Metal Mouth Message Board

Little nervous about my 'twoth' adjustment tomorrow, as the first one took a while to readjust from. Going from the 'training' wire to an 18 was a bit of a shock to say the least for me. My daughter and I go tomorrow and she didn't get a new wire the first time. But, I suppose I must be progressing if I'm feeling things in my mouth. At least we'll have an early Dec. adjustment and should be able to eat more comfortably during the holidays. It sure worked that way in November.

I think I'll have a least one bracket repositioned, they're trying to rotate a tooth and I noticed the other day the bracket is just about 'slam up' against the next tooth. I never realized there were specific tooth sides, but I guess that's why I'm paying them the big bucks!

I do find that I've been eating a lot more the last few days because I could and wasn't sure after tomorrow what the next few days would be like. I also have been just a little more adventurous on some food selections, thinking that if I did pop a bracket, big deal, I'm going in in a day or two anyway.

On pics, is it a big deal to get copies of your records shots? Do you just ask someone on staff to copy them to your usb key? They took digital shots, so that shouldn't be a problem. Shoot, I can show 'em how to do it if it is.

I never thought about pics and documenting my progress until hanging around here and realizing that instead of thinking "why would I ever want to see my old teeth?" it might be better to think of seeing what progress I'm making or have made. So, if I can get my pics from records day, I'll have those and then jump a month to the 'twoth' adjustment and start doing monthly pics like some of you do.

I asked for a copy of my pics at the ortho and they printed them out for me. I scanned them and posted them in my braces journal. You get a better view, especially at the lowers, than you could at home (thank you lip retractors), but my teeth look more yellow in the ortho's pics.

Definitely take pics to follow your journey. It's nice to look at the older pics and see how well my teeth have moved already. Good luck!

I'm back, wasn't too bad. So far. Changed my wire from .018 to .016 steel. I guess the .018 was something else, as they said the big change was to steel. On my rotating tooth, I guessed wrong but did get a new bracket. They want it to rotate the other way, so I have a lingual bracket on that tooth and some sort of elastic infinity symbol appearing thing from that bracket to the molar band. The ortho did say that he thought this would be a better month for me and he wasn't surprised I'd have a tough time after the first adjustment.

KK, fingers crossed for a pain free holiday for you!

Like JN_Woods says, I asked for copies of records pics and they printed them out. Work calls, so I don't have time to do the scan and what not now, but will do later. But I think there's some indication of progress from the start of this adventure.

If I can get my daughter to let me, I'll take a pic of her new lig colors - orange and lime and it's pretty cool! I went back with silver as I thought I'd have more wire ties today. She gets her lowers on next month and I probably get that the month after.

My daughter said 'go for it!' This also gets me off my butt and posting pics here.

Anyway, without further ado, the festive orange & lime ligs!

Those ligs are pretty neat...reminds me of when I had orange and yellow.

Here's the lingual tooth rotate 'thing' I was trying to describe. Sure does feel weird. Sure hope I can keep clean behind it and not pop it off.

Update on the lingual rotator - haven't popped it off, not bad cleaning around/behind, but, man, has it made my tongue sore on that side of my mouth. Can't wax the elastic strap and it has a sharp edge that feels like it's really cut my tongue, but hasn't. Have been using salt water and the ortho's 'magic mouthwash' to help with canker sores.

Thanks for the thumbs up KK! Finally figured out how to wax the sucker and I'm much better now. Managed to really get some wax on it last night and slept so much better. I've been some feeling some pops and clicks in that general area, so I'm hoping it's moving in the right direction. Will hit the store tomorrow and restock on wax.

the picture is exactly what i had. i hated it, it made me speak funny, and food constantly got stuck there. now that they are done spinning, i want to ask my ortho if she can put new bands on without cleats. those things tear up my tongue. when i sneeze i am always scared because my tongue usually ends up getting stuck/pierced with it and i have to pull it off...eww

well my teeth only took about 3 months to completely rotate so dont worry not to long!

good luck!