Metal Mouth Message Board

Yay, I finally get to post my own braces story.

As you can see, I have been a member on this message board for little more than 2 years. But it was actually 10 days ago I finally got braces.

I had just perfect baby teeth. But then when the permanent came out, they did not have enuf space. Big teeth, small mouth, you figure.

All the dentists and my parents and my relatives all told me I needed to get braces. But when I was a kid and teenager, I went through the usual rebellious period. And I thought I was like pretty and cute and I could possibly get away w/ crooked teeth. So I did not take advantage when my parents had the money.

It was not until I met my ex-bf, who had braces when he was a teen. And then in college most of my friends had braces too. I started to realize 2 things. First of all, natural nice teeth just can’t compare to man-made braced teeth. After braces, it’s just perfect. Secondly, some people just got braces for the slightest amount of imperfection. If they could bare 2 yrs of treatment to treat just the slightest amount of imperfection, I could do that too. And I am not for slight improvement, my teeth are just really crooked and I will get the biggest improvement.

So almost 3 years ago I did some consultations, did some research and joined this message board. But then I chickened out the last minute. Money was also an issue.

Last year I found a stable job, a steady income, and insurance. It had gotten to a point where I could afford it. I went to 3 consultations. I picked the one closed by and not expensive. He did not offer self-ligating. But compared to self-ligating it was 3000 cheaper. So I figured the end result would be the same anyways. Save myself some money.

Treatment time is 2-2.5 years.

Well, has been 10 days since I have got the upper 8 braced in ceramics. Haha so far it’s not bad. But the best is yet to come, right? I will have spacers in this Friday. I heard it’s the worst part…

Thanks for reading and I’ll post some pics soon. Thanks for the advices a lot of you has been given me. It helps a lot during this journey.

Hurray for you finally taking the plunge. And I had spacers and so far they have been the worst. Not that my brackets have been cake but I would take them over spacers again. The good news is though you're probably already on a soft food diet so that will help.

Can't wait to see pics, and again congratulations

Yeh I'd love to see some pics!!

Great you've finally got round to getting the braces!

Katt wrote:The good news is though you're probably already on a soft food diet so that will help.

Actually one of my goals is to lose weight with braces. I have a friend who's a bit overweight. She has straight teeth but have gaps in between some of them. She would like to get braces more for losing weight than getting better teeth.

Does anyone lose whole bunch of weight?

Next week with spacers I am gonna do the cabbage soup diet or something

You don't lost a drastic amount of a weight. Having braces is not a reason to be unhealthy and starve yourself to lose weight. Your friend should look into a lifestyle change instead of orthodontic work for weight loss.

df you do lose some weight at the begininning, but not a ton (then again I'm not overweight either). The thing that has helped me the most is not wanting to brush my teeth all the time, so most of the time I will just not eat something just because it looks good due to the clean up.

I got spacers today!!

Everyone told me it would be bad.
So far I did ok.
Am I gonna wake up tmr morning starting to feel the pain?

Yes you are!!

Mine didn't hurt til the second day and the third day was the worst. From then on its okay.

Just keep some codeine based, over the counter painkillers on hand and you'll be right

oh you will definitely feel the pain the 2nd day. The first day was fine for me, then I woke up the second day tried to place my top teeth on my bottom and about flew through the roof.

Take some pain relief and stick to soft foods for about 3 days.

kittymeow84 wrote:Yes you are!!

Mine didn't hurt til the second day and the third day was the worst. From then on its okay.

haha exactly!!
I thought I was so special that I could get away from the whole spacers pain.

The pain actually came the next morning...and so far had been gotten worst.
My teeth are really crowded and tight to begin with.
The female assistant could not get those in. The strong macho ortho had to do those himself.

One popped out while brushing. He said not to worry about it.

Also he actually put spacers in both upper and lower molars. I have deepbite and his plan was to braced my upper and then my lower. But I don't know why he put all spacers in already. We'll see on this friday.

So far i managed to eat chicken SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM and fries but I could not chew. So I just swallowed the hard fried pieces. Kinda bad for stomach huh...

lol yeah they hard foom isn't exactly good, but you have to do what you can. Instant Mashed Potatoes were my friend for a while. I had my spacers for 2 weeks before I got my braces so it's not all that unusual to have them in early. I hope your brace day goes well too.

I am so envy of others who got fully braced the first day of their journeys.

I could not possibly be fully braced from day 1 because I have overbite. My upper fronts cover 100% of the bottom. So no clearance and I would just bite the brackets off. But at least I could have the whole upper arch braced.

Not happening at my ortho…

I got 8 of my teeth braced and connected with a wire on Feb 1 (except one of my canines, too high up the vampire one and except the incisor which is out of line with others in the back). The wire looks loose and it is loose. It does not seem like it will do anything. So far no movement noticeable.

Two Fridays ago I got spacers for upper and lower molars. Last Friday my ortho took out the spacers, put molar bands for both upper and lower molars. And then he sent me home with no new wire connecting them wth….The next appointment is in a MONTH.

My bf is seeing the same ortho. He had Class III but same problem with no clearance to put all brackets so his plan was the same but he started earlier in December. He has top braced same as mine. 8 first, then after 2 wks put spacers, after a wk he put molar bands sent him home with no wire and then he went back after a month for the new wire.

Sounded like he did this to everyone. But I got frustrated. What’s the point of the molar bands doing in my mouth right now with no wire connecting? Just to make my lifer harder with more cleaning????

With this stupid soft wire I dun think there would be movement in this month…and still my canine and incisor is not even wired in….so by next month I’ll be almost 2 months into braces for nothing. So envious of you guys who have great movement in 2 months already!!!

Is this even normal??

And his English is not good with an accent. So I did not know what the heck he told me at consultation. Maybe he said “headgearâ€

Katt Sure I will eat more mashed potato from now on. Actually mashed potato is my favorite food. But I am experimenting with different things see what food I can get away with.

But choking on hard food is not a good idea.

Iam so sorry but I had to laugh when I read this. Mostly because of the choking. I have totally choked myself on stupid stuff and still can not eat steak either.
As far as the bands, he may have placed them to keep the space open for when the brackets and wires are ready to go on. I too also have the vampire up high with the incisor buried by it and they are bracketed but not in the wire. I had to have an extraction done and they can't be hooked up until my extraction site closes up. So lucky me has a coil spring on one side pushing my incisors over and a power chain on the other side pulling the canine over.

As far as movement I don't know about you but I stare at my teeth every day and the only way I notice it is when I take a picture and compare. It's not a ton of movement but enough to notice something is going on and I'm not killing myself for nothing.

Good luck though to both you and your BF. And ask the ortho when you go in what you will have. Maybe you'll be lucky and have only elastics.

Katt Thanks. Very important was Gd luck to my bf. He lost his bite plate and went to the ortho. The ortho charged him 100 bucks for replacement. The ortho had to order from a lab and did his impression again. Hope he doesn't lose things like that again.

I haven't had my extraction yet. My ortho does everything slowly. I dunno. It is not that I don't trust him but it is amazing I think every ortho has his/her own style and treatment plan and all that.

Gd luck to u too Katt.

One thing about taking pictures. I think I need a tripod. When I took pictures everytime my angle would be different and it was hard to compare. [/b]