Metal Mouth Message Board

Has anyone else had trouble sleeping on your side due to the wire cutting into your cheek? I have a ridge in the inside of my left cheek where the wire meets my cheek. It gets pretty sore and I wake up alot. I really cant wax it for it is at the "gap" and there is nothing there to hold the wax.. any suggestions? Well other than sleeping on my back, I just keep rolling back to my side

Kriz

Hi Kriz!

Yeah, I also had trouble with the wire while sleeping sideways, almost the same exact thing. I used wax (a pretty thick chunk) over the two adjacent brackets. (In my case, my canines and my second premolars). That raised my cheek skin a little from the wire, and that way I didn't woke up with that painful ridge. My cheek skin got used to it eventually, but I still use the wax after an adjustment or so. I believe you will notice the same later.

Hope it helps and good luck!

Lucyloop wrote:
I'd say try sleeping with your mouth open, to see if that helps? I drown in dribble when I do that, but better to have a soggy pillow that a sore mouth!

Ha ha!! I sleep with my mouth open and a river falls out of it every night. But no problems with pokey wires.

I have had problems aswell. Luckily now my mouth is a bit tougher, but I still have to angle the pillow slightly and wax on the main side that I sleep.

I noticed on a website that you can get the brace guards (that you would use if you were playing the clarinet / trumpet etc) but you can get them for sleeping? I'll try and find the site again. I'm not sure if that would help. I know that the original guards they warned against sleeping in due to potential choking but these definately did say for sleeping.

I still get sore spots from sleeping in the wrong spot.....your mouth does tend to toughen up a bit, but somehow I always tend to get little sores here and there......thankfully they heal up pretty quickly!

I had problems my first week and a half as well. I'd wake up every morning feeling like someone stuck the inside of my mouth with pins and needles hehe. But the pain would go away within an hour or 2.

I to have had this problem,more on left than right?? Have tried to sleep with mouth open but seem to end up shutting mouth during the night and biting my sheek.will have to try the wax idea,thanks also. Tom

Thanks for the tip, because I too have had the same problem. I have imprints on both sides and they were going away for a couple days, but as everything is moving again, they came right back.
I don't know if the wax will work for me, I tried once on the wire and found it kept flipping around in a circle until it crumbled and fell off.
I also can't sleep with my mouth open - since getting the braces my mouth is already drying out overnight and making the imprints even worse and deeper.
I've relied a lot on Amosam rinces, as I find it has helped the healing a great deal. But if there is a mouthguard out there, I'd really like to know about it. I was sleeping with a mouth splint for a year prior to the braces, so that'd be an easy transition.

I think it's just my mouth adjusting to the braces or not getting enough hydration during the day, like you said. Even if I keep water by the bed and take a sip when I wake up during the night, I still wake up parched in the morning.
The Amosam is a powder you mix with water, it's not alcohol-based. It's actually designed for mouth sores, canker sores and extractions. It's made by Oral-B, I highly reccomend it. It's like salt-water, but seems to have a quicker effect for the healing. I don't use it regularly, but when I do, it stops the morning mouth dryness. Because of the new cuts, I'll have to try it tonight with a big gob of wax and see the improvement tomorrow.

I was wondering about this myself. I sometimes wake up biting my cheek or the braces digging into it. I'm a grinder so I wake myself up that way too since the teeth are sore because they are loose. My mouth is still raw, just put a bunch of wax on it for the first time. Gotta start the salt water rinses again.

Wax is definitely the way to go. The only way to sleep with your mouth open is to cut off the oxygen supply to your nose. And even if you could do that, it would give you a sore throat. Just pile on the wax and be done with it.

I have about a 1/4" gap on the lower left side of my mouth where my first molar should be. This past Saturday, I guess it was the first time I slept on my left side, I woke up with a HUGE indent in my cheek from the wire. I did the wax trick, a piece on the bracket on either side of the gap, and it worked pretty well. But I had to keep it on all day because I kept biting into my cheek where the groove was. So yesterday afternoon I had my first "emergency" appointment because of my front tooth hitting my bottom bracket. And the ortho's assistant, Anne, asked me if I was having any other problems that she could take care of while I was waiting for the ortho to come look at my overbite. I told her of my groove, and she offered to put a "comfort sleeve" on the wire. Omigod! It's the best thing ever!!!! Doesn't rub, doesn't dig, doesn't anything! She also trimmed the end of my upper left archwire which was super sharp. Anne is my hero! I am currently without wax and am feeling great!

Sorry i haven't been around gang - it's been a crazy time for me...

Anyhow - i bought the comfort covers from the Dentakit.com website and they are heaven. I only really needed them for the first two weeks then the inside of my mouth toughened up.
The trick is to trim them to fit ant run them under HOT water until they are really pliable then snap those babies right on your brackets -they're wonderful