Metal Mouth Message Board

I'm 23 and just got regular old fashioned braces put on April 24th. I've been reading through these forums for the past few days and decided to register today.
My story...

I was put in blue ring spacers/separators on April 10th and had to wear them for 2 weeks. They said adult teeth didn't move as quick as adolescents which I understand. Went back on April 24th and they went to remove the spacers to put molar bands on. My teeth had not shifted enough between all the molars. They were able to put atleast one band on each quadrant so I could start my braces treatment as planned but they put huge orange spacers in where I still needed space. They said another 2 weeks with these huge orange rubber rectangles in-between my molars! Argh. These make it so uncomfortable to eat!

Anyways... my treatment plan is supposed to be 12-15 months but I can already see this being longer due to my teeth unwilling to cooperate. If they don't move enough for them to put bands on the rest of the molars I think they are just going to glue brackets to them and I will probably snap those off when eating since they have a high failure rate. Anybody have experience with this?

Well I'm glad I found this board and have already gone through the 83+ page post about lig colors just to see what I like. Haha. I started out with pink and now have silver.

Okay, thanks for reading. Adios!

Hi I have the brackets glued onto my back teeth, my ortho says he prefers them to molar bands. On the top I have ceramic brackets so only the very back ones are metal. On the bottom they're all metal, and he's bonded brackets to the two back teeth on each side, rather than just the furthest one, to make sure they don't pop off and do what they're supposed to do (lower jaw is really messy, top one just needs gaps closing). Four months in and no problems with missing brackets yet!

Whatever you end up with, good luck. I hope you don't have to wear the spacers for too long, they don't sound fun!

Im relieved to hear you don't have any problems with your brackets! Does your wire ever poke you in the back?

Yes, a little bit, more towards each adjustment appointment as the teeth straighten out and the excess wire slides through the bracket. Wax is my friend

Figured I would upload some pics here since yesterday was 1 month in braces. My gap has closed a lot and there is just a tiny hair of space there now. My bite is a lot more open than it used to be. Hoping time flies and I see tons more progress in another month.

Here goes... hope this works..

First day in braces ::



1 month in braces ::


Thanks for looking!

You have had great progress within one month!!! Looking good!!

Bianca, your teeth are looking great! And I have to say I love your choice of lig colour;) I just recently got my uppers placed on May 9th and it hasn't been bad at all, thank goodness. I too only have brackets on my back molars, no molar bands and I consider myself lucky! I have eaten every single item on the 'no no list' and I haven't encountered a single problem.
I'm looking forward to my 1st adjustment so I can change my colours, not sure what too but you have definitely gievn me some great ideas.
I'm 23 yo as well and I look forward to following your journey:)

-G

Another photo update...
Day 44ish?



gap is closed between front two but has moved to my right side.

Yesterday I went to the ortho and she changed my upper and lower wires and put me in elastics. I also have two steel ties wrapped in figure eights across all my top teeth. Kinda like a steel powerchain I guess. Getting used to these elastics. She told me to eat with them in and so far they just break while I eat, so I just take them out and finish my meal before putting new ones in. Hoping this doesn't slow my treatment any. I have silver ligs on top and a reddish purple color on bottom. Pics below... excuse the dry lips!




showing me open with the elastics


left side


showing that gap that should be closing soon i hope (right side


Thanks for reading!

I looove the silver and pink, very cute. How are the elastic bands? Are yo used to them yet?

Yeah I don't notice them unless I try to eat or yawn. Haha. I have started taking much smaller bites to try and not break them when eating. My jaw actually aches when I don't have the elastics in like when brushing my teeth.

Here's a new pic after my adjustment today. It's been around 2 months and 16ish days. I'm not good at counting. lol. They changed both top and bottom wires. Still have the steel power chain thing across all the top teeth. Still have triangle elastics. I went with red ligs on top and a teal color on the bottom. I like the teal... red is eh.

Your teeth are really coming along!!! Yay!! I am really loving the teal on the bottom. I may get that as my first color next Thursday!!!

They're really coming along great, Bianca

I'm loving your colours, especially the light blue ones. Be careful with them though. I'm currently wearing them and they've turned a not to lovely shade of green lol.

You have amazing progress in such a short amount of time! I also have a gap in my teeth and I hope they close as quickly as yours did once I get my braces.