Metal Mouth Message Board

The bad news is, I have severe root reabsorption in my lower right molar, along with several cavities from the root being exposed; on the upper left I have 2 metal fillings and they are starting to crack the teeth they're in. I had hoped I'd gotten through this without any serious tooth damage. :cry...

I've got Essex retainers on top and bottom, and have followed the retention plan faithfully, but it seems my teeth are sensitive all the time anyway. The retainers are pretty tight feeling at night when I put them on, and now I'm having bite pain on my upper left and lower right molars. Is this norm...

I had braces for 27 months, and I had elastics for the last 21 months. :lol: I also had a crossbite, so you may be looking forward to that as well. I didn't really mind them, tho, aside from a 6-week configuration that ran from the bicuspids to the 2nd molar - it got in the way of my tongue and caus...

When I first had elastics I was told to wear them at night, and then I graduated to 24-7 wear about 2 months later. Follow your ortho's instructions - they know what they're doing.

Despite what your ortho told you, an adult CAN learn a new tongue position without torture devices. I had a really bad tongue thrust as well, and no speech therapist in the area retrain my tongue. My ortho gave me a set of exercises to do, and over about 6 months I learned to keep my tongue in the r...

I had problems with it when I first got braces, and was sure I'd never get over it. I found taking Melatonin at night helps some - seems to relax your jaw more while you sleep. Over time, my bruxing has dramatically reduced since my problem was caused by a really bad bite. As more of the teeth line ...

I'm 12 months into a 24-month treatment, and my ortho did a rebracing appointment 1-1/2 weeks ago. She removed 13 of the brackets and repositioned them, which required cleaning the old "glue" off with a high-speed drill. It was uncomfortable, to say the least, but almost painful in two upp...

I second that motion - relax. They don't bend easily. Trust me, the first time you get a poker and try to bend it away from the sore spot that results, you'll see how stiff they are. That said, while you're in light wires, be super careful about eating crunchy stuff. I had a wire go out of place eat...

I've also got an open bite, being addressed with braces and elastics and it's getting to be quite a chore to unlearn my tongue thrust. But I've found a few good resources on the web for exercises to learn how to swallow properly, and now it's just a matter of practice. Illinois, if you haven't made ...

I've noticed my wires feeling stiff when I drink cold stuff, and what's even odder is that it seems to happen every time I ride my bicycle in the cold. I tend to be a mouth breather, and if I don't have my mouth clamped shut I can feel the wires stiffening up. Odd feeling.

I had a lot of problem with flossing at first, too, because my teeth were so tight. Seemed like the first few weeks I could hardly get regular floss between my teeth because it hurt so badly. I started using the flat, ribbon-type floss to get the job done, and using a flossing fish helps a lot. (See...

I've lost 10 lbs. in 9 weeks and hope to keep losing. I would have gotten braces 15 years ago if the ortho had told me the weight just falls off. Granted, it's due to pain and a general sense of nausea, but the weight loss would have been incentive enough!

My experience with bruxism (night grinding) is that a sore tooth may be the only symptom that you're bruxing. And it can get pretty painful - I had enough pain in an upper molar that I ended up having a root canal because the pain mimicked an abcess. The dentist couldn't see any evidence of infectio...

I have a related question: Because of my screwy bite, I've had receding gums. Will the braces fix that? That is, will the new gum growth result in a non-receded gumline?

I've finally gotten to the point that I can chew again, but I'm finding my arch wire seems more flexible than before. How tight should the wire be? And can you loosen it by eating something like chewy bread? I'm avoiding all the "forbidden" foods, but I had a wire come out of the bracket t...