Metal Mouth Message Board

My little sweetie, who is now 12, is having her MARA appliance removed after a year of wearing it. The "elbows" came off about a week ago, and the crowns are to come off in three weeks.

Sadly though, after wearing this appliance for the past year, due to what the appliance did to her jaw, she now looks mad all the time. She simply has a stern, angry look about her unless she is intentionally smiling. Before the MARA, she had a natural curve of her smile that went up, and she always looked so pleasant and cheerful. Since the treatment, her smile now goes straight across and her jaw appears set and stern. It's really, really sad. I was looking at her before pictures and broke down in tears. I know her jaw needed to be moved, but now I feel that her natural smile has been ruined.

Is there anything that can be done to help her smile? I often find myself asking her, "What's the matter, honey?" When ultimately, I just can't get used to the mad look. I don't want to make her self-conscious, but the change is truly that noticable and dramatic.

Kindest regards,
luvmyhubby

I'll just jump in here until the doc answers your question.

Your daughter is 12, which means that she still has a lot of growing to do. Possibly that "mad" look will disappear as her body changes to its adult proportions.

Have you discussed this with her orthodontist? If not, then perhaps you should.

Thank you, bbsadmin. That would surely be a wonderful answer. For some reason, I thought the "look" was from the elbows poking out into her cheeks. Unfortunately, I was incorrect to assume it would go away when the elbows came off. The better choice would have been if I had been asking about this all along.

We have not had a sit-down talk with the doctor yet. I have one scheduled for August 25th. It's just so hard to wait.

Many thanks,
luvmyhubby

Im sorry i cant be any help, but whats an MARA?

The best way I know to describe it is that it is similar to a herbst in the way that it corrects and encourages proper development, but it's permament.

I am certain that there is a much more scientific way to say it, but that would be MARA 101.

~luvmyhubby

I'm so sorry you are upset about your DD's appliance and the result.

I am not familiar with the appliance, but perhaps the jaw will still move slightly as the treatment progresses. I found, oddly enough, that elastics felt very much like they pushed my lower jaw either back or forward, depending on what configuration I was wearing. Maybe you can run this by your ortho at your meeting... there may be more movement that changes things.

I am very sorry this happened to you and your daughter. I had mine put on 8/4/06 and am having it taken out today, 8/7/06. Though it worked miracles on my jaw alignment deficieny, it was not only difficult to eat with but made me unhappy with my appearance. Like your daughter, I got the same stern look, but my open mouth smiles were great. I'm 15, so a lot of my growing is finishing up. Your daughter has a lot of time to grow, so maybe it will change. However, I would talk to your orthodontist and tell him/her you are not happy with the results. However, just my two cents: don't bother your daughter about it because teenage girls like myself can be very sensitive about it. If she hasn't brought it up, maybe it's not a big issue for her. Good luck on your next visit!

I currently have the Mara appliance on. I have about 4 months left of treatment but am now very insecure I am with my smile. Like you said about your daughter I had a natural like smile on my face before the Mara appliance but since it's changed my jaw so drastically it looks like I'm mad all the time unless I purposely smile. At first the appliance was very frustrating but then I got used to eating and talking with it but as I get closer and closer to the end of my Mara appliance days the more insecure I am with my smile and the relaxed position of my face. My orthodontist recommended I wear elastics along with the Mara appliance just to do whatever he wanted my jaw to do but the configurations he has my wear are quite painful to be honest. I'm fifteen and I'm fairly sure I don't have a lot of facial growth left to go through but if I do I'd hope that my natural curved smile comes back. I honestly miss it. My smile I thought was best about 3.5 months ago when the Mara hadn't changed my smile to the point where I look angry. Maybe my new smile after braces and everything will grow on me but as of right now I sometimes find it hard to smile and when I do I don't like the way it looks. I have enough insecurities as it is being a 15 year old girl but I certainly didn't want any that had to do with my face and the thing I used to love most about my self - my smile.