Metal Mouth Message Board

With my brace day now less than a week away, I decided now would be a great time to start my official story and make this where I'll place my updates.

My Story
At some point when I was younger I had my first ortho visit, and I started wearing a nice watermelon-looking top Hawley retainer. A little while later, when I was 12, I got my first round of full metal braces. I had some severely crooked teeth and an overbite. After two years, I had some great looking teeth and some beautiful blue glitter Hawley retainers. Unfortunately, a year or so later, when I began to spit them out during the night, I stopped wearing the retainers.

Now, at 23, my overbite is back worse than ever with some jaw popping and several of my teeth have shifted, I became to determined to fix things for good. I'm a PhD student, so no ortho insurance, and my parents are graciously pitching in. Also, since I don't plan to get married for at least a year, this is the perfect time.

The Before Pictures:

Overbite/top:


Bottom:


The plan is In-Ovation brackets - ceramics on top, metals on bottom. Estimated treatment time is one year. Following treatment, I will get Essix retainers and wear them to bed until I die (or until my ortho dies, as he likes to say ).

I think you'll respond well to treatment!

When you spit your retainers out at night did you realize you were doing it?

Laurie wrote:When you spit your retainers out at night did you realize you were doing it?

Not until I woke up and realized that they were gone. I should have gone into the ortho and taken care of it, but I was 14 or 15 at the time.

I had the same problem when I got a mouthguard from my dentist a couple of years ago to help with my jaw popping.

There's an idea for ya!

Ooh, wonderful idea! I'll keep it in mind when I get the next retainers.

Thanks all for the advice and support!

ahahahahahahaha meryaton that is hilarious!!!! i can fix anyting... wheres the duck tape!!! The newfie quicker fixer upper lol

LOL@ meryaten!

Well I have heard many stories about people who had braces, didn't wear retainers and now they're teeth are back to what they were before. For me personally I so hope my ortho uses permanent retainers even if it's only for the first 6-12 months. I know for sure I'll use mine but I just would feel more comfortable with a permanent (esp on my bottoms which has the most crowding). I wish I knew what type of ceramics I had or what type of retainer I'll get. My ortho didn't really tell me much but maybe I should find this all out at my next appointment! I'd love to know what retainer she suggest.

That being said your teeth look great already and should have no problems with being fixed up!

Thanks! I specifically asked about the retainers because I hated the Hawleys I had, especially both together. I wouldn't mind the one on top if I had a permanent bottom (as my sister and boyfriend both have). They both warned me about continuing annoyances when flossing with the permanent retainer, so I'm kind of happy about not getting that. And no matter what, I will wear mine exactly as they tell me to this time!

My ortho told me he wanted to stay away from the perminant retainer on me because it's harder to keep things clean with them.

My ortho is (so far) good about explaining WHY he does or doesn't want to do something. He seriously stopped for a moment to think about it when we were talking about retainers so perhaps he does do them on some people.

Updated first post with slightly better pictures.

Ahhh - I can't believe this is happening tomorrow!

They're on! And...here are the pictures:

Closeup view. Man my teeth look way more crooked with these on!
Also, I notice that they have colors on them. I wonder if they'll stay?


Lots of bonding on the bottom first molars so I don't bite the bottoms off, even though the ortho placed them a little lower than usual. Kind of hard to tell though:


And finally, the very cool kit that they gave me:



Next appointment is in 3 months! I was slightly shocked, but I guess since we're mostly fixing my bite he doesn't need to do many fine adjustments. They gave me ibuprofen while I was still in the chair, my was is on, and I'm ready to tough it out!

Oh man it has been a rough day!

A couple of hours after my appt I had a lunch meeting to go to. I tried to choose the softest option - chicken salad on sourdough instead of a pannini. That didn't work out so well in front of everybody, so I snacked on broken up potato chips and the cookie during the rest of the meeting. Afterwards when I was able to return to my desk I figured out the whole sandwich eating thing and ate all but the crust. I swished with a lot of water while I was eating, then I brushed using my awesome kit afterwards. The hardest part is the chewing with the molar bonding. I do NOT like it!

Later on the pain started coming on a little bit, so I took some more ibuprofen and made a smoothie for a snack. I went to a baseball game and ate some ice cream, then I made pancakes for dinner.

Aside from the annoying molar bonding, my biggest complaint is that I feel like I whistle when I say f or s sounds.

Now I'm ready for bed, just took more ibuprofen. About to try the whole nightly cleaning routine and see how that goes, then load up on the wax. I really can't wait until I get used to these, because I am really not liking them right now.

alliphd I've just had my top braces put on this past Tuesday and it hasn't been until yesterday that the "How can I live like this!?!" started wearing off.

Hang in there!

Thanks all for the encouragement!

I know I'm whining. Mostly I'm upset with myself for not wearing my retainers before and having to go through this again.

The cleaning routine didn't go too terribly last night. Flossing was a slight challenge, and brushing with my sonicare was kind of tough, but I survived. Today I am going to go hiking and get my mind off of these things!