Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi all. I got braces a while ago and posted an intro here: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=40794 but haven't really started a "my story" topic so here goes.

I'm an Aussie girl, 26, and I am sick of my messed up teeth. Off center midline, crowded out canine, crooked everything else and fillings all over the place. I won't bother describing them much cos it's not like it's hard to see what's wrong.


Yep there they are, back in October. Those grey front teeth are due to root canals. What a mess. My estimated treatment time is 24-30 months.

I finally went to an orthodontist not because they look like hell (I'm used to being ugly) but because I've often had trouble chewing on the right and a molar with a failed root canal on the left side was cracked and beyond repair. I figured losing that tooth on my good side would lead to even more problems so I took the plunge and decided to get everything else fixed.

The orthodontist told me that rather than getting a bridge or an implant to replace the molar that had to come out he could use TADs to bring the second molar forward into its place so that I wouldn't have a gap or need a bridge. That sounded great. He also needed to take two teeth from the top arch and another from the bottom to make everything fit. We discussed taking the top and bottom first molars on the right because one had a large filling and the other had had an infection and was being treated by an endodontist. My dentist agreed that because those teeth were the most unhealthy they should be the ones extracted to make space and discouraged me from getting a second opinion.

I'm still kind of annoyed that what I thought would be a second consultation with the ortho turned out to be just a quick discussion with an assistant who couldn't answer my questions about the treatment plan because my ortho was away. I only got to talk to him briefly on the phone before I had my teeth extracted. I regret not pushing for another referral if only because I'll always wonder if things could have been done differently.

Anyway, I didn't want to wait for another infection so I went ahead and got the teeth out. Three first molars and one premolar. The woman who discussed the treatment plan with me said they would be taken out two at a time by the dentist and that I wouldn't miss them. My dentist said there was no way she could do it because of the size of the teeth, their large fillings and the number of them. I kinda think that I was misled and given information more applicable to premolar extraction. I had to have them taken out by an oral surgeon under general anaesthetic. That was an ordeal (and expensive!) but the surgeon was fantastic. He was just the best and he really looked after me. There was minimal pain and everything healed really well. That was October 26.

I got braces on November 10. I have all the usual complaints about them but, compared to losing such big teeth, braces aren't that bad. They were shockingly painful for a week but settled down after that. After a few weeks I've even been able to bite into peaches and plums and sandwiches and pies etc.... then that's where it gets hard... I miss those molars. I can barely chew anything, even after almost 11 weeks of getting used to things I mostly swallow foods whole, like a python. My mouth is just about useless

The worst thing so far, apart from eating, is fear. I'm scared this won't work. I'm sure everyone else has had this thought at times so I hope I don't sound crazy lol. I feel dumb saying this but I'm even scared this treatment is just an experiment for my orthodontist and I'm only a candidate because it doesn't matter what happens, my teeth will be terrible no matter what. Like he said to dismiss my reservations, "anything would be better than what you have now." Couldn't argue with that but it makes me feel hopeless. To be honest, I've taken so long to post my story because it depresses me... I don't know if at the end of this my teeth will be fixed at all. How can they be when I've lost such important teeth? What am I going to be left with? This treatment is a dead end and if it doesn't work it's not like I can get a bridge or implants or ever replace those teeth. Not to mention the effect on my jaw... I don't really trust my orthodontist, I don't trust my dentist and I feel trapped. When does the "I wish I hadn't agreed to this" phase of braces end cos I've been feeling it ever since I got the treatment plan.

Wow this is long. I wish I'd started posting sooner so I wouldn't have such a long beginning. I think I'll post later about the adjustment I had yesterday and just add progress pics for now. The photos on the right are the start of treatment and those on the left are at 8 weeks, just before my first adjustment.




Those are the same ligs in both photos, I just ate enough curry to stain silver and dark blue to green lol. Note the stunning lack of change on the top. In two months that spring has made barely 1/2mm of space on either side. Is that slow?

Oh yeah and I also have jaw problems on my right. My jaw sometimes aches and has started kind of seizing up when I chew on the right. At the consultation my ortho led me to believe that malocclusion was a part of that but at the adjustment yesterday when I told him it was getting worse he said that the position of my teeth couldn't affect it and my jaw just hurts from grinding at night. So I don't know if this is even relevant but I'm putting it in anyway.

Thanks for reading.

Might as well keep writing stuff here cos if I talked about my teeth this much to my friends they'd probably get sick of me real quick...

Today I've had my braces on for exactly 9 weeks. I had my first adjustment two days ago.

My ortho wasn't thrilled with the amount of space gained so I got a stronger wire on the top so he could pack in more coil spring and wire ties on the central incisors and the first premolar on the right. I didn't get a chance to ask him why I got those instead of ligs, does anyone here know? Tying them on was the only painful part of the adjustment but the assistant was quick and she tied them so that the little pokey bit is right under the archwire where there's no way it can get caught on my lips. I'll have to remember to thank her for that.

Still the same old wire on the bottom but the ligature on the right canine is now in a figure 8. The plan is to change the wire at the next adjustment and then after that the back molars will be banded and we can start bringing them forward. My bite is gonna change even more. Scary!

Despite never forgetting to floss and keeping everything very clean I have a bit of bleeding when I floss around that unbracketed incisor that's behind the big crowded out canine (I've given it a name but it's too stupid too say lol.) It's really concerning me cos the gum also comes away from it when I floss and the floss gets snagged on something jagged under the gumline but my ortho didn't seem too worried. He said that it's just hard to clean there right now and the floss is probably just catching on the rough edge of a filling. He'll take another look when more space opens up and he can see it better. That tooth also needs "something" done to make it look better (cos it's dead, half made of composite and was filed down years ago as a quick fix to make it fit the other teeth) but he didn't have time to explain what that something is. I'll ask my dentist about it next week when I go in for a small cavity that's just become visible. Bugger. They gave me a clean bill of health I thought I was done with this stuff for a while.

Other, minor observations:
I am drooling like crazy lately. In the first weeks I'd be annoyed to wake up with a dry mouth and my lips stuck to my braces. Now I don't notice the braces but I wake up with my face stuck to the pillow. With drool.

The new wire and bigger spring are really making their presence known. The teeth around that dodgy canine just ache constantly. Not as bad as an infected molar though so it's bearable. That canine hurts so bad when it's touched. Thank god it doesn't bite down on anything yet. Just touching that side of my nose makes the whole area ache. The top front teeth are also very tender. I'm back to how it felt when they first went on, that kind of weird sensitive numbness. Like they're somebody else's teeth except when they're causing you pain lol. My bottom teeth don't hurt at all.

I got green ligs on the bottom, had saag paneer for dinner tonight and they didn't stain. They look awesome! On the top I got very light blue and they've stained to a nice mint green, much better than the dirty grey-green the silver turned. They're only visible on a couple of teeth cos the others just have wire. Even though my ligs got changed I still have the same old dirty looking tube across the extraction gap.

And now for a pic because I took one before dinner so I could show what colour the ligs were before they met turmeric.


5 days braced on the left, 9 weeks on the right.

Hi Littlered! Any updates?

Hey mudshell, thanks for the reply, I wondered if anyone was reading...

Here's what that new spring has done over the last week:

More than the first one did in two months!

The tenderness in my teeth is going away much faster than it did when I first got braced. I can bite into most stuff again even though things still feel a bit weird. There's an ache in the area with the spring, and those teeth have become really sensitive to hot food. It's not helping the sensitivity that that bottom canine has come up and in and is hitting the unbracketed incisor dead on. Ah well it means things are happening so bring it on.

Oh yeah and you can see the colour those light blue ligs have turned on the top. Pale green on one side and bright green on the other side that I chew on. Along with the green on the bottom it's like my braces have put on camo gear...

I’m reading your journal, I’m just not that good at posting

Love to read your updates, especially since I’m having a canine almost like yours and need a spring too! Don’t like the thought of it (but is there anything with braces that I like the thought of? ).

Did you find it hard to adjust to the spring compare to the rest of the braces?

Hey, Just wanted to say hey, Cant help but think your top teeth are similar to mine. My canine tooth was not where he was supposed to be but I too had some strange extractions and here I am six months later and he is his rightful place. (Still along way to go as far as being fixed but at least where he belongs).

I sympathise I had springs aswell. (still have one on the bottom that will hopefully come out tomorrow) They are annoying!!!

Stay positive its early days, and you may feel like nothing is going on but it is, theres a lot of stuff going on underneath the gums in the jaw bone that we can't see.

Have a look through my thread, I have posted a few pics of my progress, it may help to see a similar situation.

You'll get there!!!

Hey, sorry I haven't updated or replied. I've been trying to just forget about my teeth. Bloody hard given the time I spend taking care of them them though... so I've come back here to vent lol.

I've been having a problem with grinding my teeth. It wakes me up at night and kinda I'm scared I'm going to crack a tooth. It's not just clenching, I wake up with things in such a weird position... My jaw has been aching so bad for the past 2 weeks. It hurts right up to my ears and the left side (which never had problems before) has started making a popping noise. The exercise my ortho told me to do to relax the right side didn't help with anything. Now the right side cramps up a lot of the time when I try to chew on the other side too. I don't have my second adjustment for another 3 weeks and even then I don't know if I should bring it up because... well, there's probably not much they can do, and I have too many questions about everything else. Is this just another thing that comes along with braces? It's like my jaw can't find the right place to sit comfortably anymore. How much worse does this get?

Anyway, it's been about 3 months now since I got braces, almost 4 weeks since my first adjustment. The gaps haven't opened up much more. 1.5 - maybe 2mm in front of that little tooth and barely 1mm behind it where the space is needed. If 1mm takes 3 months........ when will it end. Slower than my ortho thought too. Move faster! Bad teeth! Very, very bad teeth. Could that canine pressing down on the spring interfere with its strength or is that a dumb question?

The good thing is the bottom teeth are still making progress. I can't get a good pic of the whole arch but they look so different! That bottom canine is continuing to right itself. It's come into the arch properly and even has excess room now cos there's a gap between it and the front teeth. The teeth behind it have moved backwards at least 3mm! My tongue can even feel a big difference in the size of those bottom gaps.

Before braces --> 3 months

See how much it's moved! From overlapping the lateral to not even touching it! (And the curry staining is starting to come off the ligs, they're turning back to blue.)

Ebony - I'm not that good at commenting either but I just saw that since I was last here you've gotten braces too! Congrats! I'll comment on your topic soon. I don't even feel the spring cos that big canine stops my lip from touching it. It's stopped hurting the teeth around it too for now. It does scratch my tongue if I lick so... I try not to do that. Makes it hard to poke food food out of that area though... Apart from that I don't even notice it.

Bron - Thanks for the encouragement. Our top teeth are really similar but wow your "snaggletooth" moved fast! Maybe if I show mine your pics it will get its act together lol.

You have made great progress already!

Hi everyone! I haven't been around in a while cos things haven't been going real good for me. The pain in my jaw gets worse with every adjustment. For the last few months I've been seeing a TMD specialist who barely examines me and blames my pain and chewing problems on stress, disordered sleep because of pain and anxiety and because "red heads just have more chronic pain." He says there is absolutely no physical therapy or relaxation that will help so he's sent me to a sleep doctor and between them they're messing me around on medication.

So it's the tooth clenching and grinding and muscle tightness that are causing my problems, not my teeth. Which is the opposite of what the orthodontist now says when I ask why, when I came in for the initial consultation presenting with what I now know were then mild symptoms of TMD (even though I didn't have any popping or clicking), why did he not inform about that and refer me to someone before having major teeth pulled? He's gone from dismissing my concerns over the phone, to saying the teeth don't affect my jaw, to then saying fixing my teeth will fix my jaw, to just saying "oh, well, it's multi-factorial." Yeah well removing very important teeth and painfully rearranging what I have left is adding to a problem that should have been looked at before getting braces. He's a nice guy and he's doing all he can but I wish he'd taken a second look at me before I started treatment and I do feel pretty let down.

Anyway, I guess if you have nothing nice to say, just do a photo dump!

6 Months -------> 7 Months -------> 8 Months

The gaps are closing but nothing else seems different.

Here's the star of the show, snaggletooth, after 8 months:

For the last 5 weeks I've had elastics and a power chain behind it to try and make space. The ortho is not happy with how slow this is going.

And from the front:
6 Months -----> 8 Months

My upper teeth don't overlap the lowers at all anymore. The ortho said the elastics were supposed to make my bite better. Is this better?

6 Months ---------> 8 Months (with elastics, biting down as much as I can)

You can see how different my bite is on my "good" side here.

And the lowers after 8 Months:

They've made heaps of progress but after everything else I find it hard to get excited.

I can only imagine your frustration after 8 months and different stories, just try to hang in there!

It will get better! My sisters were bad "messed up" when she was younget and she had her braces
forever but today she has a beautiful smile. Hoping mine turns out as well as hers did.

Hey Teacher, thanks for the encouragement. Yeah I'm hanging in there. Had another adjustment yesterday. No pics cos nothing's changed except I've got a new square wire on the bottom and I've gone back to black ligs. Complained to the ortho again... I hate myself for being such a great big ugly pain when everyone in the office is so nice. He says that my night time clenching will stop those back teeth moving forward... but the elastics pulling them forward are what's making me clench so bad! So now I'm sleeping even worse cos when I relax my jaw falling alseep the back teeth come together and it feels wrong and I unconciously clench trying to find some sort of bite and then I wake myself up feeling guilty and scared that I'm ruining everything.

Is it bad or just progress that when I talk there's either too much space between my upper and lower teeth so my tongue pokes out - or they hit together edge on edge cos they don't really overlap anymore? Talking is hard and my jaw is all out of place. I want to say that this is all for the best but with everything I've been through I don't think this treatment plan was right for me. I was uncomfortable going into it and no matter how good he might be I really distrust my orthodontist. I don't know what to do.

Ugh. Sorry for the negativity. I want to be a good story