Metal Mouth Message Board

Congrats on the great progress from me too! You must be smiling now at every reflecting surface you pass by of mere delight of your new appearance! Keep up the good work.

Here's yet a pair of photos on the progress of my lower jaw. This is how it used to look like: http://staff.cs.utu.fi/~ginter/lower_jaw_b.jpg And here is the present stage: http://staff.cs.utu.fi/~ginter/lower_jaw.jpg The ortho said she'll probably yet thin the teeth a bit to make space. In any case...

Do you also had to have elastics? or your bite was quite ok? No elastics for me, but instead a wicked spring to make some space: (The spring was a great nuisance against the lips. Uff...) http://users.utu.fi/lajhalm/jousi16032005.jpg Bite was quite ok to start with, there was just the crowding, so ...

Did your ortho explain you why s/he decided to use a fixed retainer instead of a removable one in your case? Are you supposed to wear it indefinately or will it be removed at some later point? According to the ortho, this is more of a cultural than orthodontical issue. She said that for example in ...

Question: does the fixed upper retainer affect your speech at all (even just a tiny bit?) Also how is it like for eating/getting food caught? The retainer doesn't affect my speech even a bit. And I'm completely used to it already, I really don't remember it's there anymore. And no problem with eati...

I got my upper braces away on 25th of November. Hooray! :D In the beginning, it was like this (see also the first posting): http://users.utu.fi/lajhalm/raudat200105.jpg And now my smile is like this: http://staff.cs.utu.fi/~ginter/smile.jpg . I have a fixed retainer (which really is no trouble at al...

I'll get my upper braces away in 8 days (jeehaw!) and I'm very satisfied. Not extatic, but very satisfied. The teeth look still a bit strange, somehow huge, and the front teeth are not exactly symmetrical, due to years of abrasion on other of them while they still were crooked. In the beginning I th...

I've had a fixed retainer now for 4 days and I think that it's just ok. I still keep feeling it with my tongue quite a bit, but I'm sure that I soon won't remember its existence. At least from pictures I've seen of Hawley's etc. it seems like much smaller a nuisance. I think I'd dislike to have some...

I got a fixed retainer a week ago -braces still stay for a bit over a week to stabilize the system. (Geez, I'm looking forward to get them away!) I, too, keep rubbing my tongue against the retainer, but otherwise it's quite ok. I don't think it will be a problem in the long run. I only wish it was c...

I got the ortho head ages ago, but haven't used it more than a couple of times. Reason: I don't think it does a good job -at least not on my teeth. The same goes for the normal heads. They clean bare teeth well, but don't work on my braces. Actually, it seems that the ortho head is yet a bit worse.....

I'm glad to notice how my upper row of teeth is starting to look quite straight already...! So glad, that I want to share the good news with you too. :) Here's where it all started in January 2005: http://users.utu.fi/lajhalm/04012005_ylah_pieni.jpg And here's the present situation in August 2005: h...

The estimated time in braces is 12 to 14 months. I don't know when my ortho is planning to put the lower braces. Apparently there isn't enough of space for them yet. Heh... perhaps my page is even a bit too detailed, as there's not much of change in the photos yet. But it's mainly for my own interes...

Unlike Freckles, I was disappointed with Oral B Ortho. Well, I've used it only for a couple of days, so perhaps we'll yet become friends... (I'll try the hot water).
It's very hard and doesn't clean well around my brackets. So far a regular, manual, orthodontic toothbrush has seemed better to me.

Hi! I'm 25 and I've soon had my upper jaw braces on for 3 months (lower ones are yet to come). I'm following my (sofar yet quite unnoticeable) progress on my webpage. http://users.utu.fi/lajhalm/hampaat/hampaat.html It's only in Finnish, but if you want, you can pop there to see the photos of my sta...