Metal Mouth Message Board

This was the problem that I had. It is a family trait inherited from my father. The first option was to have surgery to advance my lower jaw but I declined because I was not really looking to have a Hollywood smile. It seemed rather extreme to "fix something that was not really broke". The...

Did you change toothpaste lately? I had this problem while I was in braces midway through my treatment. The staining occured in the area under my archwire and was quite odd because I was getting my teeth cleaned every 4 or 5 months and never had a problem before. Apparently, some ingredients in toot...

After being debanded in April 2007 (41 months braced), my lower midline is somewhat off. Like you, I had never noticed before because of a severe deep bite. When I was first braced, my uppers completely covered my lower braces. The improvement in my bite has been quite dramatic and having my midline...

I was so excited when I went for my debanding in early April. However, you have to remember that for the office staff, it's just another ordinary day at work. Everybody was ho-hum about the whole process and kind of took the wind out of my sails. In my mind, I was expecting violins and clowns with b...

I had buccal tubes bonded to my molars at the onset of my treatment, so that meant no spacers. However, at the 3 year mark, my ortho wanted to do some IPR on my lowers and placed 6 spacers to create some space. These were in place for a month and were uncomfortable to say the least. So, even though ...

It took 41 months to open up my deep bite. The process can be time consuming and include many archwires and different types of hardware configurations depending on the severity of ther bite. Relax and go with the flow, things will get sorted out.

KDangel18 wrote: Also, My the front wire of my retainers are embedded in a clear piece of acrylic. Anyone else have this with their Hawley's and/or know why? My hawley retainers are also made this way. Quite truthfully, I hate the design because I feel the extra acrylic serves no purpose except to ...

My routine is similar to yours: toothbrush, toothpaste and a generic retainer brite solution and still get buildup. I now use my water pick to blast out the gunk from my retainers and it does a good job to keep my retainers cleaner.

My waterpick was very useful when I had braces, but now that I am debanded, I use it to blast my retainers. I have an upper hawley with some added acrylic on the front where the wire goes along the teeth. It becomes a plaque magnet and no amount of brushing can get it clean. The water pick works lik...

Honestly, my debanding day was somewhat of a non-issue. I was terribly busy at work and rushed to the ortho in the morning. My braces were removed, my teeth polished, panorex x-ray taken and molds for retainers. To the ortho and staff, the day was just routine. No bells and whistles, no special cele...

Yes, I think I will miss Dr. Mumbles and his staff at the ortho office. I made my appointments on Wednesday mornings at the beginning of each month since November 2003!! My co-workers joked that I was having an affair. Funny thing is that I had to pay for an affair that only lasted maybe 5 mins each...

My ortho recommends full time wear for 9 months. Then, evenings and nights for another 9 months. Afterwards, every night forever.
Seems kinda strict, but I will follow his advice to keep my smile which I am very proud of. My smile is not perfect, but darn good!!

Absolutely. Just remember to keep all your regular appointments with your general dentist for regular checkups and dental cleanings. I had my braces removed last week after 41 months and everything looks great!

I had a bracket repositioned in January and just got my braces off today.
So... three months was not too bad.

Very common occurence. No need to worry, the space will close. Your teeth are just following the natural laws of physics.