Braces Help Thread

QueenQuinlinQueenQuinlin
edited August 2008 in General
I just got my braces on Tuesday, much to my dismay. I have a pretty bad overbite, so my teeth will take awhile to fix. If I'm really good with wearing my bands I could have them off as early as 18 months. But I’m not that responsible so I could have them on 24 months or more. I really want them off before 10th grade and with the least pain possible. So are there any tips or tricks from former braces wearing OB members?

Comments

  • waitingfortheencorewaitingfortheencore
    edited August 2008
    I had them for 18 months or so along with a spreader for the roof of my mouth for 6 months before that as well, and i am not the most reliable person (as i'm sure a few OB members will attest to.
    best piece of advice i can give is just to suck it up and try your best. it WILL be painful at times but it will all be worth it in the end...
  • stefstef
    edited August 2008
    Hi, I have a weird tip: try your hardest not to play with them. Try not to grind or move your teeth, don't bite at the parts that are irritating you, don't try to jam your tongue under the spacer. Try not to bite your nails, if you currently do. Basically, all the repetitive stress you put on the braces weakens them, and breaking off brackets is what makes braces take a long time. You lose a month every time you break a bracket.

    My unfortunate experience was that I followed the food rules religiously but was unable to stop messing around with the braces. My sister broke all of the food rules but got hers off a good 6 months sooner than I did. Good luck!
  • PandaPanda
    edited August 2008
    Yeah I totally agree with Stef, don't screw with them because if it doesn't make you have them on longer it'll sure feel like it. As far as food goes just avoid stuff that would either break something, like hard food, or foods that would make them a terrible pain to clean.

    Initially I got mine on in 7th grade and they said i would have them off just before senior graduation but i got them off the summer before freshman year.
    I guess I just got lucky. :)
  • deku12345deku12345
    edited August 2008
    Also, even though its a total pain in the ass, floss. If you don't, your teeth will be in pretty bad shape when you get them off.
  • QueenQuinlinQueenQuinlin
    edited August 2008
    Ya, flossing is one of the most annoying things to do. It takes so long because you have to thread every single tooth.
    Panda wrote: »
    Initially I got mine on in 7th grade and they said i would have them off just before senior graduation but I got them off the summer before freshman year.
    I guess I just got lucky. :)

    I'm just going in to 8th now, and I want them off before high school, because that’s 10th here.

    I found it hard to believe that the bands need to changed every 3 hours (apparently they don't work as well after being stretched that long). I have the nasty habit of taking them out to eat, then forgetting to put them back in. So I need to work on that.
    Thanks for the tips you guys!
  • HamelinHamelin
    edited August 2008
    I had my braces on for years, my orthodontist didn't have any bands for me to use or anything. When I finally got them off, even after I was done with my retainer he left a bracer bar on my bottom teeth that I eventually broke off, leaving two bits of pointy tooth cement on two of my bottom teeth.

    My teeth are relatively fine now, it fixed the main problem where one of my upper canines was pushed behind my lower teeth, but for like three years while I didn't have dental insurance I had that cement on my teeth, until I finally got a new dentist and had him grind it down.

    Braces suck. I wasn't very good at having them either. One time I broke off two of the connecting pieces on my lower teeth when I was away at scout camp when one of the other kids ticked me off and I was clenching my teeth.

    Do yourself a favor and do everything the orthodontist says, it'll make it go by so much quicker. I had mine on for years because I was so bad about it.
  • X'o'LoreX'o'Lore
    edited August 2008
    It is strange that I should feel like I'm in the minority when I say that I never had braces.
  • Mish42Mish42
    edited August 2008
    I've never had braces either, but I could definitely use them for my bottom teeth. It just hasn't ever been a huge thing, since people can rarely ever see my bottom teeth; when I smile, my bottom lip usually covers them, and my top teeth are nice and straight. I have a tiny overbite, but that's also not a big deal. My teeth have pretty much grown in to fit the particular shape of my mouth, so I wouldn't be interested in fixing my overbite anyway.
  • illithid235illithid235
    edited August 2008
    I never did either... I was offered braces for cosmetic reasons, because I have a diastema, but I decided that it wasn't worth the hassle.
  • Mish42Mish42
    edited August 2008
    Yeah. That, and my mom told me "Well, braces are pretty expensive... it's either braces, or college. You decide."

    She was joking, but she did get her point across.
  • DrastickBlowDownDrastickBlowDown
    edited August 2008
    I never had braces, but I think they're sexy!
    Does that count?
  • Professor MacJakeProfessor MacJake
    edited August 2008
    I never had braces either, but not because I didn't need them. Oh no. My underbite is so massive that they'd have to break and reset my jaw before I even think about possibly getting braces.

    I didn't do it, and the worst thing about it is I can't eat corn on the cob. I can live with this.
  • brucebruce
    edited August 2008
    I also have a bad overbite (But not the weird kind where you have teeth jutting out at odd angles, just my outer incisors and canines point a bit forward), pushing the, but I choose to leave it, simply because I think it adds a bit of class to the face.

    Plus I don't want to wear braces because they'd have to remove a couple of teeth to do them and since it'd only be for cosmetic reasons it seems a bit silly.
  • kukopankikukopanki
    edited August 2008
    I thought braces didn't exist in England.
  • brucebruce
    edited August 2008
    Sigh, not all English people have bad teeth :(
  • DrastickBlowDownDrastickBlowDown
    edited August 2008
    He's only lying to himself, really.
  • hlavcohlavco
    edited August 2008
    Braces stunk. They hurt a lot and I had to wear them for two years and even though they made my top teeth look nice, my bottom teeth have all moved back to where they were before I got the things.

    I have a perfect maintenance record, though. None of my braces ever broke, even though I didn't change my eating habits and continued to eat carrots and Starburst and all sorts of bad stuff. And I still have two big packets of those tiny rubber bands. I'll find a use for them eventually, I just know it.
  • DrastickBlowDownDrastickBlowDown
    edited August 2008
    You should use them for tension in your tiny machinery.
    If all else fails, you can use them to make little wind-back cars. ^_^
  • QueenQuinlinQueenQuinlin
    edited August 2008
    Night Lord wrote: »
    Plus I don't want to wear braces because they'd have to remove a couple of teeth to do them and since it'd only be for cosmetic reasons it seems a bit silly.

    I told my parents that I thought that my teeth were straight enough for me, but apparently even though my teeth are relatively straight, my teeth would’ve gotten broken easier, and possibly messed up my jaw if I hadn’t had braces. But meh, I think the chances of that are still pretty rare.

    Edit: The bands are great for doing little girls hair :)
  • DrLeopoldStrabismusDrLeopoldStrabismus
    edited August 2008
    Don't join the Air Force for braces: they won't give them to you. =[

    I got my braces later in life, around high school. I want to say 10th grade, but everything about then is such a blur. My father was paying for them, but then decided he didn't want to anymore. So I stopped going and all of the wires snapped. For a while the inside of my mouth was pretty cut up from all the jagged metal. One day my poor, sensitive mouth had enough and I pried off all of the braces with a butter knife.

    The cement stayed on my teeth for about two years after that. My teeth are still crooked. The Air Force orthodontists won't give me braces because I don't need straight teeth to fulfill my duties, I don't have a "severe skeletal deformity", nor do I know the right people.

    YARGH MY TEETH ARE UGLY! It's the only physical thing about myself I don't like. =[

    So I guess my advice is...have good parents?
  • PandaPanda
    edited August 2008
    hlavco wrote: »
    And I still have two big packets of those tiny rubber bands. I'll find a use for them eventually, I just know it.

    My friend and I used the little plastic applicator to shoot them at paper stars that were hanging from our art room ceiling.
  • brucebruce
    edited August 2008
    John the Filleau wrote: »
    Don't join the Air Force for braces: they won't give them to you. =[

    I got my braces later in life, around high school. I want to say 10th grade, but everything about then is such a blur. My father was paying for them, but then decided he didn't want to anymore. So I stopped going and all of the wires snapped. For a while the inside of my mouth was pretty cut up from all the jagged metal. One day my poor, sensitive mouth had enough and I pried off all of the braces with a butter knife.

    The cement stayed on my teeth for about two years after that. My teeth are still crooked. The Air Force orthodontists won't give me braces because I don't need straight teeth to fulfill my duties, I don't have a "severe skeletal deformity", nor do I know the right people.

    YARGH MY TEETH ARE UGLY! It's the only physical thing about myself I don't like. =[

    So I guess my advice is...have good parents?


    ...Your father refused to pay for his son's medical care? What the hell?!
  • SerephelSerephel
    edited August 2008
    So THAT'S what John's mouth looks like. I've been wondering for years now.

    I never had braces either, so my advice is to have better genes. When I was rolling up my character sheet, I redistributed my flaws around my poor eyesight and my patchy beard a bit more. My teeth I only gave a 1 point flaw, leaving me with a slight overbite that isn't bad or noticeable enough to merit braces. Oh, and charisma was my dump stat too. Sigh...

    In all seriousness, I highly recommend you just be really, really good about it. It may be a pain in the ass, but it'll be completely worth it once you finally get them off. Besides, if you're going to have braces, this is undoubtedly the best time to do it. Plenty of your peers will have them too.

    And the cold hard truth is high school sucks, and you'll probably only have a small handful of friends you keep in touch with after it's all done. College is way better, and you'll want to have your braces long gone by the time that comes around.

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