Metal Mouth Message Board

Your progress is quite good, LP. Just curious (since you have "Speed Braces")-how long is your treatment time? Good luck with your treatment! Please keep us posted.

I was told treatment would be 18 to 24 months. I'm crossing my fingers for the 18 months

LP,
Congrats on seeing so much progress. This is one of the best parts about the braces I think, is seeing so much progress in such a short time.
You and I got our braces on the same day, but you already had an adjustment right? I don't fully understand the speed braces, so does it mean a lot more ortho visits for adjustments or what?

Hey Dramagyrl,

With the Speed Braces I only need to have an adjustment every six wekks. I have already gone in once because I had the extractions done the afternoon I got the braces on. So I waited two weeks for that to heal and then went in to get wires that went all the way to the back of my mouth and to get power chains where the teeth were pulled.

Still waiting to see your pictures.

Wow KK 10 weeks between adjustments? I thought the standard time between adjustments was 4 weeks?

They say that the treatment time can be greatly reduced with the Speed Braces (basically the same thing as the Damons), but I'll buy that if and when it happens. The main reason I got them is the Ortho said so many positive things about them. They are so tiny, it takes 5 mins to change my wire as there are no ligatures. The wire can slide around within the bracket so as the teeth move the wire isn't held there with the ligs. Food doesn't really get caught in them, and one of the big things for me was that the memory alloy metal is always moving the teeth. I also like there there are no 'tightening of the wires'. I just go in and get a whole new wire when my teeth are ready for one.

I agree the name of the bracket is confusing. 18 - 24 months seems a pretty standard length of time, but I am impressed with how 'speedily' they are moving right now.

Congrats on deciding to do this for yourself! I'm also a single mom of a little guy... if it weren't for my tax returns I never would have been able to get these nasty buggers put on... the monthly payments will be rough but I'll pinch by.... I think my smile/self esteem is worth it!!!

Your progress is lookin good! Keep the pictures coming!

Well....I've been away for a while (summer's SO busy) but I had to come back and check in and update since my adjustment on Tuesday. I've had my wires changed once before but that was only two weeks after the braces were put on - they gave me time to heal from the extraction done the same day as being braced before they really started shifting things around.

I went in on Tuesday and had the powerchains removed and now I'm wearing elastics. One on each side from top canine to bottem front molar, and at night I put two more on over the bottom gaps. My first premolar hasn't moved at all so I'm still without a bracket on my canine

Things seem to be going well though. Lots of tenderness so I know things are a-movin'. I'm so thrilled with the progress I've made so far and can't wait to see the final results.

Since the canine isn't moving yet I'll just post a pic showing my front teeth:





And for dramagyrl...here's MY lotus flower tattoo (ok - there's more then just a lotus flower )

great progress

Your tattoo is wonderful...

Thanks everyone. It's awesome to hear that others see a big change too and that it's not just me. I had a friend sitting across the table from me a couple weeks ago and say "Holy $#!% your teeth are looking great" (and this was a guy who doesn't really notice anything.

Felt awesome! (And I love my ink too)

Fantastic progress LP!!!!
And yet another creepy thing we have in common beyond sharing our b-day. That's an amazing tattoo, looks like it would have taken a while and might have been painful for some of the areas it runs across, but clearly worth it.

Glad to see you're loving your progress and having good reactions to your braces

Dramagyrl wrote:Fantastic progress LP!!!!
And yet another creepy thing we have in common beyond sharing our b-day. That's an amazing tattoo, looks like it would have taken a while and might have been painful for some of the areas it runs across, but clearly worth it.

Glad to see you're loving your progress and having good reactions to your braces

Ya - it was more then a little painful in some spots. I love my tattoo so much but I'm not sure I would have done it if I had any idea how much it hurt to tattoo a rib cage. Braces-shmaces....I lived through 9 hours in the tattoo chair....I handle this teeth thing.

Thanks KK.

Oops - I didn't mean to imply that it was all in one sitting. I did five hours, two hours and two hours. After the first five, my body was completely drained. I had no idea a tattoo could be so hard on your body. I was going to go longer but he said we needed to stop because my body was goin into shock. My skin just started crumbling and peeling off as he was tattooing and it would no longer take any ink. So.....I went home and PASSED OUT COLD!!! Then I had a MAJOR reaction to the 'ink fix' I used which leached out a bunch of colour and gave me a sick rash. So I ended up doing two hours to finish it and two hours worth of touch-ups due to the reaction.

Oh well....it's all worth it in the end.

I can imagine how exhausted your son was after 6 hours. It's SOOOO hard on your body.

I'll be getting Speed braces very soon. It was so hard to find a pic of the Speed braces brand on real teeth. They're pretty small. I can't wait to get mine.

PS - Love your tattoo!