Metal Mouth Message Board

I have been in braces since September and I have about 18 months left to go. I was a thumbsucker which caused me to develop a tounge thrust, and to correct this my ortho put on a "Blue Grass Roller" (don't know actual name), and I am having the worst time with it. I had it installed Dec. 19, ortho says it will be in for 9 months; it will guide my tounge so I can talk properly. Can anyone advise me as to what would make this exerperience more bearable? Does anyone even know what I am talking about?

I have used a "blue grass" a few times on kids to help try to train a more normal tongue posture. Doing them on adults is fine too. In fact it probably means your ortho really cares about his treatment - many of us would just accept a compromise and not want to put you through this.
It is very difficult to retrain a sub-conscious habit. Your thumb habit created an openbite. Then the tonuge inter-positioning began so that you could form a seal to speak correctly. Many folks believe that we cannot fix this problem in the mouth w/ a "conscious effort". This problm originates somewhere in the brain -- but all we can do is work through the mouth and hope for the best. If you are totally opposed to wearing this thing just tell the doc it's a no go. Please take it out. He may tell you it could compromise your treatment. Honstely, in my hands, chronic tongue thrusters are usually going to have more compromises than those without.
PS - I am probably not the authority on tongue thrust habits (it's an area of my training/practice that could improve)

thanks dr. j.

i was told that treatment would require me to wear the blue grass roller because my tounge would not allow my teeth to close otherwise. So i want to let that happen so my teeth will be straight. I really want to know is there any way to speed up the process because my poor tounge is getting cut up.

thank you again