 of us move within days and the other half takes forever. I wonder if it is related to the type of braces we have or extractions vs non extraction? and by the way Evelyn wins the prize at 2 1/2 yrs!

Same issue with me! I completed 2 weeks of braces today but do not see any differences. Last week I compared pictures with day-1, and did not see any differences. But I do feel teeth are loose abit, so I hope they are working by themselves without letting me know

Today I gotta take 2nd week pics, and compare again with day-1.

My another CONCERN is the four huge extraction gaps...which I hope wil close

I noticed a lot of change in the first three months, but now it's been almost seven and it seems like everything's just STOPPED. =/ I haven't noticed any movement at all. I'm so sick of braces...