Does anyone have adult braces?

I had these braces for about a year before my wedding. It is absolutely worth it. It was the second time I'd had train tracks, so I kind of knew what to expect.

The shredding and soreness gets better. It doesn't feel like it will, but it will. The skin on the inside of your lips and cheeks toughens up and you won't notice it anymore. For me, this stage took a couple of weeks, maybe three. Until then, use wax for the worst bits. Boots do a wax that was far better, had far more sticking power and was far cheaper than the dentist one. After your lips get hardcore, you won't need wax at all, apart from maybe the odd time when you have them tightened and there is a tiny protrusion of wire out of the back anchor channels.

I lost a fair bit of weight during my 'brace' period. It can't be helped. You just don't feel like eating sometimes. You need to get used to mashing - for that year's office Christmas dinner, I had mashed pasta #isbaby. Basically, mash or cut your food up such that you don't need too chew it!

As for elastic discolouration, well. You've learned a lesson already. You will find that all the usual suspects discolour them - tea, coffee, red wine, tomato sauces, curry. I radically reduced my intake of said things and only ever had curry on the night before a dental appointment, when they would be replaced by new clear elastics the next day. Are you on individual elastics at the moment? Wait until you get a power strip (a row of 6 or 8 elastic loops on a single band) - loads more material to discolour then!

Your Boy doesn't know how good it's going to get. If he's calling you Predator now, wait until you get your Gorilla bands (elastics that run from top teeth to bottom teeth, used to drag opposing teeth together to create the correct bite).

Kissing (and, um, other stuff) needs to be approached delicately.

Not the same but I have TMJD and during a massive flare up two years ago I wasn't allowed to chew for nearly a year. I lived off soups mainly and things like cous cous and anything that required no chewing. Unlike FTLOMB I found I put weight on because I found you could put small bits of chocolate in your mouth that melted as opposed to stuffing my face with apples. Do you have a blender?

I had train tracks as a teenager so I can feel your pain. As footlong said it'll probably take a couple of weeks for the inside of your mouth to 'toughen up'

Also try taking some paracetamol to ease the ache.

As for food I found after those first couple of weeks I could eat practically normally.

You will probably find after you have them tightened or adjusted it'll be uncomfortable again for a couple of days.

I had them for over two years during my awkward teenage years but it was definitely worth it!

Thanks for the replies. It's reassuring to know I hopefully won't have pouty swollen fish lips forever, though I'm sure some people would pay for it. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror when I was driving before and scared myself lol.

I did discover that I can quite easily suck little pieces of chocolate without any problems so that made me incredibly happy! Might not have to worry about losing weight if this becomes my regular pain relief method. (Also stocked up on paracetamol and orajel). I'll pop in Boots on the way home tomorrow and see if I can get some decent wax, the stuff I have seems to peel off every time I have a drink.

I've stocked up on neutral coloured soup, custard pots and yoghurts for work. I can't stay away from tea though, it's an essential part of keeping Mooshy placid, but curry is definitely off the menu for now. My local takeaway might send out a search party though, they have my order memorised...

Some of those band contraptions sound a bit scary... dentist definitely omitted some stuff when he sold me on the idea... probably for the best though. Keep reminding myself it will be worth it in 9 months! And at least I won't need a Halloween costume this year!

Funnily enough FTLOMB one of the first things OH said (after the Predator comment) was that I won't be youknowwhat with this thing on. Success! Best £2500 ever spent!

Have you got top and bottom tracks? Have you planned what kind of retainers you'll have?

TMI alert***

I wear an Essix retainer (a clear gumshield type thing) on the top. No bother.

I wear a fixed wire on the bottom, running canine to canine. On the back of my teeth. That's always gonna be worse than similar wires running across the front.

You may have to refine your technique

That made me laugh out loud, OH is looking over at me wondering what's tickling me so much. I've barely spoken all day so I don't have to move my mouth.

I got top and bottom sets. I initially went to get just the top teeth straightened because that's what I'm most self conscious about, but when they said it's £1750 for one brace or £2500 for both I decided to just go for the full set because knowing what I'm like I would later be annoyed with my slightly wonky lower teeth if my top teeth were now all nice and straight.

The dentist implied that the retainers would be fixed, which is probably for the best because I'm not the most compliant person (hence why the brace I had as a teenager did naff all for me). The dental nurse showed me hers and it looked like it was pretty much flush against the back of her teeth... does it erm catch on stuff?

It really depends on what your usual MO is. I don't know how to describe. If you're all about the O shape, the edge of your teeth and a tongue, no bother. If you're a proper sucker, maybe not.

Never - ever - try to do the sideways slide when wearing fixed retainers.

Just asked Boy - he says he can't feel the wires at all. I suspect that's because I don't really let him feel the wires...

I just had a vision of a cheesewire in action, ouch!

I feel sorry for any delicate soul who opens up this thread out of curiosity, haha.

OH doesn't have to worry, I'm still not brave enough to even bump lips with him ️?️

You'll get used to the pain. It gets to be normal! How wonky are your teeth? There's very little else so satisfactory as seeing the most mental teeth changing.

I've still got the moulds from before I had my braces, I can't believe my teeth used to look like they did

Me too. It's amazing to see what's changed!

My top front teeth are very wonky, one of my front teeth overlaps the one next to it and that's why I rarely smile, or if I do I cover my mouth. I hate having photos where I'm smiling. My bottom teeth are not as crooked, but some of them are set back a bit so awkward to clean between, it will be much easier to clean them when they are aligned. I can't wait to be able to say that Holey! I've wanted it doing for such a long time but couldn't justify the cost to myself, but there was no way I was spending a small fortune on a photographer to take wedding pics of me trying not to smile, so I decided I'm allowed to be a little vain this one time and stuck it on my credit card.

Hello ?

My colleague at work has had hers on almost a year now. She's been writing a blog about it:

https://braceface25.wordpress.com/

I had train tracks for almost 2 years..I lost about 2 stone. I also unfortunately suffered an injury - the wire protruding out of the back got imbedded into my cheek and ripped a big hole in it. I have weird scar tissue that I can feel with my tongue. The pain will get better. Though I did struggle with certain foods, hence the weight loss.

Hello, haven't posted on OT before but I had Invisalign put on last week so I feel your pain! It's settled down a lot now and the only pain I have is taking the aligned out to eat. I got ID'd at the weekend buying adult bonjela! It's really good for when your tongue/sis of mouth get sore as its stronger than the kids stuff.

Thanks Pompey, I had a little read of the blog and it's fab seeing the photos as her teeth progress. I can't wait until that's mine. I took a pic of how they are now so I can compare at my next tightening ? (plus the glamorous curry stains which are annoying the crap out of me now!).

Lulabelle, I so would have preferred the invisalign but I know I'm terrible at anything which requires compliance so I would have ruined it for myself. OH brought me the adult bonjela on Friday and it was soo nice on the ulcer inside my top lip. I've been alternating between that and Orajel which is topical anaesthetic so I numb my whole lip when it's really bothering me.

At the moment my top front teeth are really sensitive, I did my usual habit of sucking my pen when I was doing write ups at work earlier and nearly jumped in pain when it touched my teeth. I did manage to eat a piece of toast earlier though by pushing tiny pieces to the back of my mouth, must've looked like a proper crazy person, but for such a boring meal it made me incredibly happy, haha.