Metal Mouth Message Board

Well, I had my adjustment today. I complained about the big irritated bump I've got from my nance. The ortho thinks that it's because the front teeth are moving back and pretty much squishing the skin between the teeth and the nance. So his solution is to stop moving all of the front teeth back for now.

Before, I had wire lacing from canine to canine, then springs from canine to molar. This was pulling the entire block of 6 front teeth back together.

Now, I've got wire lacing only across the four incisors on top. Then the springs from canine to molar. The plan is to move the canines back to where the ortho wants them, and then remove the nance and move the incisors back.

Which means I'll be opening up some lovely gaps between my canines and lateral incisors... Oh joy. And things were starting to look really good, since my front teeth were moving in a lot. Now we're just going to make it worse before it gets better again.

I'm just hoping that they take a little time to get started on making gaps. I'm going to be in my friend's wedding on the 7th, and I really don't want to have gaps in the front of my mouth for that. After the 7th, they can move as fast as they want!

Oh, and I got some color this time, since I was so bored with not having any because of the wire lacing. The assistant said she'd try putting the ligs on over top of the lacing. So they are there for now, we'll see if they'll stay on. If they don't, oh well. But at the moment, I'm sporting maroon (to go with my brown dress for the wedding). I'll try not to lose any of them before the wedding. If I do, I'll probably have to find some sort of implement to take the rest of them off as well, so I don't look funny missing just one or two. I really only need them on my canines and premolars. The ones on the incisors are just for show. And I know that if they fall off, they won't put them back on.

My camera battery died (apparently they were having trouble with that lot of batteries), so I can't take pictures and update my story yet. But I just got my new battery in the mail today, so I'll charge it tonight and might be able to post pictures this weekend. The assistant was very impressed with my gap closure.

hi!

I too had a Nance. My nance started really irriating my gums and 4 months into the treatment he removed it. I was worried that it might have a negative impact on my treatment but he assured me that it wouldnt. so far so good. I too have had to deal with those unsightly gaps as he wanted to move the canines back first. I'm a year into my treatment and my gaps are almost gone on one side but the other side is very stubborn!!! Oh well. Good Luck on your treatment. I just wanted to let you know I'm going through the same thing!

The lump is definitely smaller. It's hard to tell if all the swelling is gone or not, since there was a bit of a lump there before, just because the palate is bumpy (I have an old cast that they took, and I can see a bump there). But it does feel better.

Actually, my mouth felt great today. I fell asleep on the couch last night and didn't wear my headgear, which has been making things sore lately. So I had a night off and a pain-free day.

I'd better go back to the headgear tonight, though... Don't want to do that too often. My dad was amazed that I took my headgear backpacking. It was a bit interesting to get it on correctly using the pocket mirror and a flashlight, though...