Metal Mouth Message Board

Oftentimes curry or tumeric will cause powerchains or ligatures to turn greenish. I started favoring colored powerchains...electric blue was my favorite, followed by hot pink.

Oh for God's sake..drink, relax, enjoy! Your teeth aren't going to dissolve within the space of a day or two or three if you drink something other than water while wearing your retainer. If you happen to think about it, take out your retainer and swish with water and do a little brushing; put the re...

I also think it has much more to do with the tech. There were a few at my office that were pretty rough and tumble, and two others that could finesse the self-ligating brackets and make it almost painless. Unfortunately, it was always luck of the draw. I started wearing waterproof eye make-up to my ...

Eat the chips! Pretty much the ONLY thing I avoided during my 48 months (!) in braces was popcorn, fearing the hulls getting stuck and causing problems. I ate chips (maybe took a couple of weeks in the beginning) and then ate everything with reckless abandon, and pretty much everything except whole ...

I also liked black, but I tried turquoise, purple, red, hot pink, orange....(I was in braces for almost 5 years, so I had lots of time to experiment, lol). I think I liked electric blue the best...they made my teeth look whiter, and didn't show stains like the lighter colors, or even silver, would.

I had to puff my cheeks out every morning, like a puffer fish, to dislodge my inner cheeks from my brackets. I don't have that problem with my retainer!

I have permanent retainers on my bottom front 6 teeth and upper 4 front teeth. I was given an Essix that I still wear every night, about a year and a half after being debraced, but it's for the top arch only.

Maybe they don't make 'em like they used to, (and I'm knocking on wood here), but I had a very similar bond to yours done...front central incisor...when I was 10. I'm going to be 46 in a few weeks, and I've still got it. I'd be hesitant to do a veneer also; seems too drastic. Surely someone would be...

This is taken right from the article link you provided, godutch: "Twelve trials were included in this review which reported data on two outcomes (dental plaque and gum disease). Trials were of poor quality and conclusions must be viewed as unreliable. The review showed that people who brush and...

I had my braces on for a few months short of five years. There was never an estimated debanding date until the appointment before the debanding was scheduled. At least I never got my hopes up...I was estimated to have them on for 18-24 months, btw...not 58 months!!

And don't worry about eating a few.... It's just something that has to happen, you'll get good at putting them in without looking, and change them often...I carried baggies of assorted sizes that I needed everywhere...you never know where you'll be when they need to be replaced!

I got my braces put on one week after I had my two upper premolars extracted (took the day of extractions off, went to work the next...I wait tables, so there was much talking involved....not a big deal, other than feeling like I looked like a hick, lol). There were no problems, except when the mold...

I hate to break it to you, but I wore braces for a few months shy of 5 years, and I had elastics for almost the entire time. I wore them 24-7, but my teeth were stubborn. There's no real way to know how long you'll have to wear them, hopefully you'll have elastic teeth!

I got two different Essix retainers when I got my braces off in April, after almost five years. One was for daytime use....thinner and it seems to go up higher on my front teeth, so to be less obtrusive. The nighttime one is much thicker, and only comes halfway up my incisors, so it's more obvious. ...

As long as you've thoroughly brushed and flossed, shouldn't the same spit that normally accumulates on your teeth during the night without a retainer be the same crap that accumulates inside your retainer during the same time frame? I'm only 3 months out of braces after nearly 5 years, but it seems ...