Metal Mouth Message Board

I introduced myself on the Bracket Club but I wanted to post my own story too after seeing everyone else's teeth! I hope this will make the whole process speed along.

At 21 years old, after realizing that I would have to do braces on my own financially, it was a BIG commitment. It came to the point where I realized that I better do them now rather than later, while I'm still in university. Also my boyfriend now is extremely supportive and the man I want to marry, and I want to SMILE in my wedding photo's someday!

So my problem with my teeth has mainly to do with crowding. The right upper side of my mouth is pretty much perfect (or so the ortho says) and so are my top front teeth. However my left canine on the top came in waaaay to late so there was no room for it, so it sits very high up and leaves a noticeable gap. I have never smiled open mouthed in my whole life because of it...I don't even think I'll be able to find a pre-braces picture to post that would show it!

My bottom teeth kind of have more severe crowding across the board, all the middle teeth are slightly crooked. Again, my right canine on the bottom came in too late so it sits way to low and leaves a gap on that side as well.

About a month ago I had my wisdom teeth out in preparation, which overall went pretty bad, I got all four out at once and ended up with two dry sockets (although I don't smoke and took excellent care of them) which is PAINful!

After that my ortho gave me two options:
1. being about 8000 and taking about three years, he would put appliances on my back molars that would move them far back and then move all my teeth in sequence, taking about 8 months and then putting on braces
2. being about 6000 and taking 1.5 years, he would just shave down small spaces in between my teeth and use regular braces to pull them back to make room for the ones that needed to come up/down

I choose option two, mainly because of the money and the time, but also because I don't need supermodel teeth. I just have wanted straight teeth my whole life, and he said the only difference with option two would be that the my bottom two middle teeth would not align perfectly with the top two middle teeth (the bottom two might be a millimeter off). However, after seeing one of my friends who had 4 years of braces and a middle bottom tooth removed so that the top two DEFINATELY did not line up with the bottom two I was not too worried.

And thank goodness for that! On closer inspection on my last visit he found that there was nothing wrong with the right side of my mouth at all, that in fact on that side everything lined up pretty well. So what he is doing is just shifting everything to the left, shaving down in between my molars on the top and bottom of the left and using that side to create the extra room to maneouver my teeth.

So for now everything is all set up, I got them on today only a few hours ago! I chose the ceramic ones, I just thought they would look better and make not such a huge shock. Lucky for me as well my porcelain ones don't have elastics, so they won't stain and I can eat/drink whatever I want.

The wires run across all my teeth except for two, the problem tooth on the top (canine) and the problem tooth on the bottom. When there is enough room to fit those ones in, in about 3-4 months, I'll get the wire running through those brackets as well.

Kind of disappointing though because those are the ones I want to see move the MOST.

So thats my story..I'm likely still not going to be smiling much with these ones yet! how bad are they going to hurt is what I want to know...and I hope I see changes fast.

my lower right..the one that isn't in the wire yet


my upper left..the one not in wire yet


frontal..this is still a wider smile than i would naturally

Hi Brittany!
Wanting to have a beautiful smile in my future wedding photos was a big motivation for me to get braced as well! Congrats on being braced and welcome to our little community

thank you for the welcome!
does anyone have any idea how long it might take my canines to move down once there is space for them?
and how long untill I get to eat real food?

not sure about your 1st question, but i'd say within the first week i started to become more brave with my food choices and by week 2 i was eating just fine. my teeth were super sensitive for about a month or 2 though (esp my front ones!), so i was always cutting up everything until i felt comfortable biting into stuff.

for the first week i ate alot of ice cream...and mashed potatoes.

goodness me i can't wait till my teeth move. seeing yours on your braces story made me want teeth like that so bad! my ceramics have that little piece of metal on them..which kind of sucks. i didn't really realize it untill i saw yours. but i think these ones are the "speed" braces where they don't need the elastics and have less resistance?
I'm not sure my ortho didn't say, he just said these are the porcelian ones that he uses...

Hi Brittany. Welcome to our club and congrats on your decision to get braces. I like the ceramics you got. I'm sure the 1.5 years will go by quickly. I'm right behind you (my brace day is July 7) and my treatment time is the same as yours!

Keep us posted with your progress!

hey! thanks for that small bit of reassurance..as you'll find every little bit helps. my recommendation, in the meantime while you're waiting..enjoy it! eat lots of crunchy things and just anything! Everything for me has been going on since may..wisdom teeth, then as soon as those healed up..then spacers..then braces. So I haven't eaten real food in ages!

Hi Brittany

Thanks for popping in my story.. my ortho is the same as yours despite the crowding he didnt want to pull any teeth for fear of that droopy without dentures old person look lol..

I know what you mean about just wanting to see your teeth move already.. today I was brushing mine and out of no where because I look at them every day I noticed this HUGE gap between some of my crowded teeth.. I was like YAY making room for my tooth to get out of the jam its in.. and im only in braces 3 weeks so im sure you will start to see some movement really soon!

My teeth are still pretty sensitive so im sticking to mostly softish sort of stuff... although my fav lately to eat is a wendys bake potato with cheese and bacon.. yum goes down real easy...

Congrats and welcome! Cant wait to see your progress

Brit, your teeth will be straight in no time!! Believe me, my teeth were soo crooked and awful just 3 months ago...they are straightening up sooo fast though!! I wish I could show you pics from before braces...sadly, I didn't take any. But I had a baby canine that never fell out and the adult one grew waaay far in the back of it. It was awful. But now things are much better, and so will yours soon! Just be patient

Hi Brit, I was just catching up on your story over here I am loving those SL brackets - your teeth look so pretty behind them! And I have to admit, nice wedding photos is part of my motivation too! People are always asking when we are going to get married (we've been together for 3 years) and though we're not engaged yet I've taken to answering, "When the braces are off!" That gives time for a nice long engagement I figure

wow this forum almost makes braces exicting. day two and im sort of expecting to see them when i look in the mirror now..but they hurt.

i have metal band around my back molars, that are attached to springs on the left side only. does anyone have experience with the metal bands around the back teeth? I find that the most unfortable and painful part of this experience is that the metal bands have little things that poke out on the inside of my mouth...so whenever my tounge moves around my mouth (which is always) it gets all scratched up its irritated. nothing major, no bleeding...but considering i have four bands in my mouth my tongue is always getting poked!

what can i do about this? i think wax in there might make my tongue feel even more weird because its on the inside.

Hi Brittany,

Welcome and congrats on getting braced!! I love your braces. Like Ken said, even with the little metal parts they're still discreet.

As far as the molar bands, I don't have any but I have read a few posts about people with the same complaint. I think your ortho can "shave" or bend that pokey part so it doesn't irritate your tongue, as long as it's not going to be used as part of your treatment(used for elastics, maybe?). I would call your ortho and inquire. It can't hurt and it'd save your tongue before it does get tore up! In the meantime, you could just keep waxing it...you'll get used to the feel after a while.

Good luck and keep us posted!!

OhNicole wrote: and though we're not engaged yet I've taken to answering, "When the braces are off!" That gives time for a nice long engagement I figure

How funny, that's what I am figuring too! I don't mind a long engagement since I will be in braces anyways...now he just needs to propose already!!