Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi guys. I just had my first adjustment on Thursday on my Damon Clears and today I noticed that my right upper incisor looms about 2-3 mm shorter than the left! That was one clear good feature of my smile pre-braces and I am not happy about it. Is this one of those "looks worse before it looks better" scenarios? Can it be fixed or will my teeth need to be shaved? I'm just very upset with the process and all its uncertainties so far.

I also have a piggyback question:

I also had my arch wires extended to my molars at my adjustment and I noticed the space between my first and second molars on the bottom left felt sore. When I look closely I see a larger blister below the bone and a series of smaller clusters of blisters actually on the gun between the molars themselves. I don't know how this could've happened since there isn't any direct irritation of that area going on at all. The only things I could think were that the wire was placed back there and I've been running my tongue over it, or maybe from brushing. I'm not sure. They look almost herpes-like but I know cold sores don't crop up on the mucous membranes. Maybe some sort of canker sore? I'm just absolutely fed up with all of this today and am daydreaming of having these things removed and going back to my sort of crooked but good enough teeth.

It's a looks worse before better situation. You'll have a lot of changes in your smile in this process in regards to looks. Sometimes teeth may be longer, sometimes you'll have gaps that you never had before, etc. All of this will lead you to your new end result. You just have to trust your ortho and your teeth. Try not to worry about things this early on in your treatment. And if for whatever reason your front teeth do need to be shaped, then they need to be reshaped. From my understanding a lot of people go through the same thing, reshaping is done a lot.

You just got started. I promise you all this is worth it. You may have been okay with your slightly crooked teeth before, but by straightening them out, you'll wish you had done it sooner. Not to mention you will end up with being able to take easier care of your teeth as it's easier to take care of straight teeth than crooked ones.

As for your second question, it's probably a canker sore? But if it really bothers you or concerns you, ask your ortho about it. They'll be able to diagnosis it better.