Metal Mouth Message Board

I am 38 years old and had braces put on 8/17/09 and an appliance cemented in on 8/27. It is a piece of metal that runs between two top molars that is supposed to keep my molars from turning and retrain my tongue. Well, had I known this site was here before Thursday when my tongue stopped hurting, I may have read the post about covering the appliance with a bandaid to reduce the pain caused from scraping my tongue on it. I am learning to live with it, and the lack of pain helps.

My question now is, will the mark on my tongue eventually go away?

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That my dear is a TPA (trans-platal-arch). I had mine for about 7 months, and I did get used to it after a while. In fact, I forgot it was even there except for the difficulty with certain foods, like noodles and things small enough to get stuck between it and the roof of my mouth. I didn't hear of the bandaid thing though, I just toughed it out. Took about two weeks for the pain to completely stop. Best thing is to not interfere and just let your tounge build up tolerance for it. I had mine removed about four months ago and I am getting my braces off in 6 days.
Now, about the tounge marking.... mine went about about 98%. There is still one little spot where it is still there, and it is in the center, in the very back. You can't tell unless I stick my tounge way out though.
It feels soo good when they take it out though, because your tounge can rest naturally on the roof of your mouth. Nobody realizes how amazing that is until they go through this:P

HI,

I agree with Ashley, I still had my TPA, I hope I will get ride of it on november. Usually TPA is there around 6-12 months, then they remove it, so dont worry, you will get use to. first 2 weeks are the worst, then thinks get better, you forget you have it. And your tongue will be just fine.