Metal Mouth Message Board

Hehe so where shall i start from. As i said, i'm 32 and living in italy, even if born in England. My teeth have always been quite a mess. When I arrived at the wise age of 32 I decided it was time to do something to fix them. I had the usual round of consultations and i was given a few options:

- I excluded linguals cuz i feared they'd be more uncomfortable
- Invisalign weren't really an option, cuz being the lazy kid i am, i'd never worne those things as much as I should have
- Didn't like the idea of clear, i.e staining risks

So Metal here i come!!
Big day was beginning of september and it was faster than i expected. I was done in an hour or so. Things got worse in a matter of hours. GOSH I couldn't eat a thing!!!
Now after nearly one month things are much better. Haven't had adjustments yet but i'm living with it nice and easy. Still it slowly though but i don't have any speech issue.
I'm not toooo embarassed cuz everybody i know has been very supportive. It gets different when i meet new people and i find myself trying to hide them.

Now pictures time:

This is before-picture:
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.
This is the "new"me after 5 days:



again:
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and this is me on day 20:




I'm not yet seeing much progress but maybe it's tooo early.
Post it here when i have news

Oh, wow!! First off, welcome to the boards, fitgirl06!

Haha. The reason I say "Oh, wow!!" is because when I saw the photos of your teeth it struck me how similar they looked to mine before I started my orthodontic treatment! I had the same type of over-lapping/under-lapping with my upper front laterals and I still have some problems with crowding among my lower laterals. I'm SOOOO excited for you because I KNOW you're going to see some wonderful results! Here are my teeth today after 14 months and some change:





Yes, I've got quite a way to go still, however, I'm very content at the progress I've made in the little over a year I've donned these metallic wonders!

As you can clearly see, I also opted for traditional metal braces. I recently had 6 brackets replaced on the forwardmost teeth on my lower arch. They were replaced with "In-Ovation" brackets. This was done to speed up the progress of my lower arch so it could catch up with the uppers.

I wish you the BEST OF LUCK on your journey! You're in for a real treat! And again, welcome!

Hi fit girl! I think your teeth will look awesome in a couple of months, they have a lovely shape!

Madein84 - LOVE your teeth. I wish mine would look like that in a year or so! And you are HOT!


Joaninha

LOL Thanks, Joanna20!

I can't wait to see how my teeth look when I get these braces off! I looooove smiling, so you best bet I'm not gonna be able to stop!



Oi! Falas o português? Eu sei falar um pouco. Aprendi pela internet há umas meses! Eu gosto de escutar o idioma. É muito lindo! Com muito gosto.

hey u all! thanks for ur kind words and support. It'll be a long journey!

Made in 1984: I'm amazed at your incredible progress...makes this worth it and i found it sooo encouraging

And it was nice to see i'm not the oldest one going thru all this...

hey u all! thanks for ur kind words and support. It'll be a long journey!

Made in 1984: I'm amazed at your incredible progress...makes this worth it and i found it sooo encouraging

And it was nice to see i'm not the oldest one going thru all this...

Hey 32 is still young! Your teeth will look great in no time.

I'm getting braced in 2 days! Can't wait.

Mmmmuuaa wrote:Hey 32 is still young! Your teeth will look great in no time.

I'm getting braced in 2 days! Can't wait.

Braced in 2 days goodluck enjoy getting braced.

SDFD TSchott

Hello and welcome, fitgirl06!

I'm looking forward to following your journey.

Don't feel too self-conscious when meeting new people- I have found that since being braced I have become more self-confident and it seems as though other people are talking to me more. I smile wide and proud and just be myself. Hey, we have to practice for when we have gorgeous smiles, don't we?

So!! It's been ages since I have written about my first days in braces! I haven't updated in like forever cuz i've been very busy, but lots of things have happened so it's time to write a bit more.
My ortho had told me he wanted to wait at least 4-5 weeks before putting the lower on, in order to see how things were moving on the upper stage.
So, exactly one month later i went in for my first adjustment....yikes it hurt!! it was nearly like getting them on in the first place, but he said he was very pleased how things were going (even myself i could tell uppers have started moving) and so the following week I could come to get the lower ones put on.
The week went by quickly and sure enough, by the time i had just started eating again, the lowers came.

Here how they looked right after being fitted:



it didn't hurt a lot while he was putting them on, the only major issue (beside many bands) was putting the wire across the brackets. Ortho said he didn't yet want to bracket the only naked tooth you see in the picture so he had to make the wire pass on it without putting a bracket. You know how tight the wire is so go figure out the pressure my poor tooth was receiving.
So there i was!! Full monty...i was appalled when i went home. They felt so much bulky all of a sudden and i totally hated the way they looked.
My lower teeth with wire only looked even worse than if it had its own bracket cuz being unbracketed made it even more noticeable. The upper ones seemed to me more crooked than before braces, but as i read here it seems like many others went thru this so I decided not to worry much about it.
And the internal side of my mouth was getting cut by the wire and the small hooks in my brackets (they're for elastics, but i'm not looking forward to getting them whenever they will come...).
So wax became my most faithful companion. I didn't have any speech issue, apart for a very slight lisp which thank god disappeared after 2-3 days and that even nowadays i cannot explain LOL. But glad it's gone.
So here how things look now (well, couple of weeks ago)...




Maybe it's just me, but it looks like the upper ones are better and everything is just widening up. Things on the bottom haven't changed significantly, here's a side view for good measure.


I didn't really get any particular comments since the lowers went on, because everybody had already seen the uppers and so not many spotted the (relevant and painful) addictions LOL. But EVERYBODY just keeps asking if i ever lost a bracket on the lowers lol....I never thought i'd say this but i really hope the poor tooth gets its bracket ASAP.
What else?? can't think of anything else, i'll let you know if anything new happens.

Hey... I can definitely see some movement. Looks good! Congrats on getting the matched set. Hopefully your wayward tooth can make it into the line soon.

Welcome fitgirl and good to see you took the plunge to better your already nice smile.