Biting my cheek

[dejavu]

I'm a little over a month into having braces and as of a few days ago, I've got a new problem. I bit my cheek on the right side at some point and since that injured it, I guess it was sticking out and making it easier to keep biting it whenever I'd eat. I've been trying to my best not to, but it's really tough to avoid at this point. Now that it's irritated, my brackets are started to hurt it too; it keeps getting caught on them. It's pretty much where my back molars meet my cheek and I've tried putting wax on them, but because my bite is so bad, I end up chewing the wax whenever I fully close my mouth.

I'm not sure what to do at this point. It seems to be getting worse every day and right now it feels like a giant knot in my cheek. That'd be bad enough, but last night I noticed that you can actually see it if you look at my face too. My cheek is actually swollen in that spot. It's humiliating and I'm trying to cover it with my hair, but I don't know how long I'm going to need to do that because it isn't getting any better.

[ItsFreyja]

Wow, that sounds painful! I've experienced transient cheek biting as my teeth have shifted, but nothing this severe. Definitely keep using wax on the brackets that rub the sore; if you don't give your cheek a break from the irritation, it will never heal. If you call your ortho, he may be willing to prescribe you a topical oral corticosteroid cream that might help reduce the inflammation.

[metalliKa]

For ease of mind, you should probably alert your ortho. Your case with the swelling does seem more severe than the normal cheek biting. You could be having an adverse reaction to your braces? Only your ortho/doc can assess that for you.