Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi,

Let me introduce myself briefly, I'm 23 year (female) old student who is graduating in september.
English is not my mothertongue, so I hope you can all understand what I'm trying to explain here! But I think photo's will help clear everything up.

When I was younger (12 years?) I only had to have some braces to widen my upper arch that had to be adjusted every night. These were only attached to my upper molars. After that my ortho said I didn't really need regular braces but if my two 'little' front teeth bothered me I could, and then she would make them bigger after the treatment. But offcourse when you are 12 years old you dont want braces if you dont need them. And since my two 'little' teeth didn't really bother me I opted to don't have braces.

Everything went well until I was 18. That's when my teeth started to shift. Had to have my 4 wisdom teeth operatively removed. Unfortunately my teeth already shifted quite a bit. I was quit upset but it didn't bother me that much back then. I didn't want to get braces anymore. Didn't help that my boyfriend said I looked fine and that I shouldn't really get braces.

But over the years my teeth have shifted even more. To the point that I'm really not happy with the way they look. Also my bite has never been really good, I don't have any problems biting/chewing etc. But when I close my mouth I can feel that my teeth don't really fit well together.

That's when I decided to get something done. I was quite hesitant of getting regular braces because I will be searching for a commercial function after september. So I looked into invisalign and lingual braces. I decided to go for lingual braces because I think my problems are too big to be dealt with by invisalign. If I'm getting something done, I want to be 100% happy with the result.

I looked for an orthodontist nearby that offered lingual braces. She said that I definately need my upper 'small' front teeth enlarged, because this is part of the reason why my teeth have shifted. I'm quite mad at my precvious orthodontist now My upper arch has to be widened a bit more also, and my lower yaw has to come forward a bit to reduce my small overbite/yet. Also my midline is abit off. So quite a bit of work ahead! She expected it to be from 1,5 years to maybe 2 years. She said it was quite difficult to put an estimate to it, because everyone reacts differently to a treatment and she didn't want me to be too focused on the estimated timeframe. But i'm still hoping it will be done in 1,5 years offcourse!

Yesterday I had the moulds taken. And hopefully on July 14th my braces will be put on. She (orthodontist) mentioned that there is a slight delay in the manufacturing process, and that my braces MIGHT not be finished by my next appointment in july. I really hope this is not the case, I would like to have the summer (no work, only 1 exam) to get used to my braces. So that when I start job-hunting they won't bother my much anymore.
And offcourse, the sooner they are on the sooner I can see some results!

In the pictures you can see that my bottom teeth are quite crowded. My upper front teeth that stick out are the ones that need to be enlarged, to make everything fit together better.

Pictures:















It's quite terrifying to see your teeth so up close actually! I knew they were bad, but not this bad! In person you don't really notice it that much, you only really notice the upper two front teeth that stick out..

Update! Normally I should have gotten my Ibraces tommorrow, but unfortunately there is a major delay in the company that makes them. So my next appointment is 11 august. Hopefully they will be ready by then because I'm really looking forward to start treatment!

I got them fitted today! Everything went well. I got both the uppers and the lowers on in one setting. So I got quite some adjusting to do! But talking seems to go fairly well, everyone can understand me aloud and clear and I only had to repeat myself once today! So jeej for a good start!

Mostly you dont notice it very much when I speak but offcourse there are some words that are easier to pronounce than others. Im having some trouble with the s-sounds and c-sounds etc. But I m fairly confident that it will improve a lot over the next few days.

I dont have any pain whatsoever. And only now (4 hours after placement) im starting to feel some tension. My tong hits the brackets in the back of my mouth and that irritates a bit, but I didnt have to use any wax up to now. So, I guess so far so good!

I will try to post pictures tomorrow. I will be very relieved when the treatment is finished. but I m very happy that I choose ibraces. I think that once I can speak better time will fly and it will be over before I know it!

Good luck with your ibraces! How long are you going to have them? I'm sure your teeth are going to be gorgeous when you are finished!

Hi Jenniebaby, I'm not sure how long I have to keep them on. The ortho estimated about 1,5 years but she also said that she didn't like me to focus to much on that estimate because some people take longer and others are finished much faster! I hope mine move fast though!

My next apointment is already on september 3rd. Time will go by so fast, I'm sure.


I havent tried to eat anything solid yet. I only ate some pudding last night and drank a smoothie this morning. My bottom teeth hit te braces, so I cant really bite my molars together. Will try to eat something later. Hopefully all will go well. My front teeth are a bit sore, but nothing major. My tongue is not really sore eather. Just feels a bit weird because of the braces, but no pain! Talking is still about the same. Some words you cant tell anything is different but with others its like I have something in my mouth! (which I do offcourse!) Hope it will improve over the next few days. But I'm sure it will!


Here are some pictures.

Hello and welcome! Congratulations on taking this first step in improving your smile and your self-confidence! The lingual braces must take some getting used to, but I have to say I'm jealous that yours are "hidden" while mine are so darn obvious...even with ceramics! When you refer to your little teeth, are those baby teeth or permanent adult teeth? Good luck with your adventure! There are plenty of people here with good advice or who will listen to questions or complaints that your friends and family just can't relate to!

Congrads with having commited to braces, you will be so glad. Don't know too much about linguals except for what I have read, interesting. Can't wait to see how it works for you, best of luck.

Under Construction wrote:Hello and welcome! Congratulations on taking this first step in improving your smile and your self-confidence! The lingual braces must take some getting used to, but I have to say I'm jealous that yours are "hidden" while mine are so darn obvious...even with ceramics! When you refer to your little teeth, are those baby teeth or permanent adult teeth? Good luck with your adventure! There are plenty of people here with good advice or who will listen to questions or complaints that your friends and family just can't relate to!

Hi, thanks for your response. Those 'little' teeth are not baby teeth. They're full grown adult teeth! Yeah they definately take some getting used to. But all in all I'm really happy that I chose to take the lingual route. Speeking is okay. My tonge is a bit irritated so you can hear that I'm talking a bit weird. And talking is really tiring now. But it doesn't really bother me that much. People can understand me. And I know my speech will continue to improve over the next few days/weeks.

Thanks Rhomboid. Hope to see some improvement over the next few days! But maybe I'm expecting too much.

Its been 6 days already! Time for an update.

Eating: chewing is still painfull.

Speaking: 95% normal

Pain: none! No poking wires or anything bugging me! Only chewing is kinda funny..

Movement: verry slightly I think!?













will post better pictures later this week, these are taken with flash and they are terrible.

Better pictures!

1 week in braces. I can see some movement in my bottom teeth! Unfortunately not yet any progress in the uppers..

I dont have a good camera at the moment, but I thought these webcam pictures are better than nothing! I have seen a lot of movement the past three months!


My upper row is almost completely aligned now. But my upper arch has to be widened just a little bit, mostly the back teeth I think. And then near the end I have to have small gaps so my second teeth can be enlarged to match the others.

My lower row is not very clearly visible in the pictures. But my canines (especially the one to my left) have to be rotated quite a bit. And there is one bottom front teeth who isnt completely aligned yet. But normally once my canines have rotated there should be enough room for that one tooth to fit in nicely.

I didnt dare to ask when I might finish with the treatment at my previous appointment, but it cant be too long anymore, can it? Maybe half a year I hope?! Or a little longer still? Maybe I ll dare to ask next time, and hopefully I wont be too dissapointed

Pictures: Sorry these are webcam quality, I will try to post better ones anytime soon.

looks great, good progress

congrats

Thanks! Im so happy with the progress.

updates???

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