In a recent thread on this forum, I learned about tongue thursting. After doing a bit of googling, I'm pretty certain I have this (and it's why I have such a severe open bite).

Basically, my tongue is always between my top and bottom teeth, which puts pressure on my teeth and moves them, causing the open bite. I also learned that there are ways to correct this and have proper swallowing habits.

The main concern I have is that once my braces are removed, my teeth will...

cellardoor

Well now I'm not so certain the headaches I've been having are actually related to my braces because yesterday I woke up with a bad case of the flu. I'm feeling pretty miserable, and the pain from my teeth moving is the least of my concerns at the moment.

cellardoor

Alright, I'm 7 and a half months into my treatment! Horray!

At my last adjustment, on November 5th, my ortho gave me elastics. He told me to wear them at least 20 hours a day, but the more the better. I've definitely been wearing them more than 20 hours. I only take them off to eat and brush.

I have noticed severe improvements in the past few weeks. For example, the vertical gap between my front top and bottom teeth is nearly non existent now. Never in my life have...

cellardoor

Last Sunday morning I woke up to discover not only had my bite severely changed, but I also had 3 very large cuts inside my mouth. I've been rinsing with salt water and keep wax over the areas of my braces that caused/irritated the cuts. So far, they haven't healed at all. It's still incredibly painful to eat, brush my teeth, and talk. I really wish they would go away!! I hurt.

cellardoor

Wow. So I haven't been online much in the past few months. My braces treatment is going pretty well. My teeth have made a ridiculous amount of improvement. Yesterday was 6 months, which means only 6-8 more months to go. I'm shooting for only 6 more, but we'll see. My next adjustment is November 5, at which point I'll be getting those little rubber band thingys. Definitely not looking forward to that. They seem like such an inconvenience, and I don't even know what they do. My open bite/vertical...

cellardoor