Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi all...well, today was the day my brace came off. I was stewing it all day at work until 5.45pm and before I knew it I was in the chair, luckily I went straight in with no nervous sweating it out in the waiting room beforehand, most of my adjustments have been spent that way as my ortho is always running late!!

The brackets came off so easy, he just popped them all and took the whole thing off in one, I didnt even know they were off and had to ask. All I felt was a weird sensation of my teeth being free

The next part was not very nice I got to admit, he used this electric sander or grinder thing to get the cement off my teeth, it was quite harsh on my teeth and made my head judder, after that he polished them all up and prepared the back of my two front teeth for a bonded retainer. I guess he doesnt want my two front teeth to move at all as before the brace I had a large gap there. That process wasnt too bad although I had to keep my mouth open a lot or I got the horrible glue stuff on my tongue and its not nice!

The worst part for me was the last, the dreaded impression for my retainer. Oh my word I gotta say it was the worst impression ever and I really panicked, the poor nurse saw this and was holding my hands going 'Breathe through your nose'...oh dear, when I think back now I feel so embarrased about it but it was truely awful.

Tomorrow I've got to pop in and pick up my retainer and thats it...the rest is up to me to wear it and remember that I didnt put myself though 17 months of this for nothing!

Just thought I'd share the experience with you, I've read so many from others on here and they have helped me a lot.

I will post pics shortly..

Congratulations, I am sure you feel great about this journey coming to an end. I have to wait many months till then, but it's worth it. Keep us posted .. can't wait for the pics

Congratulations, im sure your teeth look lovely. I cant wait to have my braces off, luckly i've got first appointment of the day and so my ortho shouldnt be running late.

I hate having impressions taken, makes me gag but at least this time it should be the last ever time.

Many thanks guys

Today has been wonderful, no brace with wires to poke me and I really feel like a different person. Everyone at my work couldnt believe the difference and my boss said that showing my teeth now made my face brighter.

I picked up my essix retainer on the way home from work, I was stressing a bit about it after the nasty impression I had to have yesterday but you know what, its no problem at all. I couldnt belive how tiny it looked!! You cant even see it when I'm wearing it and it feels ok now that I've got more used to it. My ortho said I need to wear it every night when I get in from work and sleep in it. My other half didnt even realise I have been wearing it since we had dinner lol....so to those that will have one of these, dont worry they are really ok

Congrats, Aurelia, and enjoy!

Congratulations!
I have the same as you- upper bonded retainer which i absolutely dont mind because it makes me feel even more secure that the gap between my two front teeth wont open up again. I also only wear retainers at night, which i'm also pleased about.

I didn't mind the whole braces removal process- the only way i'd describe it as is uncomfortable, but not painful. And sometimes I'd have to sit up to prevent choking because the water they were using at one point kept going down my throat and we cant swallow when were lying down so that was a scare.

The discomfort was keeping my mouth open all that time and i think getitng the glue off was ABIT painful at times, and i tensed up abit, but when i wasnt thinking about it, and just closed my eyes and imagined i was somewhere else, I was fine. The ortho didn't experience any of my reactions because she commented that working on me was like working on a doll because of the lack of movement and reaction.
I also couldnt believe how gigantic my teeth looked when i first saw them.

Felt good though!