Metal Mouth Message Board

Yaaaaaaaay, congratulations!

I just hit the 6-month mark myself and I've already started to forget what it was like without braces. 46 months! Oy!

I paid $290 down and have a $190 monthly payment for 20 months.

I've been in the same boat. These last couple months have seen very little visible movement. Mostly I can tell things are still happening because of flossing. Slight movements that your eye can't see become very apparent when flossing! I went for an adjustment today and the ortho shaved some of my l...

Mostly cosmetic for me. I had some decent crowding, but somehow wound up with no real bite issues. I will have some minor health-related perks as a result of my treatment though--easier flossing (no more sawing/jamming the floss, yay!), and the ortho tells me it might help with the grinding at night.

JumpTheDitch, mine are kind of like what you describe. My upper molar bands have the buccal tube, but the archwire goes into a separate hole that's more flat against the bag. My lower bands have no buccal tube, but there's a little post that sticks out, I'm guessing for elastics.

I could have had it done (and wished I'd had it done), but the dentist said it would be for purely cosmetic reasons (unlike both my brothers, who has serious bite issues) and I didn't want to get lectured by my parents about spending their money for my vanity. Which meant that as soon as I could aff...

I'm really really happy with my ortho and her assistants. They are all really willing to answer my questions and address my concerns. In fact, the entire dental office (I use the in-house ortho) is excellent that way.

Also sometimes it's necessary to move things around in one arch to make it viable tp brace the other, I think. That was the explanation my ortho gave me for putting my tops and bottoms on at different times. She said my bite needed to be opened up before she could get the bottoms on. During the cou...

Thanks!

I forgot to mention that my ortho said she'd be shaving my lowers to make enough space. I don't remember when she said she'd do that though; I'm guessing some time after my lower arch straightens itself out on the left side.

For me the pain (not even really pain, just soreness and tenderness) was worst on the second or third day, then after that it seemed to ease off until I didn't feel them anymore. Though I had spacers in for longer than most people, it seems like.

So this month has been (somewhat) exciting. The first weekend in April I discovered I'd lost a lig. I called the office and they said to come in for an appointment, so I did. While I was there, they popped out the spacers and banded my last molar and connected the wire. The ortho gave me a referral ...

I had that problem after they banded my lower right molar--lots of excess cement left on the grinding surface. The toothbrush didn't take it off right away, but now that it's been over a week, most of it's gone. So it might just take a while for it to be brushed (or eaten) off.

I had mine for a month as well, for reasons that I don't really know. Then I had spacers put back in on my lower right after the space they made didn't turn out to be big enough. I had those in for two more weeks. It would have been another full month, but I lost a lig and so went in two weeks earli...

I have ceramic uppers and metal lowers. I'm glad I went with the ceramics ($200 extra) at first because getting the braces was enough of a shock and having the ceramics helped ease that a bit. Now that they've been on for a while, I don't think I would mind having all metal. And I wouldn't worry abo...

I wasn't given the option to pay in full, though I did get a discount because my insurance doesn't cover it.

I made a $292 down payment and $190/mo for 20 months.