Metal Mouth Message Board

Your family will get over it pretty quickly. As for your coworkers or other friends, my experience is that they either don't notice or care. I have had coworkers from a neighboring team ask me a year into treatment since when did I get braces, and my hair dresser who I've been to for the past 6 year...

Ceramics are not really not noticeable. You can definitely still notice them. I have found that with ceramics, people don't really recognize immediately that you have braces from afar, and would sometimes stare because it looks like you have something on your teeth, but don't know what. At least wit...

If your bite issues are due to skeletal discrepancies that are significant enough for several orthos to recommend surgery, sounds like you may be one of those who definitely need surgery. Especially since you've already experienced first hand a relapse after having gone through one round of treatmen...

That perfect Hollywood smile is likely due to veneers and not something just braces alone can achieve. Most people don't have perfect teeth, and we all have teeth that are worn differently and or have different shapes and sizes, etc. So you are definitely not alone. I have a canine that is much thic...

I did. I'm actually still in braces. The "minor" adjustments (mainly bite and alignment related) that I wanted ended up adding almost an entire year (and counting) to my original projected treatment duration. Things are almost there now, although some of the adjustments I wanted were not r...

It depends on what your ortho is currently working on. Did you mention to him/her about wanting your laterals to come down more? If your ortho isn't working on them, or adding any bends to your wires, it's not going to come down. That said, it does sound like a minor tweak that is likely to be corre...

I almost did, but ultimately didn't go ahead with it. I even got to the point of emailing a couple of ortho offices to enquire if they provide 2nd opinions. I too had a couple of "minor" tweaks I wasn't happy about and wanted to correct when my ortho said the braces could come off in a mon...

I think it depends on what your bite is like before you got your braces and how fast your teeth moves. Personally, I got my lower ones 2 or 3 weeks after my top ones. My top and bottom teeth were not really in conflict though. My coworker who went to the same ortho as me got her lower ones first and...

The question is if I relapsed after the first round of treatment were mistakes made or is surgery the only viable avenue. I feel like there's a lot of pressure being applied on me suggesting that 1) no functional improvement can be made 2) the risks of side effects are insignificant which just isn'...

From what I gathered, if your malocclusion is due to a skeletal issue, then you'll likely need surgery to correct, as braces alone may either not fully correct your bite problems, or your result will not be stable. If it was a dental issue, then braces and elastics could be sufficient. If yours was ...

No tads, my ortho just used powerchains. But mine was for the lower arch though, which are supposedly harder to move than the upper ones because of the bone density in the mandible (I think I read about it somewhere but I'm not sure I remembered correctly). I did get my 2nd premolars extracted on th...

I personally don't have any experience with them or know anyone who did have them, but I came across quite a few videos on youtube of people documenting their experiences with it. You can check those out.

For me, it took about 7 to 8 months to move the molars forwards and close my extraction gaps. It hurts just like every tooth did I guess, nothing remarkable. It was loose for abit and I was definitely unable to chew on it for about a week or so after each monthly adjustment.

Make an appointment to see an orthodontist. He or she will be able to recommend a treatment plan after taking xrays and examining you. As for whether you'll need surgery would depend on whether you have jaw size discrepancies, which would likely only be able tell with xrays and/or physical examinati...

I've never had a full mouth of wire ties, just on one tooth that was had the end of a lace back tie. It was such a pain to clean because they don't move. At least with elastics, they are a little flexible and you can get an interdental brush under easily.