Metal Mouth Message Board

Today is my third day with braces, I am 26 and they are effecting my self esteem more than I ever imagined. My top teeth are just bracketed no archwire yet cause my ortho wants to wait to place the wire until an extraction is done... how complicated would it be to have him switch from metal to ceramic brackets and will it be worth it???

I had a week of just having brackets on my teeth and no archwire in.
I can tell you, having the archwire in and ligs put on makes a HUGE difference to how you look.
I was miserable the first week of just brackets and thought I looked ugly! I was all set to have them taken off.
But when archwire and ligs went on the following week, it looked so so much better.
If you have a look on my blog (link is in Stories/Blogs board) you'll see the difference.
It still takes a while to adjust but they do make the difference.
Of course, if you *really* don't like the metal, I'm sure you could discuss changing to ceramics with your ortho

Like others have said, it takes a while for us to get used to the way we look in braces and until this happens - feeling uncomfortable is normal. After a couple of weeks, the "newness" goes away and we stop being so aware of them.

In terms of others "seeing the braces", honestly... they will forget we are wearing them, which can be annoying when they offer nuts or popcorn or chewy candy. Other people only tend to notice them when they don't know you or have never seen you before.

Try and stop caring about what others think. Braces aren't permanent and the end result of them will change your life.

thanks for the replys... it is much better hearing from people who are actually going through the same thing =)

Hi MelisaM! Sorry to hear that you've been finding it tough in these early days and I really feel for you. I'm sure though that once you have the wire in place you'll feel so much better about things.

I too was really worried about what I would look like with braces - rightly or wrongly, I put a lot of importance on appearances and figured I would spend 18months+ not wanting to leave the house or talk to anyone. But after the first couple of weeks, I was back to partying like before and life has carried on just as normal! Other people really don't notice anywhere near as much as we fear they will - the fact is that everyone has their own problems and things on their mind, our little brackets and wires usually don't even register with them. I have sometimes even wished people would notice more so I could have a chance to show off my tooth accessories a bit!

Be kind to yourself in these first few weeks, allow yourself some time to get used to things and I hope you feel much better about things once you've settled into your new "look". I'm sure you look gorgeous and will be even more so if you hold your head high with pride in this great thing you're doing for yourself!

Take good care

x

If the metal brackest really distrurb you, you can ask the ortho if he/she would like to change the front six metal brackets to ceramic ones. I have six ceramics on the front and the rest are metal.