Metal Mouth Message Board

Really impressive result

Just had a read through and your progress is really amazing!! Even after the first month or two there was already significant progress showing, I can only hope my teeth get shifting as quickly as yours have done! Can't wait to see how you progress further

I have made it a year in braces!!!

As usual, I am a bit behind on my updates. I'm really excited to make my Day 1 vs. 12 Month comparison, but first thing is first. Here is my 11 month update.
The big thing on my adjustment was having 5 brackets repositioned. I was definitely sore after that. It reminded me a lot of the soreness of first getting braces.

You can see some pretty distinct gaps on the upper left side. I'm not a fan of how often I get food caught between my premolars, but I know that is only a temporary problem.

I still need to edit the pictures for my 12 month comparison, but hopefully I can get those up in the next few days.

Ahhh...disaster is beautifully revealed! Congrats on making to the one year mark! I'm pretty sure you are satisfied with your result so far and the end will only get better.

Fantastic progress, congratulations!

Hi, I am encouraged by your story. I have, like you underdeveloped jaws with severe crowding and initially my ortho suggested extractions but is doing the non-extraction first. Less than 2 months in, teeth in my lower jaw are nearly aligned. My top teeth have a bit of work to do (they are all wonky), but have started to unravel. Thanks for sharing your story. Your teeth look awesome!

I am two months behind, but I am finally posting my 12 month update.
I cheated with these pictures and didn't take them on my actual braces anniversary. I thought I would have something more interesting to say if I waited until my next appointment. It turned out to be a very eventful appointment. Because my lower jaw wasn't fitting too well underneath my upper jaw, my ortho did some Interproximal Reduction (IPR) on my lower front teeth to reduce the size of my jaw by 2-3 mm. The procedure was pretty quick and only involved a little bit of pressure. I also got a power chain on my lowers to help bring the teeth together. My teeth felt a little "loose" the first couple of days, but that's about it.

My ortho said that if he needed to create more space, he would look into a little bit more IPR, but it sounds like it did the trick.

I am amazed at how much my smile has transformed over the past year. Braces have treated me well. I think the next year will involve a lot of elastics to align my jaws and improve my bite, along with some detail work on getting some teeth into the right place. All I can say is that this past year has been great, and I can't wait to see what my smile will look like in another year!

Your teeth look fantastic! Great progress!

Wow! That is amazing progress for 1 year!

Congratulations