Metalmouth.

At age 24, I'm getting braces. I'm getting some teeth extracted in 8 hours. I figured I'd ask the general public of GFF a generic question that may come from their life experiences.

I decided I'd put this thread in the Quiet Place since some things people share may actually be something personal and "touchy" to them.

If you've had braces, what was your experience of it? What were the pro's and cons for you? What were some of the best, worst, funniest, etc. stories you've gotten out of wearing your braces? What was the worst part about it? What did you miss while you wore braces?

I'm getting braces for the first time in my life and I am excited. Sure, I'll have the aches and painds of having metal in my mouth for couple of years. But how I see it, the benefits far outweigh the cons, because when I'm through with the teeth-aligning treatment (aka braces):
5) I'll be able to clean, brush, floss and take care of my teeth so much better when they're aligned more perfectly.
4) People won't refer me as to "Buggs" anymore (I have horrible buck teeth which I'm severly conscious of).
3) I'll be able to eat both top and bottom of a hamburger bun or sandwich evenly. (Currently I always eat through the top bun far faster/more than the bottom)
2) I'll be able to chew foods better (I'm hoping this would help with the sore shoulders from time to time).
1) I won't have to hear the words, "Oh dear, you're such a beautiful woman if only you didn't have such fucked up teeth." (Yes, quite a few people have mentioned this to me, including people who aren't that close to me)

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Braces are horrible...at first. Then they become hardly noticeable...but always noticeable which makes them aggravating for long term use. The most annoying aspect of braces is food. There is so much that you are limited in eating. (not sure if this is still the case) Not being able to chomp on ice was really a bummer, among other things.

The pain is also a bummer though that disappears somewhat quickly within the first few weeks.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I'm wearing braces now for the first time at 22. I've had them on for about a year, and will be having them removed in about 6 months.

When you first get them you won't care about the pain, you'll just be conscious of having GIGANTIC metal blocks glued to your teeth, I really can't emphasise how HUGE they feel, pressing and rubbing against your lips constantly. It's easy to think "it's okay, the pain goes soon enough", but it's harder to imagine that all that metal will at some point become unnoticable. But it does, and it doesn't take long.

So after the initial installation they're pretty easy to live with and you stop thinking about them. The only pain involved is once every 6 weeks or so when you go to get them tightened, and that goes away after about a day. The major annoyance is getting certain food stuffs stuck in them, but this isn't nearly a problem as you might think it will be, and mostly only happens with 'stringy' food, like chewed chicken. It's funny getting spaghetti interweaved between in all the wires, with the weird sensation afterwards of stripping it out with your fingers. I say funny, only I don't dine out at italian restaurants. But really, I haven't had to avoid changing my eating habits at all, I just try to avoid cracking nuts and opening bottle caps with my teeth.

That's it really. No stories, no wild anecdotes to tell my grandkids. Just another boring part of everyday life that you live with and don't think about.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

i currently have braces and there really isn't nothing exciting about them. I've had them for almost 2 years (hopefully getting them off sometime soon), but alas, my ortho is sort of an idiot and fucked with my teeth a little too much. I've begun to regret getting them in the first place-sometimes days of pain aren't worth the slightly 'beautifying-ness' of braces. Plus the fact when i started out it was just going to be one year of them, and now its been to extended to god knows when.
i just recommend making sure to get the right dentist...or well orthodonist or whatever.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I had braces when I was in high-school. Yeah, best time to get them . My own mother called me Jaws. Anyway, it was worth it because I get compliments about my teeth quite a lot now (weird but true). Just stock up on painkillers for the times you have to have it tightened. Sometimes it can be excruciating for hours on end. You will learn to hate your orthodontist.

As for a story, I was doing high-jump and it would've been a perfect jump except I threw my knee a little too hard back and smacked myself in the jaw with it. If I hadn't been wearing braces I wouldn'tve burst my lip.

Oh and I missed corn on the cob and apples ;__;

I was speaking idiomatically.

I had them a few years as a kid, and not even little children made jokes about them. That's about a passe as glasses insults, and seems to be a non-issue today.

Unfortunately, when you first get them installed, and each time you get them tightened (probably monthly), they will hurt and give you a sore mouth for 4 hrs-3 days. It shouldn't affect you during normal life, but it might make eating too painful. So each day you visit the dentist be prepared with soft, or even better liquid meals, because there's a chance you won't want to be using your teeth that day. Although each visit will be different, over time the average "aching time" should drop. If you have to eat while your teeth still hurt, break things up with your tongue and shift as much work as possible onto your molars, and onto the less aching side of your mouth.

There are a number of things you can't have with braces: nuts, gum, etc. don't mess around, don't eat these things, or a bracket might fall off and it's another pain-in-the-ass trip to the dentist.

Aside from the monthly crank of pain you really shouldn't notice them in daily life. Occasionally a block or wire will scrape the inside of your mouth a bit, which your mouth usually adapts to (gets gouged away?) in a day. They should give you a wax you can put over any painful spots, but I never found it worth the effort.


...in sum, a painful bitch once a month, and the rest of the time a negligible inconvenience that limits the food you can eat. Honestly, 27 days of the month will be about the same for you. And yeah, it should be worthwhile in the long run, fixing your teeth. Much preferable to a retainer or other methods.

As for getting colours on your braces, I think that's lame as hell, myself.

P.S. Congrats for finally making a post that didn't involve your bf!

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

It's not really that bad.

I had braces when I was 13-14, and while I hated it back then, I'm somewhat glad for them now. I've had compliments on my teeth, but it really was a long and somewhat painful process to get through it.

My case is probably a bit different from yours, but my upper jaw actually had to be widened with this horrible little device that need to be adjusted every day. Since the thing was literally forcing my skull to widen, I had headaches every day for the duration of that, which was maybe a few months.

Monthly pain as they tighten the braces, as some have mentioned, isn't that bad at all. It only bothers you for a day or so.

Oh, and about the foods that they tell you not to eat: as long as you chew carefully while you eat, you can have anything you want. And make sure to brush properly as well. They'll give you these annoying mini tooth brushes to clean between each bracket.

I'm not sure what How Unfortunate meant about braces being an alternative to retainers, as usually the two go hand in hand. I had to wear a retainer for a few months after my braces came off to keep my teeth set, and even after that I had two permanent retainers installed on the back of my bottom and top front teeth, which I still have at age 22.

Actually, I think I would rather have braces at a slightly older age. When I got them, I was in grade 7, and was extremely shy. The braces just made me even more shy and self conscious. Obviously at an older age you'd be more confident and capable of dealing with something like that, so I think it's better.


I was just reminded now, but there are a few different kinds of braces you can get. My friend had these braces where the brackets were made of some white material (porcelain, maybe?), and her braces looked totally invisible except for the thin wire. I was extremely jealous at the time. If you're getting a big discount, maybe that's something to look into.

FELIPE NO

I'm going to echo the whole nut thing. Be very careful to avoid them -- once, I ate a nut, broke a wire, which then poked into my gums. Not cool.

But it's not that bad, overall. I hope it goes well for you!

Most amazing jew boots

Originally Posted by How Unfortunate

P.S. Congrats for finally making a post that didn't involve your bf!

rofl. I'm sorry, I'll try to lighten up in the future.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I had perfect teeth until my wisdom teeth came in, even though my orthodontist said that they didn't have enough force to fuck them up and we should wait until they'd fully come in to remove them. Such bullshit.

Anyway. I was really pissed that I had to have braces, especially since they could have easily been avoided if they'd taken my wisdoms out when they should have. It wasn't that bad, though, I only had to have them on for 6 months. What sucked was that I got them on for the last semester of my senior year of high school, so I had them for all those prom and graduation photos.

I used to always smile with teeth for photos, and since the braces I've developed this closed mouth pathetic excuse for a smile that's habit now when there's a camera around, and even if I think, hey, smile for real, I'm thinking about it and it looks forced and stupid.

Make sure you take pain meds before you go in to have them put on or get hem tightened.Its way better if you have the drugs already in your system beforehand.

They're worth it. Just be prepared for people to suddenly start thinking you're way younger than you are.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I think sadism is a job requirement for being an orthodontist.

There's really nothing good about having braces. You can't chew gum or eat anything sticky like caramel. You can't eat anything hard, because they'll break. Stuff gets stuck in them, which can also make them break. Brushing/flossing takes at least 3 times as long. The rubber bands are tons of fun, of course. Then there's the cute jokes you get day in and day out, which weren't funny to begin with.

You have to go to your orthodontist all the time (which isn't so bad if you're in high school, but it would really suck if it cuts into your job), and you can only hope you don't get a jackass like I did. There was absolutely nothing I could do to make my teeth clean enough for him, I swear. I would spend 15 minutes brushing and flossing my teeth before the appointment and he would make me brush again once I got there, which made the appointments run longer than they should have since he would go on to another one of his patients while I brushed.

Oh yeah, and all the fun varieties of pain you get to sample are nice too. There's the grinding/scratching pain due to something sharp and metal rubbing up against something soft and not metal, there's the stabbing pain from having a wire that's too long poking into your gums, and of course the dull aching pain from your teeth being forced into another position.

The fact that you're excited about it is kind of amusing. You'll be much more excited about finally getting them off. The results are nice, but it takes forever. All of that stuff I listed up there you have to deal with for years. I don't know if this is true for everyone, but I was supposed to wear a retainer indefinitely after getting my braces off. I didn't do it.

Anyway, I don't mean to scare you with all of this or anything, but you don't seem to know exactly what you're getting yourself into, and I think that you have a right to know. They didn't tell me how much it would suck either. Smart thing to do, since I would have told them to cram those wires right up their asses.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by nadienne

They're worth it. Just be prepared for people to suddenly start thinking you're way younger than you are.

Check. Got that covered already; being asian has those effects.

Originally Posted by tenseiken

The fact that you're excited about it is kind of amusing. You'll be much more excited about finally getting them off. The results are nice, but it takes forever. All of that stuff I listed up there you have to deal with for years. I don't know if this is true for everyone, but I was supposed to wear a retainer indefinitely after getting my braces off. I didn't do it.

I agree with you I'm probably being a bit over zealous about the after effects of the braces; I'm sure the whole braces experience is something I'm not particularly going to enjoy per say. However, considering the fact that I was promised braces at the age of 6 when I actually needed them in my adolesence (my parents never could afford it during my childhood) and continued to need braces my entire life, I think it's enough to be excited about.

My entire life, I've never been able to fully smile for a camera since I was so conscious about my crooked teeth. I've always photoshopped all pictures I post on the web so that they're slightly blurrier around my face and slightly out of focus so that my teeth are slightly indistinguishable. I've never been able to close my mouth fully at a relaxed state, since my buck teeth stick out out of my lips. I've never been able to chew foods correctly, and thus gotten into the habit of cutting food incredibly small (which my braces-experienced friends told me that it would be a good habit to have while on braces). I've always finished the top bun of a hamburger first before the bottom. (My ex used to make fun of me for it enough times that I became really conscious about my teeth being fucked up). I agree, the after effects of the braces and not having to deal with the psycho-drama involving my "crooked" teeth is probably more of what I'm looking forward to than anything else.


At this time, I'm having to puree most of my foods to prevent any big chunks from getting stuck in the fresh wounds where they took out my two bottom wisdom teeth. I'm not enjoying the flavors of pureed food at the moment, but after those gashes are closed up and healed I'm sure I'll be able to have a better outlook on what I can eat.

Additional Spam:

Originally Posted by NES Oldskooler

I was just reminded now, but there are a few different kinds of braces you can get. My friend had these braces where the brackets were made of some white material (porcelain, maybe?), and her braces looked totally invisible except for the thin wire. I was extremely jealous at the time. If you're getting a big discount, maybe that's something to look into.

Those are ceramic. I looked into those and also the invisalign system (they're like silicone cover-braces that are molded to shape your teeth into place), but it's all just because of aesthetics, for those really consciencious people about their looks. Me, I decided that I'm going to have braces either way, I'm going to be living with it, I want it to be the most effective in straightening out my teeth in the shortest amount of time and has the longest effects after taking the braces off, so how it looks inside my mouth is the last thing I'm going to worry about.
Besides that, the ceramic kind are 1) more fragile than the traditional metal 2) stain easier 3) are much more harder to keep up maintenance 4) twice the price, and 4) much more prone to problems than the traditional kind. Because I'm getting the family rate out of my orthodontist due to my mother working there, I'm sticking to the cheapest option they have, which happens to be, good old fashion metal braces.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by NES Oldskooler

I'm not sure what How Unfortunate meant about braces being an alternative to retainers, as usually the two go hand in hand. I had to wear a retainer for a few months after my braces came off to keep my teeth set, and even after that I had two permanent retainers installed on the back of my bottom and top front teeth, which I still have at age 22.

I meant I prefer the braces portion to the rest of it, as you don't really have to think about the braces as much, you don't forget them on trips, and it's not a breathing/sleeping interference when you're sick.

Originally Posted by Jpnezeshorty

rofl. I'm sorry, I'll try to lighten up in the future.

Just a trend I noticed...but only b/c your posts were standing out anyway.

How ya doing, buddy?

The worst part is if you get bands around the molars. Getting braces put on for the first time is painful, but the molar bands are just hell on earth.

Make sure you floss after every meal, that's pretty damn important.

Don't kiss anyone else with braces unless you have wire snips handy.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I've never had metal braces so I can't really give any insight on those. I had invisalign for like 2 years though. They weren't that bad. It was so hard to get used to them at first. It's a very weird feeling on your teeth. And also the going to the dentist every 2 weeks to get another pair thing isn't fun at all. But besides that,they say invisalign is faster.

The only bad thing is I lost mine twice (while taking them out to eat and forgetting to put them back in). It cost like 60 dollars to get new ones.

FELIPE NO

I've braces at the moment for the second time in my life (damn incompetant othadontist) and there are practically NO pros apart from the end result. The cons are having 10 injections in the gums so they can take some of my teeth out, constant pain, missing an important event each and every time I have an appointment, the hassle of kissing, hearing the jokes until they drive you mad and cutting your lips and gums on the things all the time.

Oh, and I was trying to give up smoking just before I got them and was on the gum since everything else annoyed me; needless to say I'm back on the cigs.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

The one thing I think people overlook about braces is they push out your lips. It's slight, but if you look for it you can see it clearly. Also, it's a very common understanding that girls with fuller lips are more attractive. If your already are an attractive woman, I would expect that braces can only do good things for your appearance. Good luck.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

One suggestion, after you get your braces off WEAR THE GODDAMN RETAINERS LIKE THEY TELL YOU TO. I didn't because they're a pain in the ass, and I will always have 1 tooth crooked because of it. *cries*

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by FallDragon

One suggestion, after you get your braces off WEAR THE GODDAMN RETAINERS LIKE THEY TELL YOU TO. I didn't because they're a pain in the ass, and I will always have 1 tooth crooked because of it. *cries*

Yeah, it's easy to forget to wear them. I had braces when I was 10, and I had to wear the retainers for two years after that. By the time I started middle school when the majority of my classmates wore braces, I had mine removed completely and only had to wear the retainer once a week or so before never needing them again.

I remember that after my monthly visits when they tightened the braces, my gums were a little sore for one or two days. I could still eat, but with slight discomfort.

How ya doing, buddy?

show it off as much as you can, kinda like grillz but somethign moar purposeful.

::Jelous::

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by K_ Takahashi

show it off as much as you can, kinda like grillz but somethign moar purposeful.

::Jelous::

I do hope you're not shooting for Furby's "wurst typing skillz" award.

Anyhow, it's been about a week since I got the braces, and the first day I got them I tried eating udon noodles...well, I practically ended up just swallowing those noodles whole. So I whipped out the blender again to puree soup to liquid states so that I don't have to chew. Since then I've upgraded to rice and noodles (yay, somewhat solid and chewable!) the past couple of days. Once I'm able to bite off chunks of carrot sticks without pain, I'll be happy.

Oh yeah, getting used to vigorous brushing routines, still.

I was speaking idiomatically.

God I wish I could get braces.
I guess I had a slight underbite my entire life and no one caught it. This resulted in my jaw coming completely out of its socket and grinding itself a new place to live. I couldn't open my jaw more than one inch for 6 months and needed really expensive physical therapy and retainers to make it so I could open my mouth. I still have to do exercises everyday so that it functions semi normally.

The next progression in making me normal is supposed to be braces to fix my jaw completely but I just can't afford both that and uni at the same time, so here I am with limited opening unable to sing or eat things that require opening your mouth really wide.

I'm 24 and I would happily give up my latina movie star good looks temporarily in order to have a straight jaw ;(

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?