Metal Mouth Message Board

I've just had mine off after 7 months.

Advice is just to hang in there! I was very pleased overall with how smoothly it all went.

I regularly found the wire creeping out as the teeth moved. It was annoying but only came out a millimetre or two and could be covered by wax.

I had debanding mentioned a couple of months ago. It has been delayed due to final tweaks that didn't happen quite as quickly as expected. Don't panic - just make sure that if you are not happy with the current state of your teeth you do not allow the ortho to remove the braces.

I've got Six Month Smiles (coming off next week, YAY!) and I was very self-conscious at first. However most people were not actually looking at my mouth and I've had very few comments. One thing I did find was that when I do smile, I have to do a big smile rather than a closed mouth smile. If I try ...

Three hours? Wow. Mine took an hour to place. I'm just into my seventh month and mine are due off at the end of this month. My initial estimate of treatment time was 9 months. I haven't generally found it overly painful although my mouth the day after an adjustment can be a bit tender. I had sorenes...

I use regular facial moisturiser morning and evening and make sure to have some lip balm by the bed as my lips get very dry at night.

The best balm I have found for regular use is Simple Intensive Lip Moisturiser, which is a gel that goes on like a lip gloss.

Maybe you need molar build ups to stop the teeth hitting the brackets until your arches are properly aligned.

I've had that at pretty much every visit. :shock: Sometimes they use an attachment on the drill, sometimes they use a long strip of sandpaper like stuff and pull it between your teeth. The sandpaper strip is much, much more unpleasant than the drill attachment. No, it does not hurt at all, so don't ...

I'm not so much self conscious as aware of them, if that makes sense.

If I have to speak to anyone after eating but before I have had time to check in the mirror that they're not festooned with bits of food I do feel self conscious, though.

It doesn't hurt but the rasping is unpleasant; especially when they use the sandpaper strips. I much prefer the drill attachment to the sandpaper.

I have Six Month Smiles - have had them about 4 1/2 months now.

Yes they will probably affect your speaking - maybe not your singing so much. You may find you need to exaggerate your pronunciation a bit. If I get sloppy I lisp a bit but I can keep that under control with a little concentration.

Phillips Sonicare airflosser is great. I actually use it at least once a day.

I get the lip catching thing too!

My Six Month Smiles were due to come off today after only 4 months but the movement over the last month hasn't been enough, so they won't. I'm very interested to hear how your debracing goes, and what your retainer is like, so do please post after it has happened.

I am seeing one dentist for my Six Month Smiles only as my regular dentist does not offer them. The braces guy did not need all my old dental records. As all the xrays were taken digitally he forwarded them to my regular dentist out of courtesy

Lazy me. Yes, I have just done an update, albeit a pretty short one. Will try to do another after the appointment tomorrow.