Metal Mouth Message Board

Hello All,

I thought I would post some "before" and "after" pics of my progress over the past 5 months. I am definitely happy with the results!

Here is a picture of my lower teeth from Day 1 in Braces: (notice my two "eye teeth" which aren't even in my arch at all):



And 5 MONTHS LATER:



And my upper teeth from Day 1 in Braces:



And 5 MONTHS LATER:



I'm really excited about the progress. Things are far from over, but I already feel like my teeth look better when I smile!

I just thought I would share the excitement with all of you!

Wow, that's a huge difference in just five months! I'm happy for you!

WOW! That is AWESOME

That's fantastic! Looks good!

wow....great progress..they look straight!

Thanks everyone for your replies!

Meryaten: In terms of what's next for me--it's a bit hard to tell from the pictures, but my upper arch has actually expanded much more than my lower arch so far (due to my lower arch being much more crowded to begin with, and a period of time where I had to have my lower expander removed).

So, as far as I can tell, my ortho is trying to get the lowers to 'catch up' with the uppers in terms of expansion. At my adjustment last week I got a bigger wire on the bottom (my first wire change on the bottom after 5 months!), which should help things along.

Also, for my next adjustment they are putting me in for "laser treatment". I guess this involves them shining a blue lazer onto the roof of my mouth and around my face to stimulate tissue/cell growth, so that I retain my new arch shape and have less of a chance of relapse!

I'm only 5 months into a year and a half sentence, so I'm assuming they have lots left to do!

WOW!!!!! That's even more progress than MY teeth in 5 months! And I thought mine was pretty amazing! Congrats!

I am so impressed by your progress. You can see all of the hard work that has been happening over the last five months....amazing results....

And neat to hear about the laser treatment...I haven't heard of that before so it is interesting to learn new things... Congratulations on your results! I hope I am as lucky as you!
Take care

that's some great progress in just 5 months!

Your teeth look fantastic. Congrats!!

Such a prominent awesome progress on your teeth. Many congratulations!!!

WOW! That's amazing! And not one extraction! That's awesome progress... it shows there's hope for the rest of us after all!! Congrats!

It's so nice to hear from all of you--I'm glad I have a group of people who are as excited about my progress as I am!!

Meryaten--I am also very intrigued my the whole lazer thing...it's amazing to me that I am having my ortho work done by a general dentist, but he is still using all of these new/high tech procedures!

And yes, the expanders have not been fun..although I'm pretty much used to them now (my 'G' and 'Ch' sounds are still a bit off, but it isn't that noticable). In terms of the shape of my face, I have noticed that my smile has gotten "wider" when I smile with just my top teeth showing. Like I notice in pictures that you can see more of my teeth. Here are two comparison pictures...I think it's kind of hard to tell with these pics (and of course I'm sure my nice wide smile will look better without metal on it!):





I have definitely been liking the way my top arch has changed, we will see what happens with the bottom!

Yes, the beautiful red putty is because of my deep bite. Without it I would have bitten my lower brackets off. This is the best pic I could find of my bite pre-braces:



Supposedly my ortho is going to keep the red putty on until I'm close to being done!

Looking good Jaws - It's good when things move fast isn't it? I never knew they could do the laser treatment either. Although thankfully I've suffered no relaspe since I had my braces removed.

Your smile has changed drastically! That's really amazing Jaws! Didn't notice the red putty, just the awesome smile. Congratulations!