hanabee

trust me.. it will get much easier... use wax if you need it to avoid your cheeks from rubbing directly on the brackets... good luck!

I know exactly how you feel!! Unfortunately for me, the tooth pain didn't go away until around week number two. In fact, the pain got worse day by day until about day 6. That doesn't mean it will last that long for you, but just be prepared. The good news is that this is the worst your pain will be. This pain, combined with the brackets cutting up your cheeks, are the worst! You will most likely have pain after each wire change you get at your adjustments, but for me personally the pain only lasted about 3 days, and 600mg of Motrin IB three times a day took care of 90% of that pain. BTW when you say you're taking Tylenol and Ibuprofen, how much are you taking? You should be taking at least 600mg every four hours (WITH FOOD) when you're in that much pain. I took 800mg once and it made me kind of sick...but if you can stomach that much then I'd say even try that to start off with. Just remember you can't take it for long periods of time as it's hard on your body to digest. But taking it on a regular basis for a couple days after each adjustment will be totally fine. Far as the holes in your cheeks and lips from brackets, you can put wax on them but really the only thing that takes is time. I'm 15 months into my braces now, and I still get cuts in my lips and cheeks from moving brackets. It's just kind of one of those things I guess. Remember, it doesn't last forever!! We are here for you!

Thanks guys! Yeah i've heard that this is the worst part, i'm glad it doesn't get much worse, I don't think I could handle it!
I'm not sure how many mg's the Tylenol is but it's extra strength and I was taking two every four hours and it did nothing.
The pain got better after about 5ish, and now it's not feeling great again. One of my teeth feels loose and they're all pretty tender.
I'm going to by some Motrin tomorrow, i've heard it works pretty good so why not.
And my brackets haven't been too bad with cutting up my cheeks today, just one of them in the very back so I put wax on (took me a LONG time to get it to stay on!!) and it feels a lot better
Thanks again!!

Wax, wax and more wax!

Keep your brackets covered with generous amounts of wax and this will allow your mouth to toughen without the need for your checks to get rubbed up and form sores.

Also keeping well hydrated is great for your body and especially your mouth!

Good luck!