Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi! I’ve been keeping a braces diary but I wasn’t sure of posting it. I was quite embarrassed of my pics and feeling a little shy. But I think that it will be good to overcome that feeling and share everything I feel and experience, and that might be useful for others. I don’t know why, but I think that having an overjet or “buck teethâ€

Before treatment pics







These are my teeth! And yes, here it is: the mother of all overjets...5mm+!!!!
I was embarrassed to post these pics, I never showed my teeth this way before. Years hiding my real smile...



The crowding on top is very noticeable here...I have a chipped tooth from my childhood (accident playing with my siblings...uff)

The pre-braces road: surprises everyday

November 28, 2005
First appointment. I got the x-rays earlier, and the ortho took a lot of pictures and made the molds of my teeth. I remember I was thinking, “God, I don’t want to see those...ever!!!!â€

December 7, 2005
That day the doctor explained me all the results of the study. Showed me the pictures and the molds.
“OOOOHHHH NOOOOO: Are those really my teeth? And that is my face??????â€

December 13, 2005
I was expecting that day just to get rid of the awful spacers and...Surprise number 2: "You are not ready yet!!!" There wasn’t enough room, the molar bands won’t be able to fit, except for two. He made a comment about that my teeth apparently move slowly... (Oh, no!!! Exactly what I needed to hear at that moment!!!)
Later, the ortho placed two molar bands and I couldn’t notice them in my mouth.
I was annoyed at the delay, I wanted all the molar bands fitted that day. I didn’t want to have those darn things between my teeth again!!!. I thought that I would be in braces by Christmas...well... I didn’t had a clue.
Spacers for another 10 days...

December 22, 2005
One of the spacers fell off on December the 20th !!!! I was amazed. It is not easy to loose one of those things, really. My teeth aren’t slow movers!!!!
I called the ortho and he gave me an appointment a day early. I was so happy that day. He took all the spacers out (great!!!!!) and started fitting the molar bands in...there was room enough and everything went well (Yipeeee).
And then...Surprise number 3. (I will copy my original post from that day in the forum)
I can't deny that I was SOOO happy to get rid of the spacers that I didn't notice at all what was going on...All the bands were placed with no problems, my ortho was happy and me too, and then....what is this????!!!!
I don't know why I didn't asked the ortho what that was!!!! I had a moment of pure stupidity.
The two molar bands that were placed on my upper molars last week were so unnoticeable that I thought that all of them would be the same.
But my new bands were a surprise. The upper two bands have this thing over the side were the tongue is (they are called cleats) and the lowers have a small "button". Both of these things are making my tongue suffer a lot, they are so sharp!
On the outside of the upper bands there are these huge hooks that, of course, are killing the inside of my cheeks. Last night I felt so miserable that for the first time I thought "If this gets worse, I will stop this torture and take this darn things off!!!!!!" And I don't even have the braces on yet!!!!â€

Hi Jesslzz!!
Please don't be shy, we're all a bit self conscious about our teeth, that is why we are doing something to change that. It's a huge step to take, especially at our age (I'm 29 also). You should be proud of yourself.

Wow! In the past 2 days I've met 3 other people who were braced on Jan. 9th (thanks to this wonderful forum!). How exciting that we'll be able to follow each other's progress.

Good luck! I look forward to reading more of your diary.

January 3, 2006
Extractions day!!!! No turning back from this. This is what I posted about that day:
I had my 2 first upper bicuspids extracted. I was amazed how quickly was everything, and it didn't hurt at all. I walked out the ortho's office feeling a little pain, but once I got home and took the little pill my ortho gave me, I felt ok!

I removed the gauze out of the gaps at about 4 hours after the extractions. I kept bleeding but I couldn't stand the feeling of the wet gauze in my mouth, so I took it out, and the bleeding started slowing down. I ate ice cream for dinner and went to bed, everything was ok.

But that morning I woke up with a strange feeling. I slowly passed my tongue over the sites and...what? I had a huge blood clot over the left gap. The right side was ok, the little clot over that site seemed normal to me. But the left side...it was like my teeth had grew up again in coagulated blood! (It's gross, but that was how I felt it, sorry)

I made a search through the forum and couldn't find anything similar, so I started to freak out, thinking that all this was my fault for taking out the gauze (I couldn't remember the time the ortho told me it would be ok to take that out). I took a deep breath and I called him.

I was expecting to hear a "it's normal, let it be", but he instructed me to remove it! Ahhhh...I ran to the bathroom and started to cry. I don't know how I did it, but I surprisingly was able to remove a big part of this thing in a gently manner, and now it looks exactly like the other side.
I'm so happy that it went well, it didn't hurt and I'm feeling great.





A couple of pics of my lovely gaps...I don't want to think too much about those huge holes! I'm confident they will be filled by teeth soon...

Hi wiredinLA!

I'm posting all my diary entries and pics so far (all at the same time) and it was really nice to see your post! How wonderful we share the same braces-on-day date!!! I will keep checking your posts too, we are in the same road now!

Thanks for writing!

Top braces go on and I dare to eat steak

January 9, 2006
B-Day!!!! Yeah!!!
My upper teeth are braced! I thought I was about to come home fully braced, but I’m happy anyway. Wow, a lot of strange feelings.
My extractions sites healed pretty well, and everything went ok. I didn’t feel much during the brackets placement and all of that. The only thing that went wrong was that apparently a piece of cement over one of my bands was interfering with the wire. It took a while to be removed, but I was finally done after an hour and 45 minutes. The ortho surprised me again with...2 spacers!!!! Auuuu!!!! He did it again! I asked this time, and he told me that I needed two more molar bands on my lower jaw. I will get those on my next appointment, when I will be also getting my lower jaw braces. And I thought I was over that spacers and bands stage...Apparently my ortho has this slow-approach strategy, adding things in stages, which is good if you want to get slowly used to all this hardware in the mouth. But spacers again...

Looking at the mirror was strange. I felt that these things were horrible, that I didn’t like them. But I didn’t feel ugly myself. It took me no more than 15 minutes to accept them as a new part of my mouth, for which I was surprised. I don’t know if the hard pre-braces road had anything to do with that feeling, or the fact that I waited so long for my braces. Anyway, I was feeling fine. The pressure was noticeable, a tooth ached, then another tooth, and so on, but I was still feeling ok.

That night I was invited to eat...steak! (Well, this is Argentina) And I did it!!! At first I thought it would be impossible, and I still don’t know how I did it, but I sat there and ate as always. The devil spacers from hell were the most annoying things ever, and the front teeth were a little sore, but...I could eat! Slowly, I finished my plate. I read around here that some folks can’t eat anything after being braced, so I feel kind of lucky. My pain threshold must be gone up high. Imagine...steak the first night after being braced. I think that once my spacers are off, I will feel even better. Of course cleaning was a pain, but I’m not complaining.

The worst so far is that I feel the wire poking out way back. It is like the ends of it weren’t trimmed enough. These things are really painful, they are really piercing the back of my mouth. My next appointment is exactly in one month...I don’t think I can survive these wires. Do you think I should call my ortho and get them trimmed? Also, I think that being one month on these spacers is way too extreme. I will see what happens in 10 days, and maybe I’ll ask for another consultation.

Flora2006, mel, wiredinLA and I share the same braces-on-day date!!!! How cool!!!

Here is my first comparison (of course, no progress here, but I like to see the two pics together )


Before

Braces-day 2

your braces are looking good. have you started seeing changes? it's been since monday but i'm hoping so bad to see some kind of change!

Yes, Flora 2006, me too! I can't wait to see any changes!

I have the feeling that something is changing, and I think that my front-right tooth has moved a really tiny tiny tiny bit. This tooth was almost overlapping my left one. Now everytime I pass my tongue over them I feel that tooth different, like it has moved! I can floss between those two teeth more easily than before, and I can't floss between the next one at all! (I used to floss there without any problem).
I can't see at the mirror any changes though.
So the progress might be super small, but it is there, I guess. Maybe it's just my imagination, but the pressure I feel over those teeth is there all the time.

Thanks KK!!! You are great, I really admire you! You always have a nice thing to say to everyone. Thanks a lot!!!!

Hey Jess,

I was just looking over your story and your pics and wanted to say hello.

You should be extremely proud of what you are doing. I know it can be difficult at times but the longer you have them on the more you realize how many adults have braces on nowdays. And by the way, you have absolutely gorgeous teeth!! You are sure to have a knock out smile when all is done! Good luck with it all.

Jill

I agree... your teeth have a beautiful shape. They are sure to look fantastic!

Hi Lilly and wiredinLA!

Thanks a lot for your comments and for thinking my teeth will look good when I'm done !!!

I like that I've finally decided to share my story with you...I appreciate your comments a lot. I'll keep my journal updated, I can't wait to see changes already!

Good luck!