ibraces experience

[waxy]

I looked at all lingual braces forums before making my decision to go with ibraces, and so I wanted to share my experiences so far to help everyone.

I got a reputable ortho that has years of experience with linguals. Only one person bailed on ibraces in his practise, and they bailed on the lowers only. How bad could it be? He also gave me the new ibraces that are smaller than previous years. There was huge waiting list for them, so I thought they must be good. I got my lowers installed 3 months ago. The first few days I didnt wear any wax and got a sore tongue and my speech was affected a bit. What had I done!!! I then listened to the cd that i was given which is a public speaker that got linguals and he teaches how to speak with them on. He says to use lots of wax and I could not tell any difference the way he spoke. Other tips are to speak slightly slower and to relax. So I put the wax on and was speaking perfectly. I put the wax on in small sausage like rolls to cover the wire too, and covered the front mainly where u thrust your tongue. On back brackets I didnt need any. It took me a while to perfect where and how the wax should go on. If u create a smooth surface which your tongue can roll on then I cant see how speech can be affected but I guess everyone is different. After a while i didnt even notice i had them on, as all i could feel is a smooth surface of wax everywhere. I took the wax off at night and gave my teeth a good clean and put more wax on to go to bed. Another positive is that food does not get caught as much. None of my friends have ever suspected I have braces on. I was always worried about the top ones though.....

So 1 month ago I got the top ones on. You should wait at least a month between them to be fitted I have been told. I decided to try without wax to start with, but I could not cope on the s and th. All other letters are fine. So I put wax on top aswell, and I can speak perfectly and my mouth is very narrow. Before I put the wax on, I use listerine as this drys your mouth and the wax sticks better. I have never had a loose bracket and i eat virtually everything apart from hard, raw foods. I also purchased a waterpik from costco which has been great getting rid of food. When the top ones went on, they had to build a surface on 2 bottom teeth as my bite would have touched the bottom brackets otherwise.

All in all, I spend an extra 20 minutes putting wax on at night versus the other braces and nobody has noticed. I hope one day I dont need any wax, but not sure if I am brave enough to try just yet, though I do practise at night with none on. So I am very happy so far, lets hope it stays that way. There will always be more negative comments on a forum, as positive experiences dont bother to post. They dont need any help. Anyway back to dreaming of the day these things come off!!!

[Sunny]

Fantastic for sharing your experience Waxy and congrats to you for realising that there are good reason why ortho's support the using of wax!

Good luck with your progress!