Metal Mouth Message Board

(Warning: This is a vent!)

OK, so I KNOW intellectually (and from reading this board) that one's teeth often get worse before they get better...but ARGH! Man, am I aggravated!

My teeth were actually quite straight when I started - it was a bite problem that caused me to need braces, not aesthetics - but now, after 4 1/2 months in braces, whoooeee are they doing some funky things. Molars getting all out of whack, other teeth at funny angles...etc.

At my last visit the ortho reassured me that this is part of the proces and that, in his words, orthodontics is something of a cat-and-mouse game: you fix one tooth and another one starts moving. You fix that one and another one goes cattywhompus on you.

But it is frustrating to see and feel my teeth getting worse and not better...and it feels like we're going to spend a lot of time fixing all this cat-and-mouse stuff. I do trust my orthodontic team, they are two of the highest-rated docs in my city, but MAN OH MAN is this frustrating! Somebody please remind me that this too shall pass!

I tell you, I have become resigned to my braces, but I do NOT like them. The sooner these things are off...the better.

OK, thanks for allowing me to blow off some steam here...much appreciated!

We have ALL been there !! Vent all you want...this is an excellent place to vent. After 1 year and 3 months I'm still waiting for my bite to come together. I've been told its all in the elastics phase which is coming after the teeth are all aligned.

From reading many posts I have learned that the people whose teeth were not very bad before the braces went on had the worse time of it with regards to their bite. The ones who had much worse crowding, etc. got better quicker. Go figure.

We'll be here for you..so vent away.

Sorry wren for your bad time. I, too, have gotten a bit worse than at the start but I am just not focusing on it as much right now. I'm just thinking about getting them off and figure they will be in the right place by then. I'm also anxious to see the improvement when I look in the mirror, as opposed to the improvement which one can't see (bite). Just hang in there, things will improve eventually, but I can relate. It was stressful to see straight teeth move out of alignment!

Maybe when you have very minor crowding, it is much more difficult to see the positive changes. I even gave up on taking pics for now.

I can really appreciate what you're going through. I can't see any difference in my teeth at the moment apart from the fact that my premolars have moved inwards and look worse than before I started! Not only that, but I had 4 extractions to make room for my teeth to move and they have moved but not all of them have, so now I've got gaps between loads of my teeth!! I look like a witch arggghhh!!

I know how you all feel too. A couple months into treatment I got a coil spring to fix my snaggletooth (upper canine) and make room for the adjacent lateral incisor, which needed to be brought forward. Well, that spring ended up making the connecting teeth rotated the wrong way, so instead of an arch shape, my teeth were in a funky asymmetrical shape, very noticeable, and it looked horrible! It made enough room for the tooth, but relieving that crowding also caused all my uppers to flare out way too much (ortho had told me this would happen, but I was terrified of extractions). I hated my profile with my teeth flared like that so, a full year into braces, I got 4 premolar extractions ... extending my treatment time for many months. Now, 1 year 8 months into treatment, the gaps are closing and things are looking much, much better.

cattywhompus is my new favorite word. I shall try and use it at least three times this week in a sentence.

I'm sorry your bite is so aggravating. How long does your ortho think your treatment will last?

Have fun with the new word, wingnut! It *is* descriptive, isn't it.

According to the original plan, I have about 16 months left of a 20-month treatment. Patience has never been my strong suit...

Thanks for the commiseration, everyone. I just go through phases where I hate these braces with a fiery passion. I'm sure many of us experience that!

yeah dude that sucks. there was never a gap between my two front teeth but they werent 1000% straight, so the braces created a tiny gap for a few days.

maybe it's still there, i'm not completely sure. if it is, it's less noticeable.

IT GETS BETTER.

yeah...as uncomfortable as the braces are themselves, extractions are the worst part as far as im concerned. its terrible having these big gaps in your teeth. i feel so okified sometimes