bad braces day

[juliets]

I'm sorry I feel like I'm posting a lot as I settle in to my braces.

Sometimes it all feels doable - like I can get on and it's like the braces are just a part of me that feel a bit weird

Then other days like today it all feels a bit overwhelming again - the braces feel very noticeable, not to others but to me. I feel like they are in the way of speaking normally and am very conscious of them on my teeth and the feeling of them on my feeth. Those moments, like today, I wonder how I'll get through 24-30 months when I'm not even one month or one adjustment in yet!

I know 14 year olds can do it and I know all of you can and I know I want to - so I know I can too - but some days it just feels quite hard.

sorry for the rant.

[EWUgal15]

I like to have fun with my braces, so I always try to get fancy colored ligatures...last year, I coordinated my braces colors with the dress I wore to my company holiday party. I felt fancy.

I know where you're coming from with speaking though. I had lower jaw surgery and as a result, my nerves are a little wonky. It feels kind of like when numbness at the dentist starts to wear off...so I talk normally but sometimes I lose my lower lip and words get messed up...if people notice, they don't say anything. A lot of people I talk to throughout the day had braces at some point or another so they understand how speaking can be affected. The more you speak with braces, the more you get used to them. I've found it helps to slow down a little bit. Also gives me a chance to prevent stupid falling out of my face...that whole "think before you speak" thing.

It's tough in the beginning but if you look at the positives (how nice your teeth will look after, how easy it will be to floss when its all over, what color ligatures you're going to get next), it gets easier.

[Prometheus]

As Douglas Adams liked to write "Don't panic". Seriously, you'll be fine. There will come a time in the not too distant future that you will forget they are on for long periods of time. Its been nearly 10 months now and unless I'm eating I truly forget they are there. I too am looking at 2-2.5 years, maybe more. I find the difficulties with speaking seem to come at the end of the day when I'm tired from work, but that is a perfect excuse for a gin and tonic, and then everyone thinks it's the gin and not the orthodontic hardware

[juliets]

thank you - I think days of wobbling must be the new normal...
marking each milestone as it comes along

An no ligatures for me yet - all that is still to come.

hoping for a better day tomorrow - eyes are on the long term prize!

[jfriend33]

are your brackets wire tied to the archwire? Why no ligs?

[juliets]

My brackets are applied to my teeth and the wire goes through that.

Some days I feel like I just want to pull everything off...

[djspeece]

I had those feelings from time to time the entire time I was in braces -- they become less frequent with time, but they never completely went away. You have a good attitude though, and it's good to come here and rant because we all know what it's like. I personally did not like the way I looked in photographs -- and I had the clear Damons on top, but the photos resulted in images reminiscent of rotting teeth a la the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.. Of course I am a bit overly dramatic, I suppose . Hang in there and best of luck to you!

[EWUgal15]

My brackets are applied to my teeth and the wire goes through that.

Some days I feel like I just want to pull everything off...

What jfriend33 is asking about is how the wire is being held in the brackets. Ligatures are the tiny rings that hold your archwire in...if you don't have them, you either have wire ties (metal that wraps around the wire and bracket) or self ligating brackets (the ones with little doors that open and close).

[juliets]

Thank you all for your help and support! I have braces where the wire goes through and round the brackets - does that make sense?
Sorry it's a whole new language to learn!

[Lisamichelle18]

Keep you head up! I'm sure no one minds if you come here to rant and rave!! I feel like it's all I talk about at work and home. No one else seems interested lol.

[cottonsock]

It's tough, and it's a bit of a lonely road at times. Forum is quite good for realising you're not alone, as friends can be a bit insensitive sometimes; it was easier aged 12 when its normal to have braces. I'm just at the end of my first week with essix type trays in following extractions (so fake teeth in the trays). Finding it really difficult to talk (and I'm an operations manager, so lots of running meetings etc) and it's almost worse because my treatment isn't that obvious then I have to keep explainjng, then get stared at. And that's before the no coffee and biscuits... You'll get there I'm sure; it's about the results at the end.