Metal Mouth Message Board

I had two teeth extracted, and I've had no ill effects, nor any facial changes that I can detect.

I was told specifically not to use toothpaste, and I've read that in other places as well. So yeah, just water.

During my first week of wearing the retainer, I was brushing it with water and the scrubbing brush my dentist gave me daily, but it did start getting a funk. So, I ended up switching to soaking it every day instead of once a week, using Retainer Brite or Efferdent. (My retainer doesn't have solder p...

It took me 2-3 days to really get used to my Hawleys, but I barely even notice them now. For the first couple of days, my mouth was sore and my tongue kept involuntarily exploring them, leading to sore spots on my tongue.

That seems like a horribly bad idea to me. It seems like asking for a choking hazard. I can easily imagine a small piece of food getting caught between the roof of your mouth and the Hawley. Then, later in the day, an inhale sucks it out and it goes down the wrong pipe. Plus, your Hawley is going to...

The back edge (the part away from my teeth) of my Hawley lower retainer has a sharp edge on it that my tongue kept hitting up against. This had been bugging me for a little while, but I came up with a solution this morning that is working swimmingly. I took a little strip of OrthoSil and pushed it o...

In that vein, I didn't mention that my dentist called me last Thursday. My retainer had arrived, and now that she had verified that it was there, complete, and ready to go, she arranged to stay late at the office today to fit me in. :) So, I'm braces-free! Click the WWW link to see pictures and such...

I think the thing that made it so disappointing was having to tell all the excited colleagues and friends who called or stopped by to congratulate me and ask if I was excited (or ask to see the results, depending on when this was) that it would be another few weeks. Lesson learned: Aside from those ...

Luella - I followed your advice almost precisely. I treated myself to a pedicure at home and felt much better when done.

Thank you both for your sympathy and support.

I'm not getting braces off today after all. :( Dental office just called…retainer didn’t come in yesterday like it was supposed to. They called the lab (www.myretainer.com aka Harris Laboratories) to check on what had happened this morning, and it turns out that the lab shipped it yesterday inst...

Disclaimer: Although I'd figure this is a common question, a search for this using a few queries didn't turn up any previous threads. So, if this is something that has already been asked and answered, please point me to the post, and I'll be on my merry way. :) Now that I'm close to my de-banding, I...

Thank you! Time to research retainer cleaning...

I can't wait to floss like a normal person!

I picked out my retainer and did impressions at my last appointment. I'm still wired until it arrives. I decided on the Boxy Cat shown on this site , exactly as it's shown with the green sparkly color background. I'm looking forward to being naked, but I'm going to miss my "tooth jewelry."...

For those with Hawleys, do you have to remove those to drink soda, too? I'm in a similar position as the OP and some others on here in that I can pick what type of retainer I want. I had been leaning toward a Hawley, but now that I'm reading the threads on here, I was thinking of asking for both a H...

This week, I had my eighth bracket pop off. (see first post in thread for the history) :) Worse yet, I'm out of town for the week. And to add to the bad news, the tooth that is "off the wire" is now ending up behind some other teeth due to their movement. I already called my dentist and se...