Metal Mouth Message Board

Okay I've had braces on for about a week now and I told a fair few people about it before the big B-day. The part that is getting really annoying is when you see a friend for the first time after your banding and they ask
"Can I see?" - I can understand others wanting to have a look cause I have done the same things with my friends that have had braces in the past (that part doesn't annoy me) but the weird thing is I never know how to "reveal" them . It's a toss up between a big cheesy smile (which is not the most comfortable a couple days in and quite frankly always scared me that I'm going to get this reaction > ) and a half open of the mouth which reminds me of a dentist visit...

Anyone experience this - What do you do?

LOL- I had the same problem, particularly because of severely crowded teeth and years of making sure that I showed them as little as possible. It went against everything in my being to actually *show* my teeth to people! But you know, after a couple of weeks I got used to it. At first it would just be the cheesy smile but I also had a palat expander and some people wanted to see *that* (the weirdos! ).

Basically I told myself 'hey self- you've done this to correct the problems and if people can't see that aspect of it then... well... screw 'em!'

Of course people looked at my funny for talking to myself.

Nowadays I find my mouth open more and more (much to my wife's chagrin) and in just a few months my previously crowded teeth are a shadow of the past!

I know the feeling Serendipity! Except I still feel too self conscience to smile big when people ask to see.
I guess you could just smile like you do when you laugh. I don't know! I guess I'll think more on it when I get my bottom braces!
Good luck!

-Hannah

oh yes this s*cks. I'm so much used to NOT to show my teeth that I don`t even know how to smile in a relaxed way. Evryone wants to see - of course.

To make things worse only one of the centrals decided to stand up leaving a bunny gap right there in the middle. Fits so nicely with my fang. My teeth are much worse now than before - and everyone wants to see ...

This was the WORST! The day of getting them on, I didn't even show my Grandmother when she said: "Let me see!" I shook my head, and that was that....I just didn't want to make a big deal of them, so when others wanted me to show them off, I just felt even worse about them.

I am getting better at it!

AND THE REALLY EXCITING STORY: I have had them on for almost 2 weeks now, and last night, I went out-out for the first time with my boyfriend to the bars with a bigger group of our friends. It was the first time many of them saw me since getting the braces on.

At the end of the night, a full night of dinner, drinks, more drinks, more bars, etc. with our group of 10 or so, I brought up my braces in some random comment, and one of the guys I was talking to said "what braces?!" I was like, "on my teeth!" He said, "wait, you have braces?!? I didn't even notice. Let me see!" This was the first time I was actually excited that someone said "Let me see!" because he didn't even notice them before. I smiled right away, gave him a hug, and said "Thank you!!". He just laughed, and couldn't believe that he didn't realize earlier.

I am still smiling about it! So, I guess the reaction to the question is truly circumstantial!

Big cheesy grin. I've tried the other way and I get " I can't really see them", so you end up doing the big cheesy grin anyway. I have to laugh along with you guys because I certainly felt the same way too. I've spent all these years perfecting the teeth hiding smile and suddenly everyone wants to see what I've been trying to hide! I got over it quickly enough though.

I figure "give the audience what they want" so I cross a maniacal grin, with the "aaah" you do when a doctor is examing your throat, and stick out my tongue for added dramatics. The final result is a toothy snarly demented grimace. I love it!

Well my approach is this... with any issue, not just braces, that I am uncomfortable with/don't want to discuss in detail/don't want to be made into a big deal: don't wait for the other person to ask about it, and therefore let them control the situation. If you bring it up first, you control the information you want to give out. If I know someone is going to ask or run into someone I haven't seen in awhile who doesn't know I got braces, I will bring it up, BRIEFLY, say something like "Guess what I got braces!", give them the , and they will either say something like "good for you" or if they are interested why, then again I can give out a brief explanation of what I want to say, without feeling like I'm being interrogated. Works every time. I have never had anyone go , but if they did I wouldn't feel bad since that would be their problem, not mine.

Big cheesy grin for me! I thought for sure I'd be trying to hide them, but I keep forgetting they're on now and people eventually end up getting my usual big smile anyhow.

Besides, having one tooth stacked behind the other, if I open my mouth to show why I got them (can someone explain that question to me? I thought the reason for all this was fairly self-evident!), I usually get worse responses. The most recent was "OH . . . MY . . . GOD! Wait, let me see it again . . . WOW!" That, plus the horror stricken expression, is not exactly what I was going for.