Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi there. This is a great site and I have enjoyed reading everyone’s stories and advice. I’ve been lurking for awhile and decided to post my story.

I had spacers placed on Monday and will be getting my braces on Monday 9/27/10, to be followed by upper jaw surgery mid-way through treatment. Yikes! Treatment time is estimated to be in the 24-30 month range, but could be longer depending on how things go. I am mentally preparing for longer and hoping to be pleasantly surprised if things go faster. Move little teeth, move!

My history:
I have always had an open bite (hereditary, thanks Dad!) and wore braces as a teenager. The orthodontist attempted to close my bite using braces and elastics, and recommended upper jaw surgery at the end of treatment, but my parents (and me) declined. My teeth were nice and straight by then, only open a little bit, and surgery seemed drastic to make such a (what we thought to be a) small and cosmetic change. I wore removable retainers for a year and a half and then stopped. It wasn’t long before my teeth started shifting, and my bite opened up a bit more, but nothing looked so far out of whack that I was concerned.

Fast forward 10 years, went to a new dentist, and the first thing he recommends is jaw surgery to correct the open bite. He said that my molars were being subjected to abnormal forces and they might eventually start to fail. I was not interested in surgery (I was scared to death, thought it was cosmetic, and even if I wanted it, it wasn’t covered under my health insurance and I couldn’t afford it).

Fast forward 10 more years. As predicted, my molars began to fail one by one. Several upper molars needed repeated root canals, apicoectomies, and 2 eventually needed to be extracted. After the first extraction, I wanted to place an implant but again was told that I should pursue the surgery route, get my jaw fixed, and then place an implant. I started thinking about the surgery vs. implant then but didn’t do anything for 2 years, until I had a 2nd molar fail. I decided to just place implants and be done with it, but the surgeon I consulted said the implants would fail just like the teeth did, that they are even less able to withstand abnormal forces.

My only real option at this point is to bite the bullet and get the surgery done (including braces). I’m too young to lose my teeth (mid-30’s), and I’m already embarrassed about missing 2 teeth, so I began consulting dentists, orthodontists and surgeons to get my team in place and get this show on the road. I thought I could get whole process started in a matter of weeks. Ha! Make that 6 months (which seemed like years to my impatient self). Turns out I had some significant gum recession on my lower incisors. This had to be addressed before ortho treatment could start, so I had gingival grafting done to build up and stabilize my gums. I also had a frenum removed that was pulling on the newly grafted tissue (the frenum probably contributed to the recession happening in the first place). I also had the 2nd failed molar extracted (ortho initially wanted to leave it in place during treatment as a space holder, but it would not have survived, so it had to go. Bye!) .

Now that all the pre-work is done, I’m eagerly waiting for the braces….and dreading them at the same time. Braces were not fun the first time, and they will probably be even less fun now that I’m older. At least this time I am prepared!

To be continued….thanks for reading!

9/27 Update

Today was the big day! 3 molar bands were placed (ornery suckers, took forever to get the right fit), brackets were glued on the rest of my teeth, and I was sent on my merry way. My ortho and his staff are so nice! About 5 hours after my appointment, the bracket on my most crooked tooth popped off, and the rest of my teeth were aching (yahoo, that means they are MOVING!). I had to put wax over some of the hooks on my brackets – yikes, there are hooks on every bracket from my canines back! They are huge! Ok, maybe they are not REALLY huge, but they feel like it in my mouth. I know I’ll get used to them eventually.

On the dental do-dads front, I got to try a few new things.
1. Silicone wax, which is tricky to get in place (everything it touches must be DRY, or it won’t stick), but it beats the heck out of regular wax

2. A “lip protector” that snaps onto the archwire (can be used instead of wax). It’s a bit bulky but prevented my mouth from being torn up overnight – and it was a lot quicker to get in place than wax.

3. Water Pik. I bought this a week ago because a friend who used to have braces recommended it. I tried it a few times to get used to it before my braces were on and thought it was ok, but nothing special (but on high the thing could probably peel paint off the wall – don’t know how anyone can use it at that setting). After using it to get stuck food out of my brackets today, I’m sold! Of course I had to do a little test of my own – I swished and swished with plain water first, thinking I would dislodge everything (i.e. this is what I would do if I didn’t have a Water Pik), then I went back through with the Water Pik and was amazed/disgusted at how much more stuff washed out.

4. 3-in-1 floss for braces. This stuff is a bit thick and my gums were not happy

5. A floss threader. This worked much better in conjunction with thin unwaxed floss, but still took a looooong time to floss.

I have developed a slight lisp – what the heck? Aside from the inside of the molar bands, all the hardware is in places that shouldn’t affect my tongue. I feel like Cindy Brady – “She sells seashells by the seashore…she sells seashells by the seashore…”

The highlight of my day was when my dear husband brought me flowers and a card. Awwwww!

9/28 Update

Went back to the ortho this afternoon to have the rebellious bracket glued back on, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The ortho asst. saw all the wax I placed over the offending hooks and said she could bend them inward a bit to reduce irritation, so she bent them, and I don’t need wax anymore. Yay!

Some of my gums are angry and irritated. I have seen pictures of this and thought it must be due to poor hygiene….my bad, I stand corrected!
I’m still working on getting rid of the lisp.

My teeth are already moving - my floss found a space between 2 teeth that wasn't there yesterday. Yay!

Pics to follow soon...

11/11/10 Update

Well, I've survived with braces for 6 weeks and thought I'd finally post some pictures. My teeth have moved quite a bit and I want to share my progress.

I have my first adjustment coming up next week and am excited to keep things moving, but also scared of the discomfort that will surely come afterward. No pain, no gain, right? javascript:emoticon(':)')

Brace day - front


5 week progress - front


Brace day - upper


4 week progress - upper


Brace day - lower


5 week progress - lower


Brace day - right


5 week progress - right


Thanks to everyone who shares their stories and pictures here!

Baligirl! your progress so far is amazing!! i am 2 weeks in and can already see my wire straightening out some, so your pics are inspiring me to believe there will be more movement in the coming weeks. your arches are lovely and round now! nice one!

First Adjustment
I had my first adjustment today. So far so good. After the tech took the old wire off, I sheepishly asked if I could go brush my teeth because, you know, I brought my electric toothbrush with me and all ....She laughed and told me to have fun and brush to my heart's content. Did I ever! I never thought the simple act of brushing my teeth could feel so good.

Back to the chair, ortho comes over, he is pleased with the way my teeth are moving. He upgraded my wire to the next size (.18 round, I think, it sure feels stronger/not as flexible as the first one) and engaged all of my teeth this time (some molars were not wired the first time). My upper arch is segmented into 3 areas (front 6 teeth for section 1, back left teeth for section 2, and back right for section 3). Bottom arch has one continuous wire. My ortho said that if my teeth keep moving like they are, I'll go up another wire size next time (jump the wire is what he called it, LOL).

I could feel the pressure from the new wires immediately. They don't hurt yet, but I know they will later (this is what they felt like the day my braces were put on, and holy cow, did they ever hurt a few hours later). I stopped on the way home to get a good lunch that required lots of chewing. Gotta enjoy eating while I can!

Speaking of chewing, I forgot to ask my ortho about gum chewing, but since several folks who post here chew sugarfree gum after adjustments to help with soreness (some per their ortho's advice), I think I'll try it. Might help, couldn't hurt, right?

BaliGirl, you're story has inspired me to finally stop lurking and register to use this board. I too have an open bite (thanks to genetics on my own father's side). I had braces when I was young (6th-8th grade), and am now 36 years old. At the time I was finishing treatment when I was young, my ortho & dentist had planned to grind down my molars in order to close my bite. I didn't appreciate that idea at all. I was not very good about wearing my retainers, and my teeth did not remain straight. I was led to believe by one ortho that part of that was a result of my teeth not meeting (open bite) to help keep them aligned (later I was told by a different doctor that isn't entirely accurate). Luckily, I have not had issues with my molars as a result of my bite, but the problems were such that I could not ignore them.

About ten or so years ago I went through some examinations to get braces again and was told that surgery would be required to fix my bite. That particular ortho even stated plainly that he would not work with me unless I pursued a 100% solution (surgery + braces). I visited two ortho surgeons at that time, but ultimately bailed out on the treatment plan.

Fast forward to more recent times, specifically to a visit to my dentist when the dental hygienist taunted me, saying she doubted I would ever get the surgery. My crooked teeth & bite significantly bothered me (mentally) all these years, my wife was fully supportive (if it would get me to stop complaining), and I finally pulled the trigger. I am in Albany, NY and am seeing Dr.

I got braces on my upper & lower on 15 APRIL 2010 (8.5 months ago), with my total treatment time anticipated to be 18 months. I am scheduled for surgery in February (the 21st). Presently my surgical models look great, so I can't wait to see that result. I will be having surgery on both my upper (tipping the front down to close the bite) & lower (mandibular set back). I do not know technically what the surgeries are called, from searching this forum and the internet I think I am having both Lefort I and BSSO. I was offered two options for the lower, one had a higher likelihood of long term numbness of my chin with the upside of a significantly shortened time being wired shut. I chose the alternative (not accepting the risk of numbness in my chin) and instead expect to be wired shut for five weeks.

Needless to say, I am growing more anxious every day, and I cannot wait to get through this process.
Dave