Metal Mouth Message Board

I've been hovering around the boards for a few weeks and have found it so incredibly helpful and motivating reading everyone's stories, so I thought I'd give it a go.

I had braces for about 3 (I can't actually remember now how long it was...) years when I was a teenager due to sucking my thumb A LOT when I was a kid. The treatment went pretty slowly as being the stubborn stupid kid I was, I carried on sucking my thumb. Even after debracing, I carried on until I was about 24, until I felt a crack and felt one of my front teeth move forward after a long day of tv and thumb sucking

I'm now 29, settled in a long term relationship so feeling comfortable enough (and financially secure enough) to once again fix the damage I caused to my once lovely, straight teeth.

First time round, I had my all four of my first bicuspids out to make room for everything to be pulled back. This time, my ortho has recommended that I have the tip right 2nd bicuspid out. My bottom teeth are apparently pretty OK, just very crowded at the front. He's going to shave the edges of them all off and pull them forward to get them straightened up. My top set are a bit of a mess though, after years of sucking my right thumb, I've successfully managed to pull my upper teeth to one side, my midline is way off! So the only solution is to have the upper right bicuspid out to create space to pull everything back to where they should be.

Bit nervous about having no bicuspids on the right, hopefully my smile won't look too off as a result.

Had my records appointment earlier in the week and my ortho expressed several times that I shouldn't expect perfect results at the end of my treatment, which is disappointing but I'll be happier with any progress to be honest. He said I'll still have a slight overbite when I've finished as there's just no way to get everything as they originally should have been.

Brace date is set for Jan 27th so until then I'm on countdown. I'll post some pics and an update soon as after reading everyone's journey, I feel documenting mine will be very therapeutic!

Forgot to add, I have an 8mm overjet, which the main issue that I want correcting!

Hi, good luck with braces a second time around. It's a big commitment but so worthwhile and the fact that your ortho is being realistic about what you might expect rather than promising you something he/she can't deliver is a good sign. I look forward to following your progress.

Thanks Neil, I'm most looking forward to biting into a slice of pizza in 2 years time and not pulling all the toppings off with my first bite!

8 days to go....

I get my second round braces set tomorrow, just a few days before you. We can do this! Good luck

Good luck to you too! How did it go? I'm down to 48 hours, fear it starting to sink in!

I had two fillings last week after a last minute trip to the dentist. One of my teeth is looking a bit precarious and I'll probably need a root canal in the next year, not sure how that'd go with braces on!!

Well, they're on.... it only took 30 minutes, which surprised me. My mouth feels enormous, because of my overjet I can't (not that I could properly before to be fair) close my mouth at all! I've come straight to work and am feeling super self concious. Luckily a girl in my office is at the latter end of 2 years with braces on so I have some moral support from a fellow bracee!

Hey kip. Wow, your story is pretty similar to mine! I also have a pretty bad overjet (12mm) and my orthodontist told me that it wouldn't be completely corrected by the end of treatment, even though I did get two upper premolars extracted!

Oh yeah! And my orthodontist said he COULD correct my overjet completely if I just opted to get my second upper premolars removed as well... but that's going to leave me with an upper jaw devoid of any bicuspids! So we're sort of in the same dilemma Let me know what you decide!

I just read your tale of being braced Mona Lisa, sounds like quite an experience!!

I'm unfortunately having to take a trip back to my ortho today my upper premolars on the left are sitting on top of the brackets on my lower teeth. Needless to say I can't put any pressure on it at all, it feels like my teeth are being ripped out! When I called the receptionist asked if he had put molar build ups on and she seemed surprised when I said he hadn't! I wonder if it's because my jaw moves about so much, so when he asked me to clench my teeth together my jaw may have been wandering and it wasn't sat on top!

I'll hopefully have made enough posts soon to post some photos and you can all marvel at my wonderfully wonky, soon to be pristine teeth.

My first attempt at uploading a photo, if it works I'll post the rest! Day 1 of braces

*Update*, picture worked but was huuuge, these are scaled down versions, hopefully not too small now!

Congratulations on getting started. How are you getting on?

Day 6 and it's actually OK! I'm surprised at how quickly they've stopped hurting. The first 3 days felt like someone was repeatedly punching me in the mouth, it was incredible how painful it actually was! I spent most of the time eating soup and smoothies and feeling generally very sorry for myself. I've graduated onto mashed potato, pasta and fish and it's lovely to eat something solid, even if it is a little tricky.

The constant teeth brushing is starting to annoy me immensely, I don't foresee myself keeping up with brushing after every meal but I'm going to try my hardest! It may be the light in the mirrors I'm looking in but I swear my teeth actually look a bit whiter, which is very odd. I have naturally very yellow teeth (thanks Dad!) and I'm not sure if the constant brushing is actually helping! Even if they're not, they look it and I'm ok with that!

The biggest thing I've noticed is the movement of my teeth. I really have significant movement in my molars, it's most bizarre. My back molars aren't actually attached to the brace so you can see how far the ones that are attached have been yanked in. I can't upload a picture currently (stupid phone cable is rubbish) but I will later as I am quite concerned how much they've moved already. I know it's different person to person but has anyone had significant inital movement and did it slow down?! I'm concerned my teeth are being pulled way more out of shape than they were before and I have 7 weeks before I go back to the ortho.

2nd week in and not having any major problems. Everything had settled down and I'm not suffering any pain any more, every hour or so my bottom teeth throb a bit but on the whole it's fine. I've started eating solid food a bit more and am going to attempt some chicken tonight. My bite is really off now, so have been struggling to chew because it feels so odd.

My biggest bugbear now is my dry mouth. WOW, I didn't know my mouth could be so dry. I'm drinking sooooo much water but today it's just not touching it. I find my lips getting stuck to my gums which leads so me pulling some really odd faces at my desk. I do hope my colleagues don't catch me.

kip wrote:2nd week in and not having any major problems. Everything had settled down and I'm not suffering any pain any more, every hour or so my bottom teeth throb a bit but on the whole it's fine. I've started eating solid food a bit more and am going to attempt some chicken tonight. My bite is really off now, so have been struggling to chew because it feels so odd.

My biggest bugbear now is my dry mouth. WOW, I didn't know my mouth could be so dry. I'm drinking sooooo much water but today it's just not touching it. I find my lips getting stuck to my gums which leads so me pulling some really odd faces at my desk. I do hope my colleagues don't catch me.

I'm glad to hear all is going well, it's amazing how quickly you adapt to having braces. I clearly recall around two weeks after starting suddenly having an incredibly dry mouth and nothing would make any difference. And then, as suddenly as it started, it stopped. No idea why, it's something many people comment on and I would be interested in hearing a scientific explanation for this as it doesn't make any sense at all.

Throughout your treatment, your bite will feel off, then ok, then odd, then great, then a bit strange, then ok again etc. I guess as everything moves into place, it will keep feeling different but isn't that part of the fun?

Took another trip back to the ortho today (my first official follow up appointment isn't for another month) as I was concerned about my archwire. It had moved back a long way on my top left and I could feel the end sat on the molar behind. When cleaning last night I nudged it and I could feel it scraping along the molar, which concerned me. Told the ortho what my concerns were today and his reply was "I doubt that very much"! He snipped the back of the wire off though and sent me on my way.

My ortho scares me a little tbh! He seems very professional and knows what he's doing but he doesn't have the greatest bedside manner. I don't feel I could ask him questions and he's not very forthcoming with what he's doing as he does it. It makes me feel like I'm having my first set of braces again and I'm 13!