Metal Mouth Message Board

Hello all,

So I have read a lot of these forums over the past couple of months and it has been about a year that I have seriously wanted braces. Come today, I finally had them put on, so here I am preparing this thread wearing my Damon braces with the social six being clear brackets (Well not all six are clear as you will find out).

First, my ugly popcorn teeth before braces ...

Me smiling wide


Top row (After 2x second premolar extraction in preparation for braces)


Bottom row (After 2x second premolar extraction in preparation for braces)


Showing off as much teeth as I can


So you can take the time to guess what my issues are for fun, otherwise, here are what my ortho has listed as my issues.

- Moderate dental openbite
- Protrusion of upper front teeth
- Significant crowding in both arches
- Several rotated teeth
- Crossbite of the teeth
- Narrow upper and lower arches

My treatment will consist of extraction of 4 premolar teeth (done), full upper and lower braces (now on), elastic wear as required and I will be reassessed in 8 or so months for possible miniscrew insertion to intrude the molars.

Estimated time: 18-24 months with the potential for minimal overbite after braces. I must also have my wisdom teeth re-evaluated after treatment (I admit I am a bit scared if these affect my alignment post treatment)

The whole process of getting braces went like this

- Call up and ask for a consultation, first I had my xrays booked, went in and got this done (took 5 minutes)

- A few weeks later I had my actual consultation with my orthodontist, I had photos taken of my face/head/teeth and had all my issues spoken about and possible treatment options. Jaw surgery was mentioned but I really did not want this option. My xray images had measurements drawn all over them and I did not have imprints or moulds of my teeth done like I have seen mentioned here.

- After my consultation and I accepted the treatment plan I booked in with my dentist and had 4 premolars extracted across two appointments

- A few weeks after that was today, brace day. Relatively easy process, just keep your mouth open for 1 hour as your teeth get polished, cleaned and brackets put on.

So here are pics of day 1 with my braces

Big smile


Showing as much of my teeth


There are a number of things to note. First, none of my rear molars are wired yet, I am only wired up to the extraction site, this is because my overcrowding is so severe my ortho has opted to concentrate on opening up room at the front first before closing the extraction gap.

You might also notice the springs on the lower wire. This is because of my severe overcrowding so my ortho will use these spring to spread two pairs of teeth out and then take the springs out and attach the wire to the teeth behind the spring you see in the picture above.

The final thing you will notice is that 2 of my social six teeth don't have clear brackets on them. This is because there is to little room to adequately place the clear brackets on them, so right now they have these small metal brackets to better align these teeth. These brackets will only be in place till my first or second visit in which case my ortho will remove them and replace them with clear brackets.

Its been almost seven hours with braces on and I have had little to no pain, just the usual discomfort of having a metal mouth for the first time, I came home and had chicken schnitzel for dinner, yum!

If you have any questions feel free to ask. I will update this as time goes on and will of course add more photos in the coming months.

Thanks

Hey there...

Just wanted to drop in and say congrats on getting the braces. You have nice teeth, and once everything straightens out, you'll have an awesome smile. Be proud. Show them off....and get ready for a hell of journey!!! Congratulations again!!!

Wow thanks for the nice words jensceana73!

I had my first checkup yesterday, its been 8 weeks. My teeth haven't moved as much as I had hoped, but really I just wanted my two remaining clear brackets on, unfortunately only one of them got put on, one more to go. The springs on my bottom teeth haven't made enough room, so I have had new ones put on and now the spring is ligated (tied) to the two severely rotated teeth on my bottom arch that don't have a wire through their brackets.

Again my wires have still not gone to my molars on either arch. I got asked to bite down so my ortho and assistants could see something, I told them I was biting down So the open bite of mine is now starting to be treated (was planned to treat this later on), I have to wear two elastics that go from my top arch to bottom arch for 12 hours a day, not a problem for me and I guess the earlier I start with elastics, the better?

I believe the strength of wire has not changed, maybe the bottom one is stronger if I remember correctly. My ortho wants to see me earlier than usual for my next appointment, so I am going back in 6 weeks to re asses.

I am really excited to see how much things have moved though! Here are some Month 0 pictures compared to Month 2 photos. Love how much straighter the top arch has turned out.

Hey Hayness

I'm 20 and about to get Damon braces. Will probably get them on early next year. Like jensceana73, I think your teeth are going to look amazing once you are done. The amount of progress you've had in just 2 months is incredible! I'm pretty excited to get my braces on now How are they feeling pain wise?

Those are some incredible pictures! You must be so happy with your progress. I love seeing before and after photos here. It's great to see that teeth can move so many different ways, pulled up or down, moved back and forth, it's great to see it all happen because it means it can happen with me too! Thanks for posting the pictures!

Hayness,

WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is amazing!! You must be sooooo happy to have such a huge change in 2 months.

Congrats!! Can't wait to see how they look in another 2 months!!

Elle

Wow, the result is amazing!! And so fast!

However, it's interesting to see, that there cases, where even Damon can not prevent extractions.
Because that's what they promote on their websites... I wondered if Damon could correct my crowding without extraction, but when I see your results i feel that's not possible.

Great pictures and descriptions. Its nice to hear that its been almost pain free and the progress looks great.

Thanks for your replies! Yes, I am just as excited as you could imagine about how much straighter they are getting, when I looked at my day 1 photos for the first time in a while last week, then looked in the mirror was when the change first hit me and I realised how much things had moved, I was SO happy!

I cant wait for the wire to pass through all my brackets on the front lower teeth, there will be huge changes there!

There is still pain, well more of a discomfort, when I bite down on anything using my front teeth, so I pretty much avoid doing that and just make sure the food goes straight to the back of my mouth. The front teeth are all still tender, so even the adjustment I just had was somewhat painful! Opening the door on the damon brackets hurt, removing some of the brackets to have them replaced hurt, ligating the wire under the springs to the brackets on my lower jaw hurt like hell cause they had to push back on the teeth, hard to explain, but omg they pushed so hard I could see blood starting to appear at my gum line of the tooth

I don't think damon brackets can really help much with reducing the need for extractions, but anyway in my case, I don't think there was any other choice but to extract, especially my lower jaw, waayyyy too crowded! Would have liked to keep those healthy teeth, but what can you do

Will be interesting to see how much things will move by my next appointment, I'm not expecting much since not much was changed really at my appointment just past, just got to wait and see

WOW! That is some serious movement in such a short period of time......Congrats!!!!

awesome movement, great pics! thanks for posting.....look forward to yer next pics.

Wow, your teeth look great! Very encouraging for me! Looking forward to seeing more of your progress.

Hi Everyone

Thanks for your replies. Just a small update since my last orthodontist appointment 8 weeks ago. There isn't as dramatic a change as my last set of pictures but that was to be expected, as I had been on the same strength wire all along. This appointment though, lots was changed!

- Had my last damon clear bracket put on
- Had damon brackets put on two of my lower teeth, these were the teeth were the spring/coil passed over but but did not connect to the teeth. By my next ortho visit there should be a big change here as now these teeth can rotate!
- Had a 1 step thicker wire put on my top teeth and now these connect to all my teeth across the whole arch.
- Had a half a step thicker wire put on my lower teeth, the wire on my lower arch still doesn't go to the molars but now it does connect to all 8 of my bottom front teeth, so they can all straighten out together!
- Will continue to wear two light elastics for 12 hours a day.
- They put two more little metal spacer things on my top arch wire, you can see them in the new photo below, not sure what they do?

Next appointment is in 6 weeks, cant wait to see how my lower arch looks then!

Here is a comparison of my teeth from 8 weeks ago, to now.



And what my cramped lower arch looks like at the moment, will show you a comparison in 6 weeks time



Thaankks!

Just dropped by and wanted to say WOW!!! You had great progress there! You must be so excited!

Hi Everyone

Firstly, thanks Olivia for your comment I am indeed excited.

It's been 3 months since my last update, I skipped putting an update up after my appointment in April, but I have some great progress to show off today after having an appointment 2 days ago.

Since my last update here, all my teeth are now attached to the wire, including all the lower arch and my molars! Two days ago they also placed a bunch of different elastics in my mouth, we call them power chains here? My Ortho didn't really go into much detail as to what they all do and how I should care for them, except to let me know they are trying to close the gap from the extracted teeth, widen my smile slightly and of course continue to work on my open bite, especially the back half as you can see in the photos.

The elastics that hook my upper jaw to my lower jaw that I wear when I sleep have also been 'upgraded' they are now ridiculously thick and strong I can barely open my mouth with them in, not comfortable My Orthodontist did compliment me on wearing my elastics when I sleep, even though he didn't ask if I did! So that's good since I guess it means he is happy and confident with the progress.

Anyway, enough talk, pictures tell a 1000 words.

My teeth in February compared to now.


My lower arch in February compared to now.


My upper arch in December compared to now.


My smile in December compared to now.


A side on of my teeth before getting braces compared to now. Got to work on those gaps with the elastics!



I am only 7 months in, many more to come but it's been great, GREAT progress so far. Although I am quite sore from all these new elastics!!

Enjoy