Metal Mouth Message Board

Yesterday I officially began my journey into orthodontics and had my top braces placed. As posted in another thread, I should have done this years ago, but the rebel hippie feminist in me always seemed to win out. However, now that I'm in grad school and am starting to prepare for a professional career I figured now was a good time.

According to my ortho I have:
- moderate to severe anterior crowding of the upper arch
- moderate crowding of the lower arch
- slight class III malocclusion

I was really hoping to be able to have the ceramic braces (at least on top), just so they wouldn't be as immediately obvious as the metal. However, I have a severe allergy to latex and my ortho was worried I may react to the elastic ligatures. Instead, I have been fitted with the self-ligating "speed braces". Unfortunately they are full on metal, but at least the brackets are smaller than those seen in traditional metal braces.

At the mention of a class III malocclusion I was worried about the dreaded S word - surgery, but my class III is only very slight (looking at my profile you wouldn't ever know I have an underbite) so my ortho said I have the option of not doing the surgery and just having the braces and a couple extractions (whew! that's a relief).

Anyway, last night my jaw didn't exactly hurt, but there was definitely a lot of pressure especially when I tried to bite down. I didn't feel much like eating, so I didn't even bother to try. This morning however, holy cow! I woke up feeling as though someone had punched me in the mouth and glued barbed wire to my teeth. I attempted to have a banana for breakfast, but it hurt to much to chew it, I wound up just tossing it in the blender with some yogurt. I think that at least for the time being I'll stick to the advil, smoothie and juice diet I was on earlier this year when I had my upper wisdom teeth extracted (during bikini season it never hurts to lose a couple pounds right?).

As miserable as I am right now, I'm still happy with my decision, or at least that's what I'm going to keep telling myself.

Congrats on getting started! It really does get a little easier every day - eating/chewing, cleaning, etc. So just keep thinking that it will only get better, that's what I kept (and sometimes keep) telling myself.

Hehe, my first experience with pain came from my spacers. I never considered hot pockets to be "hard" but woooee!!

well done on choosing to get braces! When its all over you'll be so proud you did it!
Things do get much easier with time

Yesterday was a rough day for me, last night I got so frustrated that I broke down and cried (which I hardly ever do). I don't think I have ever been so emotionally volatile, one minute I'm fine, the next I'm on the verge of tears, the next I'm b*tchy beyond belief.

Today seems to be a bit better (yay for small miracles!). I don't have the constant ache in my jaw, only a strong feeling of pressure, which I can handle. Plus I've noticed that some of my teeth are already loose, which I assume is a good sign. It still hurts when I try to bite down so I remain on a soft food diet, but I think I'll treat myself to some ice cream today, it's Friday so I figure I can indulge a little.

Thanks for the kind and encouraging words everyone, I really appreciate it! It actually feels empowering doing this for myself (and not to please others), especially since it is going to be such a long, sometimes difficult and painful journey. Who knows, when all is said and done I may come out the other side an even stronger woman than I am already!

I'm happy to report that my mouth is starting to feel better, there is less pain when I bite down, and the feeling of overall pressure has also eased up a little bit. I'm feeling brave and will be attempting my first semi-solid meal tonight (pasta and tomato sauce).

The inside of my lips feel funny though, sort of itchy and tingly. The closest thing I can compare this to is the way your lips feel after eating a big bag of overly salty movie theater popcorn (kinda cruel, having the same feeling without actually being able to eat it). I'm hoping this is just a part of the normal adjustment process. Has anyone else experienced this?

glad to hear things are getting easier! I'm in my 3rd week & things are so much easier now, i cant even tell i have them [however i only have lowers for now!] so hopefully things will be the same for you

yes, bracedincanada--I think I can relate to the movie theater popcorn feeling...although I didn't really think of it that way until you said it!! I think I had a lot of mouth adjustment issues for the first 5weeks or so, then it seemed to subside a bit and now I am into week 8 and I really don't notice them nearly as much! so, rest easy, relief is on the way, my Canadian comrade!!

welcome as well! Im soo happy to be going thru this experience with a few people who just started around the same time i did, isn't this website wonderful!

I hope you are doing well today. im struggling with maybe taking the kids to harry potter and buying popcorn right now. LOL

It has officially been one week since I got my braces! I'm happy to report that I haven't packed it in, called my ortho and had the blasted things taken off (believe me, the thought has crossed my mind on more than one occasion). I can already see some movement in a couple of my teeth (very slight, a millimeter at most) which I'm actually kinda surprised at, I didn't think visible movement would happen this fast, not that I'm complaining of course!

Eating is still a bit of a challenge, I can (very carefully) chew with my molars but it still hurts too much to use my front teeth to bite anything. I also find that I am really missing certain foods, especially raw carrots and crunchy granola bars, two former staples of my lunches. Guess this means I'm going to have to sit down and actually put some thought into what I eat instead of remaining a creature of habit.

My boyfriend has been really supportive through all this, I know that I haven't been the easiest person to be around lately, and I really appreciate having him stick by me. When I'm feeling down he'll hug me and tell me how much he loves me and that he thinks I'm beautiful just as I am, when I get frustrated and grouchy he reminds me why I'm doing this and when I whine about having to brush my teeth 17,000 times a day he tells me to suck it up and just do it (we all need a good kick in the pants every once in a while).

Hope everyone else is doing well!

I have a lot of the same feelings as you do - I miss my hard crunchy snacks!! I'm 5 weeks in and I STILL can't bite into anything directly with my front teeth - my front 4 teeth have been the most consistently sore teeth.

It's so great that your boyfriend is being so supportive, my husband is the same way and it's been a bigger help to me than he realizes. Next week is my birthday and I've been saying a lot lately that I'd love to get a sonicare toothbrush some day and I have a sneaking suspicion that he got me one - who ever thought I'd be excited to get a toothbrush for my birthday?! But I am lol! And yes, they are also good for that swift kick in the pants when we need it!

Well, I'm now two weeks in and I have had my first orthodontic "emergency", I had a bracket pop off today as I bit into a piece of steamed broccoli. I finished my lunch, cleaned the food shrapnel out of my teeth as usual and called my orthodontist's office. Unfortunately they were closed for holidays, but they gave the number of another ortho who is covering for them in the meantime. I called them and was able to get in this afternoon.

All I can say is wow, I feel really lucky to have the ortho that I do, the guy I saw today was a total a-hole. As he was re-attaching the wayward bracket he kept commenting to his assistant how tired he was of seeing adult patients since we (apparently) are the product of lazy parents who have no respect for proper oral hygiene. WTF? It boggles my mind that someone could be that rude and ignorant. I politely thanked him for seeing me on such short notice and said that he shouldn't have to worry about seeing many more adult patients, or young patients for that matter because with an attitude like his no one in their right mind would come there for treatment.

This guy picked the wrong woman to mess with. I have now sent a few e-mails detailing my experience, one to my ortho informing him of the type of environment I (and any other patient in need of an emergency fix) was subjected to, one to the provincial dental association and another to the Dean of Dentistry at my university, where I happen to know that Dr. A-hole has a faculty position.

Argh! Things like this really grind my gears.

Well done to you for standing up for yourself!!! I'm sorry he was such a jerk, but at least you've got it fixed, & hopefully cos you've complained something should be done about him.

Wow! It has been a while since I have been here at AW. It's been a combination of a busy and hectic schedule in my lab and then a much needed vacation afterwards.

I have now passed the one month mark, and I haven't yanked the blasted things off my teeth yet. I had my first adjustment yesterday, and the lovely "kicked in the face" feeling has returned, and along with it the diet of fruit smoothies and mashed potatoes. The good news is that I have already moved on to a thicker arch wire (a 0.018 instead of the 0.016 I started out with), which I'm assuming means that progress is being made.

In other news, I am now sporting some hand bling to go along with my mouth bling. On our vacation this past weekend my boyfriend proposed!!! It was such a shock, he got down on one knee in the middle of the restaurant we were having dinner in and asked if I would be his wife. I feel bad though, I was so stunned that the first words out of my mouth were "what the hell are you doing". It probably took me a good five minutes before I composed myself enough to answer him properly.

Wow! It has been a while since I have been here at AW. It's been a combination of a busy and hectic schedule in my lab and then a much needed vacation afterwards.

I have now passed the one month mark, and I haven't yanked the blasted things off my teeth yet. I had my first adjustment yesterday, and the lovely "kicked in the face" feeling has returned, and along with it the diet of fruit smoothies and mashed potatoes. The good news is that I have already moved on to a thicker arch wire (a 0.018 instead of the 0.016 I started out with), which I'm assuming means that progress is being made.

In other news, I am now sporting some hand bling to go along with my mouth bling. On our vacation this past weekend my boyfriend proposed!!! It was such a shock, he got down on one knee in the middle of the restaurant we were having dinner in and asked if I would be his wife. I feel bad though, I was so stunned that the first words out of my mouth were "what the hell are you doing". It probably took me a good five minutes before I composed myself enough to answer him properly.