I got them!

[Plainj]

Got my braces today. All metal. I'm officially part of the club. Yayyy! Process was somewhat easy. The braces feel really weird, like I have a mask on my teeth. That's the only way I can think to describe them. I'm trying to eat (soup) & that feels weird too. I feel like I don't want to chew & dirty up my new appliance. I guess it's like when you come from the dentist & don't want to dirty your freshly polished teeth. Haha. Also one of my canines is hitting the bracket below it so I can't bite down completely.
I just want to say thanks to this forum & all the people who post. I've been reading it for a few weeks now & I felt totally prepared when I went to the ortho. I knew what to expect & I understood everything he was doing & explaining. This forum is great!
Here's my question: My brackets have colored dots on them in the upper corner, red on one side of my mouth, yellow on the other. What is that?

[godutch]

Got my braces today. All metal. I'm officially part of the club. Yayyy! Process was somewhat easy. The braces feel really weird, like I have a mask on my teeth. That's the only way I can think to describe them. I'm trying to eat (soup) & that feels weird too. I feel like I don't want to chew & dirty up my new appliance. I guess it's like when you come from the dentist & don't want to dirty your freshly polished teeth. Haha. Also one of my canines is hitting the bracket below it so I can't bite down completely.
I just want to say thanks to this forum & all the people who post. I've been reading it for a few weeks now & I felt totally prepared when I went to the ortho. I knew what to expect & I understood everything he was doing & explaining. This forum is great!
Here's my question: My brackets have colored dots on them in the upper corner, red on one side of my mouth, yellow on the other. What is that?

Quick: Eat steak now, soon you won't be able to for months to come and welcome to the club

Do you these brackets with dots have hooks on them?

[Prometheus]

Congrats on getting them on! The colored dots serve as a reference to the ortho staff that (1) the correct bracket is placed on the right tooth. Each color corresponds to a different tooth. (2) The dots also serve as visual reference to help position the bracket on the tooth before the cement is hardened with the blue light. The dots wear off in a week or so with regular brushing.

[Plainj]

Thanks for the welcome!
@godutch Hahahaha. I missed the steak. I tried to eat a few hours later & that was a strange no-go. Lol. I did make some really good potato soup though. & not all the brackets have hooks on them. Only a few of them.
@Prometheus, Thanks for that explanation of the dots.

[pcspinheiro]

I would talk to your ortho ASAP regarding that canine hitting the lower bracket! You might rip out the bracket or worse, break a tooth...
I just wish, like you, that I had read all I could BEFORE going for my appointment, settling for the plan without questioning, and ending up regretting the extraction of perfectly good, beautiful teeth...

[BlondeCam]

Good for you! I COMPLETELY understand about the top teeth hitting the bottom so you can't chew completely! Also totally get the whole not wanting to get them all dirty.
My Ortho said top hitting the bottom is why they don't like to do ceramics on the lower arch. They do too arch ceramics only. Metal bottoms.
My diet has consisted of lots of soup, yogurt and even those Atkins and Nutrisystem shakes in the office so I can just brush quickly and not have to do the mega cleaning I do at home.

[Plainj]

@pcspinheiro, the ortho noticed the canine to bracket issue & even mentioned it but didn't seem too concerned about it. I guess I won't be either until I have to, especially since I'm only eating soup & soft food right now. I'm sure my teeth will be sore for awhile so I'm being really gentle right now--too afraid to bite down hard. & I'm sorry you regret your extractions but I bet you will love your results. One ortho consult suggested that for me but I just couldn't do it. I don't have the patience or time for he pain. (I'm a caregiver to my 92 year old dad)
@BlondeCam yes this soft food diet is a beast but it'll all be worth it in the end, right? I tell everyone I'm on the braces diet because I know I'll lose weight & that's great since Summer is coming here in the US. Thanks for the tip about the quick brushing. I've been mega cleaning after EVERY meal since that's what the ortho stresses. I don't think my teeth are that dirty after soup. *shrug*

[pcspinheiro]

& I'm sorry you regret your extractions but I bet you will love your results. One ortho consult suggested that for me but I just couldn't do it. I don't have the patience or time for he pain. (I'm a caregiver to my 92 year old dad)

Thanks for your kind words but, realistically, I probably won't be in love with my final result, but I don't really care about a slight midline shift, as I only removed one tooth. I do REALLY regret getting that one tooth out, as looking at how things are evolving, it seems totally unnecessary to have had ANY tooth out at all... Having read a LOT about the subject, and considering my specific case, this was just the easy way for her to get some space, as I only needed to move teeth about 1 cusp back to get class I molar relation, not caring about ending with an overjet (which is what she's focused on: camouflage and not repair). This is what you get for blindly trusting doctors and not being informed well enough BEFORE, to make the right decisions. I'm in a another small fight with her because she extruded my upper lateral incisors to the same length of the central incisors, and my smile is now horrible... More aggravating is her telling me that it's the way it should be, when this contradicts EVERYTHING I read about smile aesthetics... Well, now I'm putting my foot down on what I don't like and demanding that things are set right. I'm putting a lot of money, pain and time into this to finish with teeth I don't like!

Hope you can eat all you want now! I myself never had much pain (except from removal of the last wisdom tooth, OMG!) and just eat through it anyway