Bite plate!!! Holy cow..

[Steph30]

HATE MY BITE PLATE,.. I think i was emotionally prepared for my braces.. I was not emotionally prepared for the bite plate... It feels huge in my mouth.. I cant talk... If i think about the bite plate at all I start to gag... the "s" sound makes me gag a bit too... so I am a hot mess... TRYING to stay positive but I was really struggling with this at the ortho's office.. I begged her to let me make my next appt without the bite plate in because I was too embarrassed to talk to the front desk girl.. I am extremely self conscious about talking to people.. I don't even want to call my mom to let her know how things went... if anyone has any advice or encouragement about the bite plate I would love to hear it

I'm so self conscious

[ElizabethMae]

The human body is an amazing piece of machinery that can adapt to so many changes; you will get used to talking around something new in your mouth. Back in college when I got my wisdom teeth taken out they hit a nerve and I lost a lot of feeling in half my tongue, which gave me a lisp, but I talked through it and now it's only noticeable when I'm super tired. If you're self-conscious about working through it in front of people, I suggest grabbing a book and reading out loud to yourself to get your mouth used to the new configuration you're working with.

I hope this helps. Stay strong! You can do this!

[r1r1r12000]

Hi Steph30,

I can empathize. When I got my braces, they gave me bite blocks on my molars that held my front teeth so far apart I had a noticeable lisp for about two weeks. I'm sure it was less frustrating than what you're going through, since I didn't have anything in the roof of my mouth to make me gag, but just keep talking as much as you can, pretend it doesn't bother you, and your speech will improve quickly!

[Steph30]

Thank you... Today is already a bit better... No gagging... Still pretty lispy! I'm glad it's removable..and not for the entire duration of my treatment...

[jem]

Hi Steph30,

Your lisp will probably be far less apparent to other people than it is to you. Try recording yourself speaking and you will be pleasantly surprised.

Good luck with your bite plate and the rest of your treatment.

Jem

[pcspinheiro]

I also got a bite plate due to my severe overbite, to prevent me from ripping the lower brackets off and make some distance between the molars to erupt them with elastics. However, I quickly found that it would stop fitting comfortably due to changing teeth positions and I just learned to live without it pretty fast. I don't tell the ortho this, but I haven't used it more than 1 1/2 months of the 3 that I'm supposed to be wearing it... My molars are erupting to the point where i see some of my lower teeth and have not bitten off any bracket. When I wore it in the beginning my lisp was terrible (Portuguese has SOO many words with the letter S or ending with S, that it was a nightmare trying to speak normally) but it quickly subsided. I'm of course not encouraging you to not use your bite plate, I only abandoned mine because it needed grinding every single week or sooner due to causing pain and since I've been a heavy mouth breather, keeping my mouth sightly open at all times is normal for me...

Good luck with that though!