Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
braces?
- Thread starter xodonniedarko
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
ive had mine for going on four and a half years... i got them in fifth grade..i was 11 and a half.. and im gonna be 16.
they arent that bad.. but they do bother sometimes.. the having to wear rubber bands part sucks.. so i only wear them at night while asleep.. andi get mine off in around august and cant wait.. then i have to bleach my teeth..
and on a funny side note.. my grandma had braces.. she got them on when she was around 63 i think.. had them for 18 months..
my orthodontist said people even older get them so their teeth look nice when they pass.. weird.. but understandable i guess
they arent that bad.. but they do bother sometimes.. the having to wear rubber bands part sucks.. so i only wear them at night while asleep.. andi get mine off in around august and cant wait.. then i have to bleach my teeth..
and on a funny side note.. my grandma had braces.. she got them on when she was around 63 i think.. had them for 18 months..
my orthodontist said people even older get them so their teeth look nice when they pass.. weird.. but understandable i guess
My son needs braces. The dentist was going on about how his teeth are messed up. Me:"smile". Son smiles. Me:"They look fine". Soon here, I'm going to be shelling out $5000 to make his already nice smile better because "his bite isn't correct" Bleh, whatever.
omg! I thought I had it bad... I had braces on the top for a year, the permanent wire thing for another year, while i was losing the rest of my baby teeth (at 13!?) then shortly before I turned 14 I got braces on the top and bottom, I'm now 15, fixing to get them off in September...
has anyone else had this horrible thing they put on the top of your mouth and you have to re-learn how to eat and talk? (I think they called it a "Vertical Realigning Appliance" or VRA... omg it was horrible, everything you ate, half of it ended up on the top of this circle just hanging in the middle of your mouth about half an inch from the top of your mouth! no one could understand me for weeks ugh>< it was horrible!..
I got mine on when I was 11 and off when I was 13 which turned out to be about 1.5 years, so it wasn't that bad. I'm 15 now so I've had them off for awhile but I still wear my retainers. My orthodontist gave me a permanent retainer on my lower teeth but then it fell off, so I just got another retainer just like the one I had for the top which looked kind of like Invisalign so they were clear. It was kind of annoying though because between when my retainer fell off and I got a new one one of my teeth shifted a bit. But now I just wear my retainer at night like my orthodontist told me to. While I had braces I disregarded what they said not to eat and I was fine for the most part so it wasn't that big of a discomfort for me.
I'm probably getting braces in a few weeks. My front teeth are pretty screwed up and now I finally have the guts to change that. My doctor said I would probably have to have them for about 3 years.
Oh, and I also have to have 4 teeth pulled
Are you set in stone with your orthodontist yet? Has any money changed hands?
Definitely get a few other opinions from a few other orthodontists, if you can, and look into alternate forms of brackets, like those Damon brackets I've heard about. It may be that someone else can come up with a way to either not pull teeth or not pull as many.
No, I haven't paid anything yet. But still, my teeth are pretty big and my jaws are pretty small. There is absolutely no space left for the teeth to go to become straighter.
had braces for 3 and half years and when i got them off i went back to wearing a half shield in hockey with a VERY GOOD mouth guard...Needless to say my dumbself (different terms out loud) got a tooth knocked back like 3 weeks later..... oooooppssss
No need to fix it though...I am a Hockey Player
oooooppssssNo need to fix it though...I am a Hockey Player
I also have to have 4 teeth pulled
Your wisdom teeth after that too, I bet. I was in the same boat.
I got the braces put on when I was like 7 I think. After like 4-5 years they were removed for a brief time but then my orthodontist said my retainer "wasn't working" even though I was wearing it all the time. He then promised to put braces on my front (top) few teeth for a few months. Well, that turned into another few years. He eventually put them back on on the bottom. Terrible.
After having them removed, I had a lingual wire put in (stays behind my top and bottom teeth, a thin wire) so that my teeth don't ever move again. I can't even tell the wire is there.
Oh, and I also had my 4 wisdom teeth pulled out a few years ago. The surgeon who did it told me after it was done that he was so impressed that a patient could remain as calm and still as I was. I didn't even need to be drugged up because I was 100% calm. I guess after so many years of having an orthodontist mess around with your teeth you sort of lose sensitivity.
My orthodontist wasn't a crack or anything - he knew very well what we was doing - except I think he messed up by taking them off prematurely. You should see the before and after pictures, haha
After having them removed, I had a lingual wire put in (stays behind my top and bottom teeth, a thin wire) so that my teeth don't ever move again. I can't even tell the wire is there.
Oh, and I also had my 4 wisdom teeth pulled out a few years ago. The surgeon who did it told me after it was done that he was so impressed that a patient could remain as calm and still as I was. I didn't even need to be drugged up because I was 100% calm. I guess after so many years of having an orthodontist mess around with your teeth you sort of lose sensitivity.
My orthodontist wasn't a crack or anything - he knew very well what we was doing - except I think he messed up by taking them off prematurely. You should see the before and after pictures, haha
I've never had braces. That doesn't mean I don't need them, though; I have a gap between my top front teeth and a slight overbite. I had a consultation with an orthodontist when I was 14 or so, and I remember him saying that the overbite wasn't anything to be concerned about, and that braces would be mostly for cosmetic purposes. My mom couldn't afford them at the time, and we didn't have dental insurance then, so I never got them. The gap doesn't bother me, though; I'm not self-conscious about it. Maybe one day I'll have them straightened, but it's not a pressing issue.
Wow, never heard of anyone having braces at 7. I had a retainer for a year I think to pull down my eye teeth as they stuck out of my gums and I still have a slight overbite but its nothing major. I will get it fixed once I am making good money. Wouldn't be able to afford it now
I had braces put on at I think 14, and they came off when I was almost 18 (about 3.5 years or thereabouts). I still wear both my upper and lower hawleys at night.
I'm 26 now. But, and I don't regret the weeks of pain (they were REAL crooked and wide-spaced) when I'd have them tightened, I have beautiful teeth now. There's a pic somewhere here on MR of me showing my teeth... they came out very neat. I can't thank my parents enough for doing that for me.
I'm 26 now. But, and I don't regret the weeks of pain (they were REAL crooked and wide-spaced) when I'd have them tightened, I have beautiful teeth now. There's a pic somewhere here on MR of me showing my teeth... they came out very neat. I can't thank my parents enough for doing that for me.
I had braces for about a year, only on top though. To this day I still think that I didn't really need them but the dentist said I did.
Hmm. I had an adjustment today. Got new wires, powerchains, and elastics.
GOOD GOD, DO THE ELASTICS SUCK!
Ugh. This just isn't good, at all. They ache, and they're already doing ungodly things to my bite. Plus the fact that my whole grazing-and-not-eating-three-large-meals philosophy is complicated by these things, and how annoying they are to put in, I'm beginning to wonder how I'm going to survive these.
GOOD GOD, DO THE ELASTICS SUCK!
Ugh. This just isn't good, at all. They ache, and they're already doing ungodly things to my bite. Plus the fact that my whole grazing-and-not-eating-three-large-meals philosophy is complicated by these things, and how annoying they are to put in, I'm beginning to wonder how I'm going to survive these.
yah they do suck.. im still wearing them.. but im done all together soon
but after i started to buckle down and really wear them all the time.. my mouth has been perfect.. so its worth..
heck even if you just wear them during your sleep that reallllllyyyy helps... i usually just wear them at night/sleep.. maybe you could try that too
Thanks for the advice.
They are getting better, and I think that I'll just suck it up and wear them like I'm supposed to all the time, 24/7. Once school starts in a few weeks, my eating habits will straighten up to the usual 3 per day, which will help, and I've heard of people who managed to knock six months or more off of their treatment time because apparantly most orthodontists include more-than-necessary elastic time in their estimates. Wear them religiously, knock time off. Sounds like a kick-ass deal.
Had 'em when just a wee nipper and ...
Wisdom teeth ruined all the effort.
Wouldn't have been too much of a problem had my dentist pulled other teeth (like every other dentist did), so that when the Wizzies come in, nothing went out of alignment. He thought he was being "innovative".
Wisdom teeth ruined all the effort.
Wouldn't have been too much of a problem had my dentist pulled other teeth (like every other dentist did), so that when the Wizzies come in, nothing went out of alignment. He thought he was being "innovative".
How many wisdom teeth came in? All 4?Had 'em when just a wee nipper and ...
Wisdom teeth ruined all the effort.
Wouldn't have been too much of a problem had my dentist pulled other teeth (like every other dentist did), so that when the Wizzies come in, nothing went out of alignment. He thought he was being "innovative".
I had mine on 9 years ago (oh man, I am getting old). I had them for 1.5 years. It was painful, very painful, but worth it in the end. I still wear my post-braces retainers at night and it keeps my teeth super straight!
Congrats on surviving! Take good care of them!
Congrats on surviving! Take good care of them!
I have had braces for 6 years straight. I got them put on around July of 2002 when I was 7 years old. I am 13 right now and have yet to hear when I get them off. If someone complains about having braces for two years or so, I get aggrivated because I bet no one here has had braces for 6 years straight. Oh and by the way, I am 13 now and turning 14 in 9 days.