Metal Mouth Message Board

First adjustment this past Monday. He put me in a reverse curve wire top and bottom to both intrude the central teeth a bit and extrude the molars. Bumpers were removed because now my central top and bottom teeth meet dead on, I have absolutely no overjet whatsoever for right now. It's quite irritating but I know it won't last forever. Power chain across that top 6, and elastics, from upper canine to lower molar. Which seems weird, because that feels like it will be pulling the lower teeth forward when I need them to go back so I can bite down again. But I trust my ortho and know that sometimes weird stuff has to happen before the good movement can take place. I don't see much movement in the top, I may ask about IPR at my next appointment. My top central teeth could do with some slimming and it would give a bit of room to rotate my stubborn canines. I have huge spaces opening up on either side of my 4 lower centrally, which is both weird and cool to see. Everything down there needs to shift to the left to line up the left side of my bite to interlock better and to get my midline lined up.

Every day a different tooth seems to be painful, like they are all taking turns. It's still very difficult to eat, chewing is both awkward and painful. But I've lost nearly 10lbs since the beginning.

I chose smoke ligatures this time and I really like how they look. It almost enhances the sparkle of the silver wire and my teeth seem whiter. I may stick with this one for a few adjustments. I'm relieved you can't see the elastics when I talk, only when I smile. But wow, my speech is definitely affected. You can really tell that I'm talking around a bunch of hardware in my mouth. At least I can. I know my husband would never say anything because he knows it would make me self conscious.

Argh! Today is just one of those "everything irritates me" days. The little ligament under my tongue feels like it's been roughed up, the insides of my upper lip feel raw from rubbing on my canine brackets. I can't put wax on them because of the rubber bands. The inside of my lower lip is raw from rubbing on the brackets that must have shifted position, plus the bumpers are gone and they all feel sharper. And it seems like my premolar and first molar on one side on the bottom are extruding further than the last molar behind it.

On a good note, if I shift my jaw side to side I can just barely get the pointy parts of my molars to finally touch each other.

Woke up this morning to a single spot on my back molars touching. Progress!

Problem is, it's not a spot that normally touches, because things have shifted it's like two high points now run into each other and so it feels totally unnatural. It's going to be a long 2 years.

Also, does anyone else have trouble getting silicone wax to stay put around power chain? I tried last night and no matter what I did I couldn't get it to stick. No trouble around a regular ligature.

I haven't lost THAT much weight since getting my braces on, but yesterday my mom was here and remarked that I was "too skinny". I'm really not, I'm still within the range for my height and frame, but hey, someone else noticed.

The second premolar on the bottom right is coming up higher than all the rest so it's hitting first with the top ones before I feel anything else. It's going to be like this, just with different teeth over time, until everything settles, won't it? And it know it's going to get weirder too when they start shifting all the teeth on the right. Those teeth all land on top of each other instead of interlocking like the ones on the left. So eventually everything from my left canine around to my back right molar will get shifted to the left. Should fix my midline as well. It all just feels so weird to have a teeth hitting that never did before. And one of my top central incisors seems to be turning clockwise just a tad. The center is coming up and the outside corner is coming down just a tad. I think it's because where those teeth connect to the bottom ones creates pressure right in the middle so they are shifting upwards right there. Next appointment is in 9 days.

Adjustment tomorrow. With everything new that went in last time, I'm curious to know what will happen tomorrow. I've noticed that more of my molars are finally connecting which makes chewing more possible than before. But my top front teeth still don't overlap the bottom enough to clear them so I'm anxious for those to get bumped forward. I have no spaces opening up anywhere at all on top so I'm having a hard time seeing how things will actually be able to move around. If they can manage to pull my front teeth forward it will give a bit of extra room and make rotating my canines up there a tad easier.

Home and everything feels so tight. Same reverse curve wire on top, new straight, heavier wire on bottom. Power chain across top 6, during which the bracket on my right canine popped off while being tied. So they had to replace that. Then I was given heavier rubber bands. Yeeouch! I know I'll get used to them just like the others. Ortho said things are looking good. Canines are slowly twisting where he wants them to go. I asked about shaping and they do that at the end if we want. One of my canines is pointier than the other and I'd like them to match. Also asked the assistant about IPR and she said he does that too, but I forgot to ask him. So that will be next time.

I got the same smoke colored bands, kid got red on top, blue on bottom for 4th of July holiday. He got power chain on the bottom for the first time to close up some huge gaps left by a sideways tooth so he's in a bit of pain.

Upon further inspection, I do believe my new lower wire is square.

100 days today. So I made a ticker. Chose the road and car graphics because this is quite the journey.

Being naughty again tonight, as I was last night. Things must have moved just enough for my canine brackets to rub a sore spot on my inner lips so I'm sleeping without my elastics so I can put silicone wax on overnight. Which means the bottom back molar brackets need wax too, as well as my first premolars on the bottom. Everything just seems to be rubbing in new places that aren't toughened up yet. A day full of talking makes it worse. I need a quiet day where I don't have to talk to anyone.

And now that my molars touch again I'm finding myself catching my cheeks between my brackets while I eat. Yeeouch! It's worse than the standard biting your cheek with teeth.

Adjusted today. I got a new straight wire on top that matches the bottom, so no more reverse curve. He said the spaces on my bottom teeth "look good on me". Ha ha. I got power chain top and bottom, molar to molar to get things closed up. Same elastics. I got daring though, and did silver ligs on top, blue on the bottom. My kid did red on top, gold on bottom. We're Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. Geeks rule, man. They should really make fandom color sets available, I can think of tons of possibilities.

Lesson of the week: Thursday appointment are better than Friday. When I feel that poky wire later in the evening I know I can head back into the office in the morning and have it clipped. Or ground in this case. There's just a tiny burr but I can feel it against the muscle at the back of my cheek when I smile or swallow.

Guess where I'm going first thing in the morning?

4+ months in and I have my first real open canker sore. It's on my cheek right where a molar hook is. Why it happened now all of a sudden is weird, but I've had to take my elastics out so I can wax the hook in order to heal. And I'm dropping something off at my Ortho office in the morning. I feel Iike I should confess.

Just my luck to have a pokey wire out the back of my molar bracket over a three day weekend. Thank heavens I managed to figure out how to get a bit of wax to stick despite power chain and elastics.

The space between my lower canine and the premolar behind it appears to be going...nowhere. But my central 4 teeth have been mighty sensitive so maybe they are preparing to make the jump.

Adjusted today. He put some custom bends in my lower wire to get my 4 central lowers to line up better. I'm down to one rubber band on the right side to help with my midline. Strongest power chain on the bottom, next to last strongest on top. Everything feels bubbly and clicky tonight, and painful when it does. Also, since the lowers are being pulled in line better the rightmost incisor now rubs against the right incisor on top, so it's making both those teeth really tender. I know it won't last forever, but the colliding of teeth that didn't hit teeth before is such a weird, unsettling feeling.

It's amazing how hyper aware I am of all the teeth in my mouth now, where they are, how they feel, what they're touching.

I chose lavender power chain and I think it looks quite nice. My kid got out of power chains this time so he was so excited to get rainbow ligs. He's adorable.