Newbie advice (add yours!)

[weird_wired]

Here's what would have been really useful to know one week ago, just before getting them on:

1. Vaseline!!!
I didn't realise that my lip would find it hard to "stretch" over my brace, and get drier than ever before. *Soft* lipbalm and especially Vaseline petroleum jelly is an absolute must, I carry it everywhere. Hard balms are difficult and painful to apply: you won't be able to use your teeth as a firm "backing" for your lip any more.

2. Drinking straws
My teeth were so sensitive the first two days that it actually hurt to drink water! Certainly nothing below room temperature is bearable. If you use straws, you avoid getting liquid on the teeth, which apart from increasing your comfort keeps the braces cleaner (and more stain free). I even drank hot chocolate through a straw yesterday.

3. Lipstick
Like the lip balm advice - lipstick suddenly becomes very difficult to apply, and if you bump the lipstick on your bracket it's a nightmare! Both in terms of cleaning the bracket, and the way it wrecks your lipstick. So maybe invest in coloured lip glosses instead, that you can apply with your finger or a small, soft brush.

4. Brushing
My teeth were so sensitive even the special V-brush the orthodontist gave me was too hard and uncomfortable. I recommend getting a supersoft brush (find a baby toothbrush even) to get you through the first few days.

5. Tiredness
Having a constant ache, that can be a headache as well as teethache, makes you distracted and more easily tired. Also a lot of painkillers can make you sleepy. So plan your schedule around this. You're probably not going to feel like doing extra-strenuous stuff or late hours.

5. Social activities
Social activities with lots of talking can be wearisome, as you might be a bit lispy (from swollen lips) and self-conscious as the brace feels so "big". Honestly, people will barely notice your brace, but to you it will feel like you have trucks strapped to your teeth! Also because eating is suddenly a whole new experience, you might feel embarrassed trying to eat in front of people, until you've practised a bit.

6. Eating
This is way, way weird. You probably won't be able to use any of your teeth at all for the first couple of days. Bumping a spoon or fork against them is agony. You need to eat mush, or stuff that is soft enough to mush-and-crush with your tongue against the roof of your mouth. So buy suitable stuff in advance (ice cream/cheesecake/chocolate mousse - there are some advantages!!) Also if you eat the mush in such a way that you invert the spoon and kind of lick it off against your tongue, you avoid getting anything on your braces, which is helpful.

There's probably heaps more that I've forgotten, so others please add the things that you didn't realise until you got braced!

[swan]

1. Vaseline!!!
I didn't realise that my lip would find it hard to "stretch" over my brace, and get drier than ever before. *Soft* lipbalm and especially Vaseline petroleum jelly is an absolute must, I carry it everywhere. Hard balms are difficult and painful to apply: you won't be able to use your teeth as a firm "backing" for your lip any more.

Actually, natural, non-petroleum based lip balms are better (see other posts on the forum). Petroleum based ones can dry out your lips.

2. Drinking straws
My teeth were so sensitive the first two days that it actually hurt to drink water! Certainly nothing below room temperature is bearable. If you use straws, you avoid getting liquid on the teeth, which apart from increasing your comfort keeps the braces cleaner (and more stain free). I even drank hot chocolate through a straw yesterday.

Don't be scared, though, not many people have extreme soreness like that. Usually, just avoiding extreme temperatures is fine.

4. Brushing
My teeth were so sensitive even the special V-brush the orthodontist gave me was too hard and uncomfortable. I recommend getting a supersoft brush (find a baby toothbrush even) to get you through the first few days.

A Rotadent (I assume other electric toothbrushes, too) is much gentler on the teeth as well. When the teeth are so sensitive, any pressure from the manual toothbrush may be too much, but the rotation of the electric brush will be just fine, because it doesn't push against the teeth.

5. Tiredness
Having a constant ache, that can be a headache as well as teethache, makes you distracted and more easily tired. Also a lot of painkillers can make you sleepy. So plan your schedule around this. You're probably not going to feel like doing extra-strenuous stuff or late hours.

But don't take a pain killer just in case. Your teeth make not ache as much as someone else's you've read about. And it may even be different for you after each adjustment.

5. Social activities
Social activities with lots of talking can be wearisome, as you might be a bit lispy (from swollen lips) and self-conscious as the brace feels so "big". Honestly, people will barely notice your brace, but to you it will feel like you have trucks strapped to your teeth! Also because eating is suddenly a whole new experience, you might feel embarrassed trying to eat in front of people, until you've practised a bit.

The earlier you start, the earlier you'll get over it, though. I sang in choir in front of more than a thousand people the third day in braces, that took care of any self-consciousness that might have been there.

6. Eating
This is way, way weird. You probably won't be able to use any of your teeth at all for the first couple of days. Bumping a spoon or fork against them is agony. You need to eat mush, or stuff that is soft enough to mush-and-crush with your tongue against the roof of your mouth. So buy suitable stuff in advance (ice cream/cheesecake/chocolate mousse - there are some advantages!!) Also if you eat the mush in such a way that you invert the spoon and kind of lick it off against your tongue, you avoid getting anything on your braces, which is helpful.

Also think of items that are a little healthier than the above, e.g. mashed potatoes (with gravy if desired), apple sauce, bananas that you mash with a fork, yoghurt.

[weird_wired]

5. Social activities
Social activities with lots of talking can be wearisome, as you might be a bit lispy (from swollen lips) and self-conscious as the brace feels so "big". Honestly, people will barely notice your brace, but to you it will feel like you have trucks strapped to your teeth! Also because eating is suddenly a whole new experience, you might feel embarrassed trying to eat in front of people, until you've practised a bit.

The earlier you start, the earlier you'll get over it, though. I sang in choir in front of more than a thousand people the third day in braces, that took care of any self-consciousness that might have been there.

My first outing was two hours after getting them fitted - and it was a meal (buffet) for business reasons. This was really tough - I hadn't even figured out how to eat stuff or to mangage my lips or anything.

6. Eating
This is way, way weird. You probably won't be able to use any of your teeth at all for the first couple of days. Bumping a spoon or fork against them is agony. You need to eat mush, or stuff that is soft enough to mush-and-crush with your tongue against the roof of your mouth. So buy suitable stuff in advance (ice cream/cheesecake/chocolate mousse - there are some advantages!!) Also if you eat the mush in such a way that you invert the spoon and kind of lick it off against your tongue, you avoid getting anything on your braces, which is helpful.

Also think of items that are a little healthier than the above, e.g. mashed potatoes (with gravy if desired), apple sauce, bananas that you mash with a fork, yoghurt.

Of course - I mentioned the treat items (frankly people should pamper themselves a bit for the first few days - you deserve it!) Potato salad also works fine, and you should be able to crush bananas with your tongue quite easily. Mango (cut up first) is easy, but strawberries unless they are very ripe are not.

One thing perhaps to be aware of is indigestion if you swallow too much stuff that you would normally chew up much more - I suffered from this, I can't be certain it was brace-related, but given the timing it seems likely.

[Eleni]

weird_wired, great list.

The only things that I can think of to add are:

A Blender (with a good ice crushing feature)
Invest in one if you don't already own one. A blender is your friend -it can provide healthy snacks or complete meals entirely. For those who can't chew, invest in protein powders found in health food stores. This, along with peanut butter and soy milk, are good protein sources. There are tons of smoothie books and good websites out there with recipes.

Toothpicks
I have a dozen in my purse/pocket at all times. You are not always near a bathroom when you eat and things will get stuck. Any reflective surface and a toothpick save the day.

Amazingly before braces, I had neither in my home.

[Ice]

Dont eat kiwifruit. Seriously.

[Evelyn]

I have two pieces of advice:

the first, is don't be dreading it too much or getting too nervous about the pain-I, as well as a lot of others on this board, experienced very little and got really nervous for no reason. Also, the pain I did experience was more of a dull ache, it's something that's annoying, but you can deal with it. When I first heard that I would be getting braces, I pictured some intense fiery kind of pain that just doesn't occur. Sometimes, the pain can be worse than at other times, but it's not intense. You can deal with it, I promise.

And for the second? One word: Smoothies:)

[swan]

I agree with the others. The kind of ache you get from braces is not like the kind of toothache you get from cavities and such. It's much easier to deal with. I hate the kind of toothache from cavities etc, but have no problems with toothache from braces.

[weird_wired]

Yes - I have heard people call it "good pain", which is a useful way to focus on it.

In fact now the pain has gone it's kind of worse - because you feel the wire isn't doing anything!

If it works, it hurts...

Though what is actually happening I suppose is very gentle, constant pressure that you can't always feel.

[Al Carter]

I had very little pain - even with two extractions - I took no pain killers following the extractions - I guess I'm lucky.

Anyway I wish I'd known how dry my lips would become...I am now in constant touch with my lip balm and it's coming into winter so it's bound to get worse.

Other newbie tips would be to get one of those little pic toothbrushes- they get where your tooth brush can't get to. Buy loads of little bottles of mouthwash and always keep one in your bag for post lunch rinsing. I used always brush my teeth after taking a shower - it was my routine but because the mirror fogs up - this was never an issue before as i didn't really need to look carefully at my teeth to brush them. Now I brush before I shower as I need a clear mirror to make sure I get to everything!!!

Buy cans of soup for lunch at work - many of my favorite eateries are not suitable for post brace food. I certainly can't open my mouth for a big subway sandwich any more.

I am fairly quietly spoken so ambient noise at social gatherings is always an issue for me being heard - now its harder as I am self conscious and can't project much because I don't want to open my mouth too much - I try to avoid noisy social scenes!!!

[swan]

Buy cans of soup for lunch at work - many of my favorite eateries are not suitable for post brace food. I certainly can't open my mouth for a big subway sandwich any more.

Cans of pasta with tomato sauce or meat sauce are another option unless you are concerned about staining ligs.

And always have a plastic knive at work, too. Sometimes places only give you a fork for the take-out food (or fast food places might not even have knives) but cut in bite size pieces the food may be very suitable for you.

[weird_wired]

Plastic cutlery is a good one - also because bumping metal onto your newly sensitive teeth can be pretty nasty!

Also be sure to order drinks room temperature if you can (I got pretty cold sensitive right after the brace was fitted).

Carrying a small bottle of water around is also very useful: to swill with, and also to refresh mouth/drink. I find that my mouth is dryer these days, perhaps because my lip doesn't close so well so things dry up more.

[littleshaddies]

OK, for all new or thinking about it....
If you are visiting this site you have been thinking about it long enough........
My advise...........Get on with it

By the way, any problems after you get braced just come here and we will all try and help anyway we can.

Have fun!