Metal Mouth Message Board

Hey everyone,
I decided to take the plunge a few months ago, and just got my uppers on yesterday. I'm really eager to get the process going, since the sooner I get them on, the sooner they come off.

I'll be getting my lower braces in two weeks. My ortho is putting Damon 3's on top and Damon 2's on the bottom, with an expected treatment time of 12-14 months.

Just a little background on me... I'm 23 years old, recently graduated from college, and employed in the Washington DC area. I had braces years ago in elementary/middle school, but due to financial reasons I didn't go through a "complete" treatment. Since then my teeth have shifted around, so now that I've got a job (no longer a poor college student!) I'm finishing what was started so long ago.

I'll be posting pics soon, but I just wanted to say hello and thanks for all the great information.
Ben

Welcome to the board and congrats on getting braces. What exactly do you have? Your lucky that your treatment is less than 2 years...

Thanks for the warm welcome. My problem seems to be pretty typical of a lot of the postings I've read here. I have minor crowding on my upper teeth and moderate to severe crowding on my lower teeth. The crowding on my uppers is noticable pretty much only to me. In fact the compliment I get most often is what a great smile I have. My lower teeth are pretty squished together, although my orthodontist says she doesn't expect any extractions. So far on my upper teeth I've got Damon3 brackets on all my teeth except my wisdom teeth (which apparently can stay) and the wire goes through all the brackets except the very back ones (I assume this will change later). Like I said before, I'm going back in about 2 weeks to get my lowers. Unfortunately I have one of those annoying jobs that requires me to travel a lot, which makes scheduling interesting.

I do feel very fortunate to have a relatively short treatment time. I went into this expecting to spend about 2 years in braces and needing a few extractions (that just seemed what everyone else was averaging). I was pleasantly surprised when all 3 orthos I initially saw said about a year and no extractions.