Metal Mouth Message Board

I am 22 years old from Seattle, I work with the airlines and this will be my first time with braces.

My ortho and I sat down 3 weeks ago and prescribed a plan of action. My upper pallet is very narrow and I have a tongue thurst. I also have a crossbite. From first glance, my teeth look fine, but the sides of my back teeth are wearing very fast so we want to help them last longer. We are going to be putting a pallet expander in and then upper and lower braces. If the expander does not work we will discuss oral surgery.

Today I went to my second appointment with my orth. We did the molds and then we did a wax bite inprint. This was all fine nothing was out of the norm. We did also take an xray of the side of my face. That was pretty neat looking.

Before I left my ortho assistant applied 8 spacers. I didn't think much of it because it didn't hurt. Now, 5 hours later I am in pain. Not a throbing pain but more of a pressure pain. I feel like I need to bite down to relieve pressure but that really doesn't work. I have taken some asprin but its not doing the job. I also feel like my gums are itchy? I want to rip these out of my teeth so fast. But I know better then to do that.

The worst part is that next week we are taking the spacers out and putting metal brackets on and taking another impression, then they all come off and spacers come back on! AHHHH I can't stop thinking about them. I am trying to work and all I could do is tell you all how things are going. Better luck next week

Laura
Nice to meet you all!

Welcome Laura!

I just got braced last week, so I can vividly remember how painful spacers are. Ice cream was my not so guilty pleasure the week that I had them. I found it to be not only tasty and fattening, but soothing. The warm salt water rinses also provide some relief, lasting about an hour or so.

I hope your mouth starts to feel better soon!

Out of curiosity, why are you having the spacers removed and then replaced again?

Yes, I am having the spacers changed next week then wearing another pair until my expander is placed on Oct 4. I am so not looking foward to wearing these for 2 weeks. I did take three more asprin and the itchy feeling has subsided but the pain when I bite down is still there. I told my boyfriend that I want sorbet tonight! Other then that I ate a bean burrito right after they were put on and now I am trying to enjoy a bite size milky way! . It tastes so good.

I am going to try and eat really health with braces because I do hear that weight loss happens and I am all about hopping on that boat!

WELCOME

I remember spacers and if you search them on here everyone says they are the worst part of the whole thing.... and I agree.

Girl they hurt me the whole time I hated them

So yes enjoy icecream....smoothies....soft petzels.... etc

Keep us posted

Day 2 is a little ruff, the spacers are only placed on the top teeth but by bottom 6 teeth hurt as well as the uppers. It hurts to bite down and now the teeth have a num feeling that I really don't like. 6 more days till they are out and then put back in.

I am having a crapy day. On top of my teeth hurting really bad, my boyfriends grandpa passed away this morning. I am really tired and I am going to leave work early. Hopefully the spacers stop hurting tomorrow. I don't know if I can handle all of this right now. I think I need to go to sleep

Welcome Laura!

I hope that your braces treatment is smooth and successful!

My spacers were definately the worst part of my treatment so far so it's up up and away after that!

I am doing better today. It doesn't hurt to bite down but it is tender. I am still not a fan of the spacers, they just don't feel right in my mouth. A few more days and I will have new spacers! 10 days till the expander!

Well, spacers are still in but tomorrow I get them changed! That will be nice. They feel hard and sharp on my right side.

I still am having a hard time chewing but I have gotten more daring with my food. I have pizza for lunch today. I can eat the toppings and the crust is soft so I can mush it in my mouth till I can swallow.

Tomorrow's Appointment:

I get spacers out and bands placed
New set of molds taken with bands placed
Bands taken off and spacers reinserted

Thats okay, hopefully things will go fast from there. The assistant said that spacers would be worse then the expander but from what I have read on here, the expander is hell! Any words of wisdom? I need a pep talk!

I will let you konw how it went tomorrow!

Laura

Well, I went and had the spacers pulled out. They did not come out easy and that was of great concern. If they don't come out easily they did not do their job properly.

So then we tried to place bands. OMG that hurt so freaking bad. I can still feel the pain from it jaming into my right gums. She could not get the far right tooth on so she placed the rest of them with some trouble then went back for the beast. We finally got them all on and balanced out, this hurt because I had to bite to get them even.

We did another mold on the top then we had to pull them off. The assistant was yanking on my jaw to get the back right one off. I actually think I am bruised, the others all came off fairly easy. She then placed the spacers againg and it hurt worse then last time. I am in so much pain. My gums are really swollen where the bands were and can't bite down again. I hate this! The assistant asked if I would be back next week or did she scare me away. I told here I would be back and I know it wasn't her fault. My teeth just don't want to move very much.

I will let you know how it goes later this week. A few more days and the expander is placed.

I am down to the last three days of my 2 week spacers ordeal and my whole left side of my mouth is freaking out. Everytime I bite down or move my tounge to hard, my teeth crack. I feel this crack up into my jaw. Is this normal? It makes this cracking feeling and at first I thought it was just the tooth moving but it just feels so wrong. Also, my gums around one of the teeth making this noise is really swollen. I am at work and I have no salt water to relax it, oraljel is not doing a thing and I am getting worried that I am recking my teeth. What do I do?

Airbraceface wrote:I am down to the last three days of my 2 week spacers ordeal and my whole left side of my mouth is freaking out. Everytime I bite down or move my tounge to hard, my teeth crack. I feel this crack up into my jaw. Is this normal? It makes this cracking feeling and at first I thought it was just the tooth moving but it just feels so wrong. Also, my gums around one of the teeth making this noise is really swollen. I am at work and I have no salt water to relax it, oraljel is not doing a thing and I am getting worried that I am recking my teeth. What do I do?

Yikes! I didn't have to get spacers so I don't know much about them. I would call your ortho to see if that's normal! Let us know what they say.

Angela

Update,

So, last I posted my teeth were cracking and driving me crazy. I called the ortho and they said it was just the teeth moving with the spacers causing that noise

They did tell me that if my gums continued to bother me I could take the spacer out since my appt was the next morning. Well I was trying to reposition it to relieve some pain and it came out! So I placed it back in and everything was fine.

Yesterday I was freaking out about my expander being put in, I could barely eat anything. I got there and we fit the expander in and then cemented it. That was all good! When she turned it I was like WOAH! She then told me that I have to crank the expander twice a day for two weeks!

So I went to work and all of a sudden I started to feel really bad. I had taken two extra stregnth tylenol and it did nothing. Needless to say I left early. I went home and took a 7 hour nap! Ate a cup of pudding and some really really soggy cereal and went back to bed.

I woke up this morning and only my tongue was sore. Not to bad! I ate breakfast and brushed and flossed my teeth then cranked the beast twice and woah! Now, it doesn't hurt too bad, just some facial pressure but nothing horrible. The biggest trouble is talking and swallowing. I feel like I am going to choke if I swallow anything thats not liquid. I have been brave! I had a sandwich yesterday, took me 1.5 hours to eat but I did it and I also ate crossants!

Some good news! I can already see a gap in my front teeth! Pictures to follow soon!

Thats it for the weekend, I have my boyfriends grandpa's funeral this weekend and a long drive to Idaho.

Laura

Congrats Laura!! I've been out sick for a few weeks so I missed you!!! I'm going on month 3 with my expander. It's been a long journey to say the least.. I am only cranking mine one turn, once a week. My Ortho is big on slow process... I know they're all different. Most days I'd kill for one like yours! haha Great job that you're eating with the expander. I wasn't able to do that for a while. Honestly what you're feeling now should be as bad as it gets.. I still get some pressure in the nose, lip, etc.. but mainly just a throbbing headache the day after kind of like I got punched. haha

Good luck with all of it and keep us posted!!

Hey girlie

Just checking on ya

How are u doing.... Watching biggest loser still?

Talk to u soon

Photos from Day one!





Everyone says they don't see why I need braces but you can see the full on photo my cross bite isn't great..