Metal Mouth Message Board

Only three hours to go before these spacers are off, the bottoms go on and I get measured for the appliance (which goes on tomorrow afternoon).

Getting increasingly nervous as I've just found out that I have three appointments next week to chat up one of my programs – one, an hour long lunch interview with a reporter from a local paper.

From what I've been reading here, I should expect to be a foaming, spitting, blathering idiot! Anyone have any advice at all as to how to prepare/exercise/whatever myself for the task of talking?

Oh, the comedy of it all . . .

Thanks for letting me vent a little.

Thanks, guys!

And Kiwi, I didn't think about reading out loud – I'm definitely going to give that a go.

Speaking of which, time to . . . GO!

Candygrrll I would try to cancel ,it is very very hard to talk when you first get the appliance put in .It takes your body 21 days to adjust to it then the salava seems to slow down a lot.I don't want to scare you but I do like to be honest about it.GOOD LUCK I hope all goes well also everyone is different.
Summergirl

i dont know what it will be like for you with the appliance, but rescheduling may be more comfortable for you. if that's not an option, just take it easy--speak slowly and practice beforehand.

i dont have any appliances, but i wanted to reply because i was just noticing that after 2 months in braces, the initial problems i had with speech are gone. so, even if you have trouble getting used to the mouth equipment, it does get better. in my case, i think it's because my teeth have already moved so much that the strain isn't as bad as it was in early january.

regardless, good luck! this is the best thing i ever did for myself and i hope you are happy with the process too!

Candygrrll I would try to cancel ,it is very very hard to talk when you first get the appliance put in .It takes your body 21 days to adjust to it then the salava seems to slow down a lot.

What are you guys talking about. I was talking the moment I walked out of the place.

- Missing Tooth -

Sure you may have been talking when you walked out of the place but were you talking normally? And what kind of appliance do you have? For the first few weeks for me, I found that when I was interviewing people it helped to actually acknowledge the fact that I was have a tough time adjusting to the newness of the braces/appliance. It definantly made me relax more and made the slurred words much less embarassing because they understood and sympathized with me.

Well, I guess I don't have to worry about that expander just yet. Upper teeth STILL not expanded enough for all the brackets, so yet another week of the things!

I did, however, get my bottoms put on. No sweat. Wax is my friend and I'm having no problem with the stuff staying on. The only problem is, the time – off before eating, back on again after; off before brushing, back on again after (I mean, jeez, am I gonna spend half my life in the bathroom or what?) – and these "knobs" on the back of my bottom brackets that bug my tongue. Not rubbing, just in the way, so that my tongue can't find a comfortable spot.

But let's not go there with the eating thing. I thought it was tough with the spacers! My bite is completely messed up. All I can do is mash stuff up against the roof of my mouth or take very tiny bites and chew very slowly with the very back of the right side of my mouth. At least there's no pain.

And thank goodness for Campbell's Select's new soups – the tomato basil and acorn squash rock!