I opted to have clear brackets put on the front 6 teeth, for aesthetic reasons, obviously. Dr. O. let me have them, which I am grateful for, since they aren't quite as "good" as the typical metal ones. The reason is because they're made of ceramic and so are pretty strong but not as strong as the typical metal ones. This means if your teeth have a long way to move, they're not the best option since you need all the leverage you can get. They're also more fragile, since if they break, they will shatter. In yo' mouth! No thanks! This is why some folks can have them put on the bottom fronts too, and some can't - if your teeth overlap enough to touch the brackets there, you can't really have them because the forces of your teeth hitting will damage and likely break the clear brackets. There are of course little appliances your ortho can put in to stop your teeth from hitting like that, but I'm assuming in some cases it won't work or isn't worth it. I'm assuming that since my front teeth don't overlap at all (or even think about touching) that I could technically get them for this reason, but I think it's safe to guess that there are other reasons why I can't have them. For starters, my bottom teeth need to move quite a bit. I haven't discussed clear brackets for the bottom with Dr. O, but to be honest I don't really care if I get them. I am not smiling as big now as I did before, so my lower teeth aren't really showing as much. They used to show a lot, since I'm a pretty expressive person and tend to smile big and try to laugh often.
So that being said, I can really only speak about what it's like to have top braces on. It is definitely very hard to get used to having them at first. They're big and bulky in your mouth, and they can be really uncomfortable against your lips and cheeks. Your top lip doesn't really know what to do with itself with all the hardware now in there, but it eventually sorts itself out. One bonus is that the braces are giving much fuller-looking lips! It's like having lip injections that don't go away. I don't mind at all, I've always thought my lips were on the small side. I'll take any advantage I can get!
On my back teeth I have the regular Damon system metal brackets. The difference with the Damon brackets is that instead of having ligatures around the brackets, they have little doors on them that the wire threads through. They literally open the doors (like suicide doors, not a massive coupe door) and put the wire in. This also means that the wire is free to slide through brackets, although it doesn't move around freely. You don't have to get your wires "tightened" for this reason - as your teeth move, the wire moves too. Then 4-6 weeks later, they just take the whole wire out and put a new one in, and they increase in strength each time. The metal brackets are pretty comfortable, they're smaller (or at least don't stick out as much as the front clear ones do) but I have hooks on every single one of them, and even on a couple of the front clear ones too. They really do a number on your mouth. I don't actually know if I have the normal number of hooks in my mouth, or if I have them on every bracket because my mouth will need to be wired shut eventually. I should ask.
The soreness in your lips/cheeks does go away, but I'd say it's very wise to stock up on wax and use it whenever you need to. It really helps to calm down any sore spots, and it's a welcome relief when you're talking and moving your mouth a lot. I found that it helps to accelerate your mouth becoming adjusted to the braces actually. You're trying to build up some toughness in your tissues so that they get used to the braces and you DON'T have to wear wax all the time, but sometimes they get so roughed up that they are like sores and need time to heal themselves and when they do they seem to get....calloused if you will. (Trust me, you won't have calluses in your mouth - ew! - but I'm not sure how else to describe it).
One thing I've found to be an awesome product for this is......get ready for it....silicone ear plugs! I actually found this tip from trolling the internet doing research on what it's like to have braces, and I can say it's SO TRUE. Your ortho should provide you with dental wax, and you can certainly buy it at drugstores. Mine even keeps packs of it in his mailbox so you can come get some for free any time, any day! (He's awesome) But I prefer this stuff, even though it's $10/box at my drugstore! So why is it so great? It's much softer than wax, so when you break off a piece and roll it up it's much easier to manipulate, and is easier to form it. I like to make little discs with my fingers and then lay them on top of the brackets. It covers very well, and is so pliable that it just sort of fits into the little bracket spaces. The wax is harder, so harder to press onto your teeth, and it's sort of an opaque whitish colour, where the silicone is more clear, so I feel like it's more discreet when it's in your mouth. And it stays better...the wax sort of melts if you drink or eat anything warm, where the silicone stays in place. I was even using it to coat the front brackets and prevent food/drinks from touching the clear elastics and staining them. It worked! Now that I have the wires instead of clear elastics, and my mouth is a little tougher, I'm not using it. So even though it's expensive, you don't need it 24/7. And you'll need to use it less and less as time goes on. Here's what my box looks like:
So what else? Eating. Let me start by saying that my eating experience will be very different from a regular braces-wearer. It's a lot more limited by the fact that my jaw is uneven and barely any of my teeth touch each other. On the flip side, since I was wired shut and in a ton of pain when I wasn't wired shut, eating with braces is just another challenge. Yes, they get food stuck in them constantly. Yes, they make biting into things difficult (or even impossible) and yes, you do have restrictions on what you can eat. (No popcorn, no gum, no chewy candies, no hard candies, no hard crusty bread...the list goes on). I have more issues with what my jaw can handle than what my braces limit me to. Chewing anything really crunchy or chewy (steak, I'm looking at you) is tough. I do it, but it's not comfortable and it's probably not good for my jaws. (They're being replaced anyways). As for gum, I've replaced it with mints and Listerine pocket packs. The worst part about eating for me is worrying about staining my front brackets/ligatures. Coffee, tea, curry and chocolate are the WORST. It made me so sad, and almost wish that I'd gone with all metal brackets just so that I could enjoy eating as much as I could, particularly those things that didn't hurt my jaw! With this new Teflon wire, I feel much more liberated. Who needs to burn a bra?? Just get a wire ligature on your clear braces! Duh.
Cleaning your braces. Ugh. Get ready to carry a toothbrush with you everywhere you go. It's a PITA. It makes you stop and think: Do I want to eat that and then go brush? Or maybe just not eat it. I tend to use a knife and fork to eat everything. Even sandwiches, because who wants half a sandwich stuck in their front teeth? And it's not like having food stuck in your teeth - you can't necessarily feel that it's there. My ortho gave me a Toob toothbrush (pictured below) and it's awesome. It's got a little tube for your toothpaste in the handle, and it's refillable! You can put whatever toothpaste you want in it. The only downside is that the bristles are pretty stiff, so to get under the wires you have to push pretty hard. Using it constantly is painful for the gums, but it's good for the occasional use when you're out. Here's their website: http://www.yourhealthysmile.com/toob.html
One thing I've found to be totally amazing for braces is a Waterpik. I got the WP100 and I love it. The only bad thing about it is that it's not portable - when I'm away from it for a day or two, I miss it so much! It's not that flossing is actually all that hard, I do floss still (but not as much) with my usual Oral B Glide Pro Health, and I don't even need to use the floss threaders. Because it's a tape, it's narrow and just slides right between the wire and my teeth and doesn't take that much longer than regular flossing. If you can thread a needle, you can definitely floss with braces. It's just that the Waterpik is so thorough! Even when I think my teeth are clean, embarrassingly it always flushes out stuff I didn't know was there! My mouth feels so amazing afterwards, and for $60 it's not too pricey an investment.
So there you have it! What I've learned about having braces thus far. If you have any questions or comments on what you've found helpful, please let me know.
for more results.
ReplyDeletePower Chain braces