Metal Mouth Message Board

I have the same blue buildups. While I definitely feel some mild discomfort if I do a lot of chewing in a short amount of time, I've not experienced any pain on the teeth with the buildups.

3 week update: Good news for people about to get braces: at 3 weeks in, I've pretty well adjusted to having the braces and don't think about them very much. In fact, it was talking with my co-worker who just got her braces this week that reminded me I should post an update. Pain/Discomfort: None. Af...

I was travelling by plane yesterday and noticed two adults with braces (other than me). They were both women. I'd say in the US that adult ortho patients are at least 75% women, maybe more. That said, as a guy nearly three weeks into braces, nobody seems to care or comment.

Here are my reactions to having the braces for just over a week. Hopefully they will be helpful to other newbies. Pain/Discomfort: Almost nil. I took 800mg of ibuprofen every 8 hours for the first three days. By day 4, I hadn't noticed any pain yet, so I stopped taking medication. A few of my front ...

The only person who has brought up my braces is a coworker who actually has an appointment scheduled to get her own braces later this month. Otherwise, I've gotten no comments, nobody staring at my teeth, etc. And I've got metal brackets and a bit of a lisp, so I'm sure people are seeing them. Peopl...

Thanks for the commiseration, Marchi31! I had very soft cod and some noodles today for dinner. The cod was pretty easy to eat as long as I cut things up into tiny pieces. The noodles were frustrating, though. I'd cut off a small piece of noodle, push it under a bite block with my tongue, and mash up...

Because of my deep bite, the ortho put bite blocks on my molars to keep me from knocking off the bottom brackets. The canine tooth on my right side hangs down so low that after the bite blocks went on, I was still biting the brackets. The ortho made the bite blocks taller two more times before they ...

They're on! Day 1.jpg I went with full metal brackets upper and lower. My orthodontist offered both Invisalign and clear brackets, but said that metal would be his recommendation. He says he gets better results with them. I didn't want to do Invisalign. It was dramatically more expensive and the ort...

I joined ArchWired 5 years ago when I was first planning to get adult braces. I didn't end up going through with it at the time, but I've been reading the boards regularly and getting lots of great advice from everyone who posts here. I wore braces for about three years as a kid (ages 10-13), but li...

Congrats on getting your braces, Rainbrow Brite!

I hope things get better with your ortho, you certainly deserve to have your questions answered.

That's awesome! I hope to be one of those pain-free people, too!

I have a lower lingual retainer after having braces as a teenager. Floss threaders have always worked well for me.

I'll be 30. Hopefully just 18 months!

I think it's all about confidence. When I see adults with braces who smile and laugh as if they don't care about the fact that they have braces, they look great, metal mouth or not.

Your teeth look great, Wheellug!