Incognito Fitting Experiences..

[IncognitoChris]

I am being fitted with Incognito upper and lower in the new year. I have a few questions if you are able to remember back to when your linguals were fitted.

How long did it take for upper and lower?

Any pain/discomfort during fitting ?

Do you remember what was involved ? I have read they sort of 'sand blast' the back of your teeth, did you experience this ?

How did it feel after they were fitted, you know, the first time you felt around with your tongue, did it feel strange ?

Thanks folks !

[cs2thecox]

I think mine took about an hour all in, for upper and lower.

No pain or anything, but the glue tastes pretty disgusting!

Yeah, they blast your teeth first to make sure the surface is really clean and dry, but it's no worse than the hygienist giving them a really good clean. I think they then put something on my teeth to provide a slightly rough surface so the brackets stick better, and scratched it up a bit. No real discomfort or anything, and certainly not as bad as having impressions taken. (I hate impressions - they make me gag...)

My brackets came in plastic trays so they put the glue on, then put the whole tray in your mouth and stick a whole arch of brackets on at once. Well, I think they split mine in to a couple of bits per arch. The worst bit was when they pulled off the plastic trays to leave the brackets behind - kind of that same sucky feeling as when they take out the impression trays and for a second it feels like it might take your teeth with it! (Just me? Okaaaaaay then...)

Once the wires were on it felt... not exactly tight. Kind of confined. A bit like how it feels when you strap up your ankle or something. And yes, a mouth FULL of scratchy metal when you start poking around with your tongue.

Then I went and got on an overnight flight to the middle east...!

[winwired]

Pretty much as cs2thecox has outlined except that mine took over 3 hours to fit (lots of things went wrong, eg some brackets fell off and had to be re-glued individually).

The sandblasting is not too bad, not exactly what you would choose voluntarily as a spa or pampering treatment for your mouth but by no means the worst part!!

The glue is utterly disgusting and you have to lie there helpless whilst it makes you feel sick, as flinching or swallowing when they are just trying to get something to stick in place is not ideal.

The other bit that was problematic for me during and after the fitting was jaw ache, but this was obviously aggravated by the extreme length of time it took them to get the darn things in. Most normal people seem to get it over and done with in an hour and have no real issues (I'm seriously beginning to wonder if I'm the unluckiest lingual patient on the planet!)

[IncognitoChris]

Doesn't sound too bad and I think anybody would have jaw ache if they had to open their mouth for 3 hours!

*Mental Note* try not to taste the glue!

It's funny you should mention the impressions, I ended up getting 3 upper and 3 lower impressions as the Ortho wanted to make sure there were no problems with them otherwise apparently Incognito will get in touch with the Ortho to request more impressions. Each time the upper was placed in my mouth the stuff squeezed out the back down my throat.. cue gag reflex!

The last upper impression my Ortho took he left in for a bit longer than the others (presumably to ensure it was as set as possible). I think that may have been a little too long though as it required some extreme pulling to get it back out again.. thought my teeth had come out with it!

Going on a long flight after getting full linguals.. Hardcore I've booked time off work to recover from the trauma hehe

[cs2thecox]

I only wish I'd had a choice about the flight and massive meetings the next day!

Although, maybe being forced to carry on as normal (commuting to the Middle East is basically normal for me... sigh) was the best thing of all. I didn't get a chance to baby myself, or be too weird with food, as most of my meals were with colleagues or clients so I just had to get on with it. The speaking too - there was just no way to not do it!

I did take the whole afternoon off when they were fitted though, just in case. I've had some big dental work in the past (epic abscess that I didn't even notice, emergency extraction, implant etc) and remember having to take the rest of the day off work after some of that because I felt so squiffy. Braces are *nothing* like that - they're just gluing on some bits of metal really - but a half day seemed like a sensible precaution. Totally didn't need it, and even ate macaroni cheese for dinner that night.

On the glue thing, don't be afraid to ask for a break in between having your arches fitted, and ask if you're allowed to rinse too. It helps with the taste...
Oh, and breathe through your nose!!

[ghostpeep]

My appointment lasted about 1.5-2 hours. I've only had the uppers fitted so far. Lowers will go on at either my Jan or Feb appointment.

The sandblasting part was not bad at all. The sand was really fine and they did a good job cleaning up after it so I didn't have a ton of grit in my mouth afterward like I expected to.

There really wasn't any pain or discomfort, but I did have an issue with getting one of my brackets to stick on. It was on a porcelain crown, which are notoriously difficult. My orthodontist had to use a different type of glue to get it to stay on properly.

There was some pressure once the wire was placed, and my teeth got a little tender over the next few days, but not awful. I am not able to fully close my teeth together, either. My bottom teeth knock into one of brackets, so I can't actually fully bite down with both sides of my jaw. My orthodontist ground down the brackets a little bit to help with my bite, but wasn't able to do too much to help.

I really expected my mouth to feel a lot fuller with the brackets on. They were a lot smaller than I expected. It's been about a week and a half and I can talk pretty much normally again, and my tongue hasn't taken too bad of a beating, either!

We'll see how it goes when I get the bottoms on.

[IncognitoChris]

Well, got a call from the Ortho today saying Incognito are requesting another impression Just when I thought that part was over! looks like my fitment date may be pushed back as I was due to be fitted Feb 18th, but due to the holidays the first appointment to get the impressions done is January 14th.

Ghostpeep, I have noticed a lot of people has issues with glue sticking to crowns or that being the first bracket to come off. Thankfully, all my teeth are my own so should be ok. Thanks to all for posting your experiences though.

Merry Xmas everyone!

[tonyk]

I'm coming to this thread a little late, but since it's a question that is of general interest I figured I'd add my 2 cents. My ortho used an digital imaging system to get the shape of my teeth, so no gooey stuff to bite on. They spray white powder on your teeth then take images with a camera on the end of a wand. All the images are stitched together to give the 3D shape. If you're interested, the powder is titanium dioxide.

When the braces were ready they prepped my teeth with a mild abrasive to get the glue to adhere better. It's obviously important that the brackets really stick. I don't recall any taste of glue. They insert the entire upper set of brackets in one move. The brackets come in a custom frame. Once they're on, they remove the frame, and the brackets are then on your teeth! Same for the lower set. They remove excess glue. Then they put in the archwires and secure them to each bracket. That's about it for the installation. The procedure was not painful except for mild discomfort from having to keep my mouth open.

[Viconia]

Tonyk, that sounds almost ridiculously simple!

Was the 3D imaging system Suresmile or some other brand? I'm having top linguals but lower ceramic so still have to have impressions done but that's a major advantage of the 3D imaging if you ask me!

[tonyk]

Viconia, I'm not sure what the brand is for digital imaging. It may be a 3M proprietary system. But if you want a YouTube that shows the insertion of braces, check out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OndLK8XWff4 I thought it was fairly easy, the main discomfort being keeping my mouth open for so long!

[Viconia]

Brilliant, thanks for posting. Definitely looks a lot more straightforward than some of the other lingual brace bondings I've seen videos of.

Out of interest, do you have upper and lower linguals or a different configuration?

[tonyk]

Yes, lower and upper braces all at one time. It took a couple of hours.

[2bigreddogs]

Sand blasting teeth doesn't sound very fun

[Bandini]

The sand blasting was not a big deal, they warned me about a bad taste if I swallowed at any point but wasn't a problem either.
I only have top linguals but was dozing off and nearly fell asleep while they fitted the braces. Apparently I wouldn't have been the first to fall asleep in the chair because when I asked they seemed still amused with a recent snoring incident

I thought this would be a painful experience but the fitting wasn't at all. Maybe the bottom ones are worse I don't know.