Metal Mouth Message Board

Let the countdown begin... I will have braces at this time in a week! 10 am... March 16th... I thought the day would never come!

I have been preparing myself with everything that I will need. Where I live, I can't just run to the store to buy anything I ran out of or need so I've just been trying to get EVERYTHING! ha I opened up my brand new WaterPik last night and was sorta scared to even try it. I don't know why. Then I did and it was kinda fun!

I think I am more nervous about the whole eating thing than any pain or discomfort. Because well... me not eating leads to pain and discomfort! I'm trying to think of every soft food I can buy! I feel like I know what to expect but also just have no idea!!!

Anyhow, I basically just have the classic "gap" that so many of us have. My canine teeth (what is the real name!?) are crowded out too so I'm expecting some discomfort and lip rubbing there, but you never know. I used to just think "geez, If I could just push my gap closed then the canines could just scoot right in." It'd be easy! That's why I thought Invisalign would work but I was totally wrong! That was my original plan but my Ortho shocked me with a no on that. I just thought it would work for anyone! My bottom teeth are a tiny bit crowded right in the front but honestly, they look just fine to me. But I have to get top and bottom braces because my bite is tight so the bottoms need to go back a bit. I don't really know. I know I can expect some elastics in my future... I'm sure a powerchain or two.

Here's some pictures... I noticed looking at the pictures too that my teeth don't really look centered under my nose either... That's news to me! Ortho never said anything though. Guess it's minor. Is that considered a crossbite?

Hi Beckyboo

I also have braces for an upper midline diastema, ceramics. I saw progress vey quickly, especially once the powerchains went on. I only had upper arch treatment, as I had one lower tooth that was slightly out and my case was easily corrected single arch hence my decision on that.

I hope you see progress quickly like I did,

Feel free to read my story

Angel269, you get your off SOOO SOOON! You must be so excited! I get mine on in 4 days and YIIIIIIKES!

So this is what me going to the orthodontist entails...

I live among the mountains, salmon and bears in Alaska... I live remote, which means no cars, no stores, no nothin! So to go to the orthodontist... I have to hop a floatplane (that's a little tiny plane with floats so it lands on the water.) and go to the nearest town, which is only like 30 miles from where I am I think but very jagged mountains stand in the way. Today it was only about a 20 minute flight because the weather was beautiful! We flew straight over the mountains.

So now I am in town waiting... until Saturday. Where I live, we have scheduled flights twice a week... Monday and Thursday so I catch the Thursday plane in (today)... I drive myself crazy with nerves tomorrow... and my appointment to get my braces is Saturday. Then I lay in pain on Sunday. ha Monday I return home.

I tried to talk my husband into coming with me... for moral support but no. Boo. So I'm going it alone... with you guys for my moral support! Until I arrive back on Monday with these braces and everyone standing there to unload the plane staring at me! Not looking forward to that. Might just end up zipping up my hood and running so no one can see me!

The plus side is that I am in town so I can get anything I realize I may need after the braces go on. If you have read some of my other posts, I have said I am trying to get EVERYTHING I need because I don't have immediate access to the store. So I can walk around the store Sunday looking for every single soft food product available! ha In case you are wondering, every week we email our grocery order into the store and they shop it for us, and they get delivered on one of the weekly planes. So it will be nice to pick out my own stuff for a change.

Have I blown anyone's mind yet? It's such a weird scenario... most people just get confused when I talk about it.

You have pretty teeth, you're going to have such a beautiful smile when you're done, Beckyboo!

And we all talk about the "journeys" we're on, but holy moose, girl, you're on a literal journey as well! That is such a cool and unique story, talk about commitment! Thanks for sharing and good luck on Saturday!! Keep us posted!

An hour and a half away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Holy cow.....

Thinking of you! Good luck, though you won't need it. The nerves are the worst part, the actual braces application is nothing! It tastes bad at times, but mostly you just sit with your mouth held open while they do their thing. You'll do great! I am SO excited for you!!!

Good luck! I will be getting mine next Thursday

Please keep us posted with your progress:)

Welllll they're on!! I'll have to take some pictures but I just got back after running to the store. No pain yet... definately tight feeling though as soon as they put the wire on.

I have clear on top and metal on bottom... I was expecting to pick out my colors but actually, I have self-ligating braces. Didn't know I was getting them but that's ok. I have these dumb buildup things on the backs of my two front teeth because one of my teeth were hitting a bottom bracket. They feel like giant triangles pointing toward the back of my mouth. Only thing so far that I can tell is going to bug me is my very last bracket on one side. It just feels like it sticks out more and is kinda poking my cheek. PRAYING FOR NO MOUTH SORES!! What are the chances of that happening?

I do have all of my wisdom teeth in and my ortho didn't put any brackets on those. Which is probably good cause that's so far back there and would probably drive me nuts. And they didn't attach my wire to the very last braces (2nd molars.) No molar bands either... just these larger metal brackets or something.

All and all, not bad. The worst part was wearing the dumb lip retractor! Kinda starting to get a headache, but honestly, for me, that could be from anything!

So 7 hours in and I have a few sore teeth... one of my back molars hurts a little but only when I push on it. Then one of my lower bottoms right in front hurts just sitting here. It's also the tooth that gets hit with one of my build up thingies so maybe that's why?

Eating was interesting. After explaining the tooth build up things to a friend, she asked if my teeth could touch in the back and I realized they didn't. Didn't even think to check... boo. Anyhow, I bought this frozen lasagna and it took forever to cook. Eating it was fine but it's definately weird to chew. I think I just ended up using my tongue to push the noodles against my teeth a little and just swallowed. Did try to chew some so I could get used to it. After just a few bites, there were bits of stuff EVERYWHERE!!!!! Bits of green spices, a cheese nugget wrapped around some wire... it was not cute! Anyhow, I think I'm going to stick to this Chinese noodley thing for tonight too. Thankfully no real soreness yet though.

Don't have any rubbing or anything either. When does that usually kick in? Shouldn't that kick in right away?

Yay to the start of your journey! I'll look forward to following your progress!

For me, the pressure was the first thing I noticed. The pain came in the 3 or 4 days that followed. Then at day 4 I started getting ulcers. I was using wax on almost all my back brackets and my front lower ones. Pain had subsided by week 2 apart from the occasional tooth that kicks a fuss now and then! At week 5 now and I am only putting wax on 2 brackets that occasionally annoy me.

Eating gets easier, even with the build ups. Your mouth learns how to chew again.

Yeah now I think the sores are starting.... boo. I was hoping I would get through this sore free. I have two small holes/poke marks (1 on each back upper bracket.) Boo. It doesn't really hurt much but I can feel it. I dunno if I should just put wax on it or not yet. I did last night because I didn't want it cutting in. Maybe I'll just wait until tonight again.

I definately had more pain when I woke up this morning... mostly my very front top teeth. Makes sense because these are the ones that need to do the moving. I should have popped some ibuprofen before I tried brushing cause that hurt. Mostly just my canines for brushing. But the drugs definately eased the pain and I felt good for a while! Now the pain is kicking back in some so I took more. I'll just keep myself drugged I guess. ha

Stuck to eating soft foods today though at lunch, when the drugs were in my system, I thought maybe I could have lightly chewed something in the very back but I didn't try. Instead I got this soup which turned out to be gross so that was a bust.... boo.

Anyhow, things are going well. Better than I expected... unless the worst hasn't come yet! BAH.

I posted this on the Metal Mouth forum but I figured I should put it here too...

Yesterday, 9 hours in I had movement ALREADY! I think actually my tooth might have just rotated some and thus, left a gap. But I was pretty surprised.

I have the same build up on the back of my front teeth. I hate them and they are worse than the braces. The ortho said they were bite turbos. Hope all goes well.

Robin

Your story is very interesting, all the travel involved just for some straight teeth Ive read that alot of people get those bite things on but my top teeth touch the bottom brackets all the way around and i have never had a problem and my ortho never suggested them to me so it must be okay, it was hard to eat anything at first for me because i was trying to chew on the brackets but it has gotten easier with time! The sores for me didnt start for a few days and I chose not to use wax thinking the pain would be over sooner if i just let the pain happen and my cheeks get used to it, not the case at all! Use the wax as much as you need because your mouth will heal when it wants to! Good luck with everything!