Metal Mouth Message Board

You guys rock, seriously. Thanks so much for talking me down yesterday.

I honestly think I went into a bit of shock after I had the braces fitted, I was totally under prepared for the complete invasiveness of the whole thing. It isn't the pain as much as how sharp and rough the brackets are. But today, day 2, is already better than day 1, even if just from a mental point of view.

Reading all the personal stories helped a stack as well. And seeing Greencapt's progress pictures made me realize how the end result will be worth the pain and hassle - amazing results!!

So, thank you very much.

Now, onto the wax question. Firstly, the wax is fantastic, a huge help. Thank goodness for wax.

Can I eat with the wax on? I mean 'eat' in the loosest possible sense of the word as all I am 'eating' right now is soup and yoghurt. (winner side effect = weight loss - who needs gym?!)

Also, can you reuse the wax?

Then, lets see if I can post a pic of my mouth on day 1 - lots of work to do!

I used to eat with wax on all the time. It won't hurt to swallow it. It may majically disappear, but just reapply and continue.

I've found that I like silicone better than regular wax, more resiliant to shifting around, but I can't find silicone around here but I can find this:



They are silicone earplugs and I found them at Walmart near the contact solution stuff. Like $5-6 for 12 globs but a glob is about the same size as a pot of the GUM stuff which is $1. They don't get soft and shift like wax does. And they have a thing inside that says it's ok if you swallow them.

Worth a shot.

http://www.macksearplugs.com/product2.htm

I've never had much luck reusing wax. It just kinda grosses me out, but I don't rechew gum either. The Dentakit.com site has silicone and regular wax available if you want to buy more. I like the silicone wax better. It is softer and smoother than the regular wax. You just have to be sure the bracket is dry before you stick it on. Good luck. Every day gets better!

Chris

I'm a wax pro. I've had to wear it almost 24/7 on 80% of my brackets for the last 1.5 months, since I had 4 springs installed to close gaps. I've only tried the normal wax so far, and I find it's easier if you don't try to re-use it, because it loses it's ability to stick after it's fallen off, or so it seems. I've tried eating with it on, but I always end up either using my tongue to get food out and moving the wax, or sucking it off the brackets while trying to get food out of my extraction sites, so I just take it off before I eat and reapply after brushing.

You'll find that after a while, you won't need to use wax as much as you had before, but just take it slow and test it out, you don't want to rush not using the wax and get a canker sore because of it.