Metal Mouth Message Board

If I had to choose between Invisalign with attachments (or even without) and regular braces, I would pick the latter, hands down. I finished with 14 months in standard braces and have now been in Essix retainers for a couple of months. Even though my teeth and smile look much nicer when my retainers...

Thanks. Fortunately, it has stayed attached, and yes, I do have an Essix that goes over it that I am wearing full-time. The permanent doesn't feel as strange as it did when I first bent it, so I guess it is okay for now. I was slightly panicking at first, but now I have calmed down since there seem ...

It is still magic to me, but elastics do work! I was in a Class 2 configuration alternating with triangles to help with my slightly open anterior bite for an overall time of 9-10 months out of my 14 months in braces. As I sit here now with retainers and no elastics, the improvements in my overjet/op...

Due diligence and having clean hands while handling aligners is certainly best but altogether too often just not possible. I was sailing a couple weeks ago and pulled the aligners with grody hands while wearing foul, stinking gloves in order to have a sandwich and thought: I'm so done managing alig...

So, one month out of braces and have a fixed bottom retainer. Today I was eating a sandwich for lunch with some pretty hard toasted bread, biting in with all my front teeth. Suddenly I felt something strange in my fixed retainer and immediately feared I'd messed up its attachment to one of my bottom...

I get this, Andy. I had traditional braces, and I swear my Essix retainers (similar to Invisalign aligners) are more trouble than braces! Every time I want to eat or drink anything other than water, out they come. And then I have to clean them prior to re-inserting them. Of course you know the drill...

None until time for my retainers...not sure how normal that is, but that's how it worked for me at my orthodontist's office.

I think it's the shape and size differences in your teeth, as you pointed out. Also, it looks like you have attachments, and that could make anyone's teeth look a little wonky! But even when those come off, I think you're going to want some cosmetic work done, like you plan. I suspect once that work...

I chewed sugarfree gum while I had braces. I have a bad daytime grinding habit, and the gum chewing kept me from grinding my teeth. So, maybe the lesser of two evils? Sugarfree gum did not stick to my brackets or wires at all. I know it is a "no no" for many orthodontists, but I truly had ...

So sorry you are still having such anxiety, Gia! I too noticed my braces all the time throughout my entire braced period. I focused on them a lot -- too much, but I was going through a rather boring phase of life and didn't have a lot of other things going on to take my focus off my braces. Interest...

Same! I got my braces off at the end of October with one top central incisor still slightly rotated. very similar to yours (same tooth exactly), probably a little worse, actually. I had to be debraced since I was leaving the country fpr the winter and was already a few months past my expected end da...

Thanks Gia! Fortunately, I have adjusted to my retainers just fine, and my gums are no longer inflamed -- that lasted about four days, then settled down. I still hate my upper Essix, as it ends up with multitudes of spit bubbles inside and makes me look like a freak. So I am only wearing it when I a...

I got my upper braces off yesterday, 14 months and 1 day after application. Woo-hoo! The original verbal estimate from my ortho was 8-10 months, which I thought was insanely fast, especially considering that almost everyone else seems to be in braces for 18-24 months. My contract stated 12-14 months...

Thanks! Yes, I am so excited. It's crazy, we're in the process of moving to another country (Mexico) and so much is going on with that, I have barely had a minute to think about my braces removal just three days from now. I went from being obsessed about every little thing about my braces to focusin...

No, I wouldn't think the water flosser should dislodge brackets, as so many people here use them. I gave up on mine because in our tiny RV bathroom, it just took up way too much counter space and was messy. But as I've mentioned before, I lost brackets with some frequency on my crowned teeth only. A...