Metal Mouth Message Board

Nothing traumatic that I can think of. Everything started a few days after an adjustment at the end of January. Among the several muscle relaxers the doctors have put me on, they tried some antidepressant type medications too thinking it was stress related.

I'm 20 months in with my braces and for the last 6 months I've been battling neck and shoulder pain. This isn't a minor issue either; I've lost feeling in my neck for weeks at a time and the muscle spasms get so bad that I get dizzy. Thanks to an overly cautious primary care doc, I've has brain &...

Checking in. I'm five months in and had my second adjustment today. Wire changes upper and lower with a slightly stronger wire. They put composite stoppers on the top middle, they said it blends better with the clear brackets but I think they stand out. Doc says no elastics yet because my movement h...

Quick update: Three months with braces today! Had what I consider my first real adjustment today. Wire change top and bottom from a .12 to .14 wire. Ortho wanted to go to a .16 but my teeth have not leveled enough. I was hoping my teeth would have moved more, but oh well. I feel decent pressure this...

Are you in a small wire? I started out wired to the last molar, but the wire kept coming out of the last bracket, so they snipped the wire so that last molar isn't engaged to the wire. Once I go up a wire size, the last molars will be included again.

At my last ortho appt, my ortho decided he wanted to use my case for a case study to present for the next 30 months....SCORE for being a disaster!! LOL In all seriousness, I have crowding issues, but fixing my bite in conjunction with TMJ issues is what interests him. Trying to bring my lower jaw fo...

My story starts a bit different than most. My teeth have never been straight and always been on the "to get fixed" list but never made priority. In October, I had some jaw soreness one evening and by the next morning I couldn't open my mouth. My physical therapist tried to help as it was a...

I had panoramic X-rays and molds done. Funny thing is my orthodontist lets people write notes on the walls in the molds room and while most were thank you notes about half also left comments about being glad about never doing molds again! Personally, I didn't find the process that bad. I had to ask ...

My orthodontist was fine with gum as long as it's sugar free; which lucky for me is what I buy anyway. It doesn't get caught in the wires but I do find it occasionally sticks to a back bracket but it comes off super easy, but that is probably my fault because when I'm not chewing on it I tend to let...

Your ortho office also offers physical therapy? No, 8 weeks seems long but that's pretty normal if you have self-ligating braces. My physical therapist sends a lot of patients to my orthodontist and they work together on the patients through treatment. As I've learned recently, your alignment/bite ...

Afternoon all, Four weeks with braces tomorrow and had my first adjustment today, which didn't seem like much. They snipped the wires poking out and got the wire into two brackets that they couldn't get fully closed two weeks ago. My next adjustment is in 9 weeks ( it was going to be 8 weeks but my ...

Should I be worried that I'm not having issues eating one month in? First adjustment tomorrow but last month has been no problem at all....spacers before the braces were awful and caused problems but I had instant relief when they came out. I've had to take ibuprofen for pressure type discomfort but...

I had impressions/records done and my follow up was two weeks later for my treatment plan and pricing. Spacers went in the following week and braces were put on the week after that. So basically it was 4 weeks from impressions to braces on for me.

I'm not brushing in public restrooms, but that's just me! I have my Colgate Wisps in my purse and I will either "brush" in my car or at my desk at work.

I'm a bit over 3 weeks into my 30+ month journey, but after a couple days I stopped "feeling" the braces other than areas that needed wax while my mouth was toughening up. I was pretty worried my lips were going to be sticking out, but honestly, they aren't noticeable at all. I have Damon ...