Metal Mouth Message Board

Here's something I do, and I wonder if anyone else does it:

Sometimes I get really impatient and, if I'm watching TV or something, I'll actually push lightly on my teeth with my fingers in the direction where the teeth need to move! It's probably bad to do - but I just feel like I'm giving it a little added boost, an extra little push, right?

Like, for example, my canine teeth are still too high and need to move toward the back a little. So I actually push on them - not super-hard or anything. It's just that, after a few weeks, I don't feel like the powerchains are pulling anymore, and I hate to think that I've got these things on my teeth without it doing anything.

Does anyone else do this? Do you think it's bad?

i feel like my teeth need to shift so i have the habit of pushing my tongue against them...it's like a flexing thing and the more i try not to the more i want to.

Yeah I know what you mean. I do that all the time with my extraction gaps. It is just a habit to give them a helping hand!
I don't know if it is bad, but the amount of pressure we are putting on it probably does nothing at all. I tend to think it's more psychological than anything.

same here- its such a bad idea I think, it only adds more pressure and tension, sometimes elongating the treatment time I've heard- but it'ss soooo hard to stop!

I do the same although I really really try not too lol

HOW FUNNY!!! I do the same thing! I used to push up on my aligners when I had the invisilign too. Habits are so hard to break..LOL!

I have every nasty bad habit in the book, including this one. Actually I do this and I like to just kind of catch my fingernail on the bracket. It is kind of like biting your nails. I never bit my nails before getting braces though! I am surprised that i have not gotten sick this winter, yet knock on wood. This stupid habit can't be very good during flu season! Also, brushing my teeth in public bathrooms has me a bit germophobic. Ick!


Maybe after my next adjustment things will be much straighter and I will just start leaving everything alone. I know I am a little better now than I was when the braces first went on. When I first got them I was checking my teeth in the mirror like every five minutes. Now I don't do that - only like 1 or 2 times a day. Also when I first got them on I was checking the inside of my cheek for sore and dents and I stopped doing that. So I am hoping things will get better and better.

I also push against my teeth with my tongue, my teeth are being move forward and I feel like I am helping them to move faster. I will also push on my teeth that are loose and shift them, I know thats just a bad habit, but I just can't help myself.

Glad to know that I am not the only one with the bad habit.

I have been "pushing" on my teeth since I can remember.

Before I had braces I thought if I pushed on them I'd be able to straighten them!! ha haha

No such luck............but YES...........I too have this habit!!!

brat 2 wrote:I also push against my teeth with my tongue, my teeth are being move forward and I feel like I am helping them to move faster. I will also push on my teeth that are loose and shift them, I know thats just a bad habit, but I just can't help myself.

Glad to know that I am not the only one with the bad habit.

Same here.

Thats just too funny. BAck when i started 11 months ago, i had a gap between my front teeth. I would literally grab the two teeth and push them together. and i would actually see them move together like 1 mm. But then it would revert back to its position slowly.

It was an absoilutely stupid thing for me to do, i woulda just created gaps between the ohter teeth. Well i stopped the habit and my teeth moved anyway and its all super straight now. Because i know it s a slow process which involves every single tooth.

good to know i wasnt the only silly one.

This is so funny....I had to share it with you all and Lesdents since you started the thread.

I was at church yesterday talking to a friend of mine-50 something-not that it matters, but she got braced this fall..........anyway, we were talking about our progress. She showed me a canine that has been causing her troubles for years and says ]"I always PUSH on it with my tongue!!! Like all day to give it a boost to move!"[/ I just about fell over laughing. She looked at me like I was crazy and then told her about the board and how we had a thread about this topic. Then she fell over laughing!

Just thought I'd share that with y'all.............funny how we all have this habit and didn't even know it!

Have a GREAT Day!!!

Yep - I do this too. Just giving those lower laterals a little helping hand. It's funny that so many people do it - I guess we all thought we were the only ones. Thank goodness for this board so we know we're not alone in our funny habbits.

I have an overbite and my bad habit is put my tongue in front of my teeth and then SUCK on the front teeth to urge them backwards...just a weird habit I have picked up since I got those top braces. Karen

My right lateral is behind my front teeth, and I used to push on it alllllllllllllllllll the time (so hard that it hurt) when I was younger. I don't push on my teeth now, mostly because it just feels weird (like using your hand when it's totally fallen asleep, that's the closest thing I could equate it to).

When I had spacers I would bite down on them, because I liked the bouncy-ness of the spacers. That and my teeth couldn't touch all the way.

Now I move my lips all over my braces. I think it's actually helping (even though I probably look like Mr. Ed when he was talking), since for a while totally closing my mouth was difficult to do. Now it feels more natural. There are three teeth on the bottom that seem to be lining up all right, and every morning I run my tongue across them to see if they've gotten any more even with each other. I also run my tongue all over my molar bands. It's really quite amazing I don't have more sore spots. The one sore spot I did have has come and gone, and it hasn't been two weeks yet!