Metal Mouth Message Board

Third adjustment last Thursday. It's already been nearly 5 months. I'm now in .20 rectangular wires. My ortho commented on how my upper incisor has derotated nicely. I barely notice it, but they showed me a "before" photo and I guess it's a lot of movement. She did a little more IPR on my ...

Chiming in here just to say that my experience lines up with the stories others have shared. My ortho, while incredibly kind and skilled, spends less than 5 minutes with me each appointment, except when she did my first round of IPR. I agree with making eye contact and speaking up to say "I hav...

I've made it to the 3-month mark and had my second adjustment and first wire change yesterday. I'm in .18 wires now, though there was some back and forth about whether to go ahead and put me in the .20s. I'm glad they didn't. When they changed out my wire to the .18, they also connected my back mola...

Went in for my 6-week adjustment, and not much happened. While my extraction gap is closing quickly enough that my ortho commented on it being an "active" wire and really loving the In-Ovation brackets, the rest of my teeth don't seem to be doing much at all. My ortho did some IPR (about ....

Nitros gives me the giggles then I pass out. Hopefully it'll be that easy for you too. I hope all goes well with the ex reaction! Nitrous worked LIKE A CHARM. Love it. The tech told me, "It's just like a shot of tequila!" and it was. It was like a crazy party for about 30 minutes. Helps t...

Newbite, just caught up on your story! Glad to hear things are healing well for you and wishing you a continued speedy recovery. I will probably end up needing a gum graft on several lower teeth as well. Your story was helpful to read.

Just chiming back in to say that EWUgal has the right of it, and to be fair, I've had several horrible interactions with oral surgeons that provided me with nowhere near the amount of detail and thoughtfulness that EWUgal did. In my personal case, I don't believe I have TMJ, and the oral surgeon was...

Oof, sorry about the roughness of your tech. I totally get that now! Looks like slow, steady progress is the name of the game. Keep up the good work!

Congrats on beginning your journey! Looking forward to hearing more about your story.

Got a lower incisor extracted on Wednesday. The oral surgeon was fantastic, can't recommend him highly enough (if you're in the Seattle area and need a referral). I did get hit with a surprise bone graft as we were getting ready. My ortho sent a follow-up letter recommending it and we talked about i...

Well, 17 days in and I already have my first broken bracket. It's on one of the teeth that weren't originally braced, when I thought I'd have to get four extractions instead of one, and I'm wondering if perhaps the tech attached it incorrectly. The office was closed on Friday (must be nice) so I've ...

I've had my braces for going on three weeks and chewing is still difficult. I've lost 4 pounds, and am sticking to a homemade soup that I'm bulking up with lots of veggies and beans and olive oil for healthy fat. I made turkey burgers tonight and squash with tomatoes, which was successful. Smoothies...

AJ, I completely get where you're coming from. I'm 33 and in braces for the first time. You can read my story on this forum. It was a tough decision for me to make initially, and then I was completely taken aback when each of the three orthodontists I consulted with recommended surgery. I had to pus...

Tonight I made quinoa and black beans with sautéed zucchini and avocado dressing. It all went down pretty easily, except it took swishing and Waterpik blasting to get all the quinoa kernels out. Worth it. Today I had a hour-long appointment. I thought they were going to install the Nance appliance, ...

I made it through the first four days of braces! Last night I tried tiny balls of bread dropped in soup. That worked great. Then I tried some hummus on a slice of cucumber. Never thought eating cucumber would be painful. Today I sautéed a whole bunch of kale and ended up having to blend it into a so...