FutureWifey

Lucky not everyone goes through this, in fact where I work, less than a quarter of our patients do. We recommend our patients return to eating their usual food four hours after there brackets are bonded, as the sooner you chew the better for your gums and the way your mouth feels. it's also better for you, as it helps you to feel normal, instead of making you feel like something different is happening. This approach also helps patients not to baby themselves.

Of course there are always some people who find that having braces really causes them problems and these issues are very real. Some people feel pain differently to others, for some it's about sensitivity, for some about not being able to use the wax as well as they should and before long having many sores in their mouth ... and so on.

Wax ... you only need to remove it when you're brushing and it's most important when you're eating or talking a lot, as this is when your mouth and the brackets rub the most. Also rinsing often with warm salt water will help soothe your mouth. Plus keep your hydration levels as high as you can to help your mouth to cope.

Chew ... keep trying, as this is important and it will help reduce pain levels! Cut food into small pieces and try to chew each one. Swallow any you can't chew, but keep trying.

Good luck and here's to you enjoying going out for dinner on Friday!

I can only advice the same thing as Sunny: by cutting everything you eat into small peaces can make your meals and the necessary chewing much easier. And you should make experiments with chewing, I mean try to find out which of your teeth are extremly sensitive. For example I found that my two banded molard hurts like hell when I try to chew with them, the pain caused by pressure during meals in other teeth are much less, and now I try to chew with other teeth than my molars - so I try to change my chewing habit. Friday is quite close, but hope that everything will go well, but until Friday I propose to practice the chewing, but avoid those foods which need to chew really hard, and don't try to eat as fast as before braces went on, give you time, even if you will be the last one who finishes her meal!

Good luck! It's ok to stay medicated all day for the first few days. Just be careful not to do it for too long (weeks on end) because it's hard on your liver. But I have no reservations about staying heartily medicated for my first at least 3 days after each adjustment. In the beginning I don't think there was a day in 2 weeks that I didn't take Motrin - but I took less and less with each day, only taking it when I started to feel the pain vs. taking it to stop the pain before it starts like I do in the very beginning. Now I take it about an hour before I go to my appointments and it all but eliminates that painful stage. Good luck to you and if meds are what you need to get through dinner then definitely do it!!