Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi all,
I'm a dentist in Scotland, and after doing the Inman Aligner course recently it got me thinking about getting my own teeth straightened again after failed ortho as a child. I wanted both upper and lower arches fixed at the same time so I opted to get my colleague to fit six month smiles braces 3 weeks ago. I think he would say dentists make the worst patients! It's going ok so far but I must admit 6 months seemed so short before they were fitted, now seems like a lifetime! Happy to answer questions anyone may have about what to expect.

I guess the obvious question is why you are doing 6 months smiles rather than Inman Aligner?

Hope it is going well.

Jem

Hi Jem thanks for your question,

Inman aligners can affect your speech quite a bit and as 90% of my job involves a lot of talking I decided against them for myself. Also, I have a fair bit of 'tooth shuffling' required, and the Inman is predominantly for crowding cases where not too much tooth rotation is involved. However, my first Inman patient case was completed in only 11 weeks, which makes my 6 months look verrrrrry long!
All going ok for me so far, was very sore in the first 2 weeks and things are moving quite slowly at the mo (almost 6 weeks in). I've knocked off 2 brackets too which is a pain but I'm trying to keep the finish line in sight!

The first day I had mine put on was a shock to the system - 6 months really did seem like a life time but now I've had them on for just over a month and have made sure to keep photo's to compare and track my record. The photo's are such a good tool to remind me why I had them put on. I'd recommend take some yourself if you haven't already and then again at monthly intervals.

I've been keeping a blog with my experience because I found it very hard to find any information about really experiences of 6 Month Smiles - you can find it at:

http://my6monthsmiles.wordpress
.com/

(sorry for the URL being broken up - I'm a new member and it won't allowed me to post a full URL yet - just copy and delete the space)

I've had a bracket come off too for the first time and my practice is closed for Christmas so I'm kind of stuck waiting for them to open on the 3rd Jan - might that cause a problem for my teeth?

6 months? I want those! I am on month 11 of 24. Almost halfway there.

Your blog is great beckybrucelee! It's really great to see someone's teeth moving so quickly with 6MS.

I'm getting mine fitted the week after next and I can't wait. I am a little nervous about how obvious they are going to be be as I perform a lot. I've just been cast in a musical and I haven't told the director yet that I'm getting them :-S I'm hoping they won't be noticeable from the audience!

The thing I'm most scared of is how they will make my mouth look. My top lip sticks out more than it should already because of my cross bite so I'm scared the brackets will mean I can't close my mouth!

Eeeek.

I got 6-month braces on just over a month ago. So far I don't see much going on except 2 loose teeth and lots of pain/aching. I've also lost about 7lbs from not being able to eat much and avoiding most foods with color (these clear bands for the 6-month braces stain). That blog beckbrucelee posted is great! I love seeing photos of progress. I have been taking photos of my teeth, but I haven't had much movement like some have. I had an adjustment Tuesday and they put on "power chains" on my side/back teeth to get them to move back and create space for the front ones to uncrowd and wrapped a wire around one front tooth to get it to rotate.

I just got 6MS put on yesterday. My mouth hurts quite a bit. After looking at beckbrucelee's blog, I am going to take better pics. I was told mine would take 7-8 months. I'm hoping my teeth are more awesome than that, and get straight faster.