Metal Mouth Message Board

Now that I've finally got a quiet evening and am almost done with my treatment, I think it's time for me to post my braces story.

So my story starts out with my parents offering to pay for orthodontic treatment for me when I'm 19. I didn't want braces, I thought I was too old for that. I had seen the commericals on TV for those clear Invisalign braces, so I made an appointment with an ortho who specialized in them and dragged my mom along. We went through all the procedures of molds, xrays, pictures and payments, and 3 months later I had my first trays of Invisalign. I was prescribed 40 upper and 40 lower trays with an estimated treatment time of a little over 1.5 years.

Invisalign didn't take long to get used to. I broke the first set of trays due to removing them incorrectly, but quickly got a replacement set, and time flew by. I had no problems until the last 10 or so trays. Once we got to that point, the trays stopped fitting so well. Teeth wern't quite shifting as they should have, and the last 10 trays took well over 7 months to complete. Specifically, my lower passenger's side incisor did not rotate causing it to bump into the upper incisor, and my bite was not that great.

So on my last appointment, my ortho and I talked about possible correction options. I could do nothing, have Invisalign send refinement trays, or do braces for 6-9 months. My ortho highly recommended braces, so I said what the hell. He even offered to do them for free, and ceramics, all because he wanted my teeth to be perfect as much as I did.

So let's stop for a moment and take a look at what my teeth looked like prior to Invisalign and very late in the treatment.

First a few pics of prior to Invisalign.




It's obvious that I had the fang thing going on, and my bottom teeth were also quite funky. All of my molars on the driver's side dipped in towards the roof of my mouth.

So now towards the end of Invisalign:




Excuse the tongue. I was trying to be smart to the camera, but it's an excellent picture of my upper arch.

By this point I had been in orthodontic treatment almost 2 years. And now we come to the second half of my journey, the braces...

A week after what was supposed to be my final appointment, I had spacers put in. A week later I was braced. So here I am the day I got braced:
11.24.04


It took me very little time to get used to the braces as I was already used to having what felt like a mile of plastic in my mouth. I never talked funny or lisped. I do notice, however, that I cannot whistle. Had no problems with Invisalign, but with braces I just can't seem to get my lips curled around enough to whistle.

Anyway, I went 6 weeks before my first adjustment which was just a change of the ligatures. This picture is right before my first adjustment. Excuse the stained ligs, those are tooth colored with 6 weeks of black tea on them in case anyone wants to know!
1.05.05


Here you can see the offending passenger incisor:


You can see my bite improved drastically. All the teeth moved down significantly in just the first 6 weeks. My next adjustment would have been at the beginning of February, but I didn't take pics as nothing exciting happened. Just a simple lig change. In March was when it started to get fun. I got all new wires, the top wire complete with several bends.

3.03.05




That top archwire would not be changed until the last two adjustments. The lower archwire got changed every appointment.

Just to show the progress on that lower incisor, this pic was taken on 3.02.05. It might be a little tough to make out, but well worth including I think (It's on the wrong side because I took the picture in a mirror, so its my passenger side incisor. I didn't realize this until just now, so I will flip the pic in Photoshop when I get the chance.):


Here's at the end of March when I started using rubber bands:
3.30.05


And then three months later, at the beginning of June, I got my teeth shaped nicely. That passenger lower incisor whipped around nicely, and my bite closed up. I was still using rubber bands at night only to hold the changes in position. Major improvement between March and June:
6.9.05




Look at how much better that incisor looks!

I just had my last adjustment this past Wednesday, July 5th. I will take pictures tomorrow morning as they'll come out poorly tonight, but the lower incisor continues to make progress and my bite continues to improve. I am scheduled to get my braces removed August 23rd.

Well that's my story. Any comments or questions are welcome!

Hi, going well. Good luck!

Here are pics of my final adjustment done last wednesday.

Your teeth are looking absolutely awesome!!

Rooroo, your smile looks great! Good job!
BTW that's the first time I have seen the "driver's" and "passenger's" terms to indicate which side of the mouth. You could start a new trend!
(although maybe confusing for the ppl from UK and Australia?)

Thanks everyone!
Haha, I came up with the driver's and passenger's side after a beer. You're right, it could be confusing to those from the UK. But who's driving on the correct side of the road anyway?

That lower incisor has turned quite a bit more in these past two weeks. I will have to take another picture after I get my ligs changed sometime this week. Amazingly it hasn't hurt at all, just quietly turning around.

So my estimated braces removal date is going to be a little further away... by only 2 weeks. I went to my orthodontist on wednesday to get the ligs changed and though my last appointment was supposed to be my last adjustment (2 weeks ago), he wanted to do another adjustment on wednesday. So of course I agreed. He put a few bends in the top archwire to bring my two front teeth down a hair as all of my teeth were lined up even in the front, and the two front teeth should be slightly lower. He also took the wire tie off the lower incisor thats been turning, pushed the wire back in and re-wiretied it. Its made amazing progress in the past few weeks.

He told me I may need one more adjustment but that should be it. I'm going in in 3 weeks for a check and/or my final adjustment. If all is well I'll have them off 4 weeks after that, which will be Sept 7th. The new timing kind of sucks because I am going to LA for a wedding on Sept 1st and was expecting to have them off, but oh well. The wedding is only one day, my teeth are the rest of my life. All this time invested and I want them to be perfect.

I'll post some pictures once I finish drinking my tea this morning and brush my teeth real good.

7.23.05





That lower incisor has a tiny bit more turning to do. Also a little gap has opened up in the front teeth. My ortho almost put power chains on the top but he wanted to wait and see what happened with bringing the front teeth down first. That's probably why I'd have to get one more adjustment.

Almost done!

Wow rooroo, your teeth are looking awesome!! It's interesting because when I look at your teeth after Invisalign photos your upper arch looks good to me but I can see such a difference since braces. I'm glad your journey is coming to an end! (Boy I wish I was close to the end)

I do have one question though... So in September what will be your total time since starting on the path to a healther smile??

Wow, good question. I went for a consultation for Invisalign in September or October of 2002, and got them "installed" January of 2003. I got braces November of 2004. And they'll be off September of 2005. So for Invisalign thats... 23 months, and for braces it'll be a little less than 10 months. 33 months total. Wow, its been a long time! I'm looking forward to getting the Essix retainers since their just like Invisalign. It won't take much getting used to and I already know how to wear them, clean them, etc.

Invisagirl, I'll try to find a better picture of my upper arch, but you are right, my upper arch wasn't the reason I went to braces, but my upper arch definetly improved from braces. Just shows you how much can be done with each kind.

Wow we started almost at the same time! I went for the consult in Nov or Dec 2002 and got Invisalign Feb 2003. How interesting! I'm glad your journey is almost done!!!

Went in today for what was to be my check up before my braces come off in four weeks. They ended up doing an adjustment which has proven painful. I got two lower molars stepped up to close up my bite on that side, which has opened since I stopped using rubber bands (at the ortho's request of course). I also mentioned something about a small gap between my front teeth that had opened up over the past couple of months. I wasn't going to say anything and just deal with it, but I'm now quite glad I did. My ortho did some stripping between my two front teeth because they were shaped like a triangle, so there was a gap up top but not at the bottom. They stripped off probably .5mm on each tooth so that they were now parallel. And on a power chain went. So I left with a 1mm gap between my front teeth and some bends in my lower wire, plus a small power chain between two lower teeth.

Amazingly, I looked at my teeth an hour ago and the gap is gone! Powerchains are amazing things! My ortho said as long as the gap is closed next time I go in (4 weeks from today) that I will get them off that appointment. If it hadn't closed it would be another 4 weeks. So I'm super stoked that my gap closed right up. Which means braces off in 4 weeks!



I'll post some pics later today or tomorrow morning. I wish I had a pic of right after my appointment so I could show everyone how big the gap was. I have to go out for a celebration beer and food (soft foods, because my teeth hurt about as much as the first day in braces) tonight!

Wow that is soooo awesome!!! Congrats!!!

Hi rooroo,

I've got a question for you. Do you remember if you had significant teeth movement between getting the spacers and having the braces put on?? I'm assuming they let you go "aligner free" but I'm worried if in that time there will be significant teeth movement. Guess I'm worried I'll see 2.6 years of movement go away in 4 days (yeah I know it sounds crazy but my teeth love to move!). Just was wondering what your experience was.

Thanks!