Metal Mouth Message Board

I have just received my first set of trays today. I am unsure about the fit. First concern is the small gap between the bottoms/tops of my teeth and the trays - there is a little bubble/gap between my teeth and the bottom of the trays - is this normal? I feel like it makes the trays a lot more noticeable.

Also - the trays over my molars cause my bite to be way off - I realize that there is now a piece of plastic in between my teeth, so I will not have the same bite as before - but this seems to be causing speech problems as I can't make an 's' sound very well...

Do you just get used to this?

The problem is - with the way the trays fit my back teeth, it forces my bite to stay 'open' - my front teeth cannot touch at all - is this normal?

This open bite is normal! It likely won't change that much during treatment (at least it hasn't for me).

In addition, the tray is designed to fit where your teeth will be in two weeks' time, so it will take time for the tray to settle perfectly against your teeth. That being said, most of my upper trays still have that little space, but my progress has been good nonetheless.

To help make that space close up, try chewing on a cloth napkin or the like and that will help the trays "seat" better and will also facilitate tooth movement.

Hope this helps!

The bubble gap between the aligners and the teeth has been there for every one of my trays so far. I'm on #6. It bothered me a first and I wondered if something was wrong, but my teeth have really gotten straighter in just 6 trays so I don't think that it's affecting the treatment. Maybe it's normal.

Not being able to bite all the way down was a huge annoyance for me with the first trays. My jaw ached for a while but it eventually went away and now I don't notice that at all because I think that my mouth and jaw muscles just adjusted for this over time. I still can't bite all the way down with the aligners in, that's not going to go away, but you will definitely adjust to it and not notice it as much after a while. Same thing with your speech. It'll work itself out over a few trays.

Good luck!

Ditto the others - I always have the small gap at the start of my trays but it's mostly gone by the time I switch trays.

I also have the open bite thing - it's been that way since the beginning and i'm sure it will be till I'm done.

Your mouth/brain gets used to it and compensates for it after a week or so and your speech won't be so off - I still have issues with S sounds or TH sounds here and there (usually at the beginning of a new tray when it's not fitting quite perfect) but not very noticeable. I notice it way more than others do, when I complain about it to others they say they can't notice it unless they consciously listen for it/concentrate on my speech, etc.

Thank you guys so much - I feel better now! and as you said, it gets less noticeable each day.