My Experience Getting Braces as an Adult – First Week Update
Sharing my experience getting braces as an adult, including my history with braces, why I got braces, how it’s been going and what I’ve been eating. Week one down!
It all started on Nov 16th, 2022 at Heathrow Airport.
Well, I think it did. But for context, we may need to go further back than that.
My History With Braces
Like many kids, I had braces in middle school. I actually wanted them. It was around the time when everyone had braces and it was basically cool to have them – not that I was one of the cool kids at school, by any means.
I had fun with the whole matching-your-braces-bands-to-the-upcoming-holiday, and two years later I went on with my life with straighter teeth and no real concerns.
Retaining My Retainers
You know those plastic retainers they give you after braces to wear at night to keep your teeth from shifting? I wore mine faithfully. I rarely missed because on the rare occasion I did, my teeth hurt. That probably should have been my first clue.
Then last November I traveled to London for my PhD graduation. I wore my retainers every night of the trip, per usual. But somewhere between taking them out that final morning in London, and trying to put them back in that evening after arriving back in Washington DC, my retainers went AWOL.
To this day I don’t know where they went. The family I was staying with, and the friend who drove me to the airport, searched and found no traces. However! I was flagged at security (I don’t know why) and my ziplock bag of toiletries, where I believe I packed my retainers, was taken for testing. I couldn’t quite see what was happening, but I wonder whether the retainers might have gotten taken out and accidentally left? Who knows. Whatever happened, I was without retainers for the longest time since I got them, and I began to feel it.
The Symptoms
After a few nights of not wearing my retainers, I began experiencing teeth and particularly jaw pain. I woke up throughout the night because it was bothering me, and had jaw pain and headaches particularly in the mornings. After some weeks I also began having ear aches painful enough to go to my primary doctor two days before Christmas. The doctor thought it was likely due to teeth grinding and clenching, and strongly recommended I see a dentist. Little did she know I was in the midst of all kinds of appointments trying to figure all of this out.
To help with the current situation, I was given a short course of steroids to take for the ear ache. My youngest sister also super thoughtfully bought me a couple of customisable mouth guards to use at night. The flexible ones are pretty cool. You just microwave the mold to soften and then fit it to your mouth to customize. Here’s the I’ve been using:
The Appointments
Soon after I got back from London I first went to the dentist for a routine cleaning. This was before the jaw pain really began. So when my dentist told me I needed Invisalign because my mis-aligned bite was already causing damage, I thought I was just being sold to. But they cautioned me strongly enough that I booked two more appointments for some second opinions.
I saw a local Invisalign specialist, who agreed I needed to address the mis-aligned bite and recommended Invisalign. However, the next dentist I saw had a much different take, initially saying they thought what I really needed was braces. I never imagined myself having braces again, so this was pretty shocking. The dentist ended up cautioning me against both Invisalign and braces, believing they could actually cause too much strain on my teeth. All of the conflicting advice really confused me. So I decided to go back to my childhood orthodontist for his opinion.
Past Orthodontist Consultations
This wasn’t the first time I went to see my orthodontist since having braces. I’m a musician, and my first two degrees are actually in clarinet performance. While I was doing my undergrad, and playing very intensively, I began to have a lot of jaw pain from playing the clarinet. I went back to my orthodontist to see what was the problem, and if anything could be done to help with the pain from playing. Unfortunately there wasn’t anything that could be done, and I just had to mitigate pain by monitoring how much I played, eating a soft foods diet, and taking pain medication.
Needless to say, that was pretty discouraging for an aspiring professional clarinettist to hear during the second year of music school. I went on to do two more years to finish my Bachelor’s degree, and two more to get my Master’s degree in orchestral playing, and had the best experiences! But it was hard to play as much as I felt I needed to. I decided to take a more academic route and pursue a PhD partially to give my jaw a break.
Hello Again, Dr. Orthodontist
About a month ago I walked into my Orthodontist’s office to see him again for the first time in ten years. He took a new x-ray, pulled out my old history, notes, charts and x-rays, and took a lot of time to discuss my issues, questions and options.
He told me that my jaw was actually textbook for jaw surgery – and yes, my jaw dropped. But, if I did not want to go that far, my orthodontist felt he could get closest to solving my problems with braces. The metal wire allows for a lot more flexibility. He said he would use an expander because another issue was that my bottom jaw had grown larger than the top, which helped lead to the mis-alignment. The use of rubber bands to go across the braces would also be key in helping to correct that mis-alignment.
Given that he knew my history, and had been there through my clarinet-playing days, I felt I could really trust him and his opinion on how best to treat my situation. So we decided to go ahead with the braces.
My Experience Getting Braces (as an Adult, woot woot)
On December 19th, I got an impression done of the roof of my mouth. This was for the custom-made expander.
On January 9th, I got spacers put into the back of my top and bottom teeth. This was to help make room for the braces and brackets around the expander. Spacers were definitely uncomfortable, and made eating a bit difficult, but were not too bad. I mainly just felt paranoid that the spacers would fall out. I constantly kept double checking to see if the blue bands were all still in place. Fortunately they made it.
On January 10th, I sat in a plush chair to get braces glued onto my teeth. The whole process took just over two hours to get the braces and expander put in, and to take an impression for a custom night guard to wear at night. I was grateful to only have spacers for a day, but I did feel I could perhaps have benefited from having them longer. They were stiff to take out, and the metal brackets that were pushed into the back teeth felt quite tight to get on.
First Impressions – How Did Braces Feel the First Week?
Over the last week since getting my braces there has been a lot of tenderness and soreness, the first few days especially. I took Advil the first day, and Aleve the second day (I feel like Aleve was a little bit more effective for me). It was difficult to eat anything, and I didn’t feel very hungry because my mouth just felt sore. The right side of my mouth also hurt more than the left, and even now I can’t really chew anything on that side. Let’s not even talk about biting into anything. Biting has been replaced with sipping and slurping all the liquid meals.
I’ve found it hardest to adjust to the expander. I didn’t have one last time I had braces, and my first thought after it got put in was how I was supposed to speak or eat with this thing in my mouth! It’s the most uncomfortable for my tongue (it cuts into it a bit) and for speaking. My speech has gotten better, but there are still words and syllables that are awkward and difficult to pronounce. Oddly enough, I feel like I sound more American now, which is a real shame. I never picked up a British accent from my time living in London (sadly) but I did pick up some intonation and pronunciations. It feels harder to speak that way with an expander though…who knew?
The expander is turned with a key every evening to – you guessed it – expand the top jaw. I haven’t figured out how to turn this myself yet, as it’s a bit awkward (I tried the first night and then caved and asked ma to help me lol).
What Did You Eat the First Week With Braces?
My diet the past week has been pretty monotonous: porridge (quick oats) with banana for breakfast; soup for lunch (i.e. a can of Amy’s lentil soup), and – you guessed it again! – more soup for dinner (i.e. miso soup with silken tofu). I’ve been having lots of Korean sweet potatoes, baked until they’re super mushy and gooey inside. Plus apple sauce and yogurt. I’ve gradually been able to add in some more soft foods, like melons and grapes!
Soft Foods Shopping List
- Soft fruits, like melons and bananas – the riper, the softer!
- Yogurt – I love the brands of Silk and So Delicious
- Acai smoothie bowls – I love the pre-portioned bowls by Tattooed Chef, just store in the freezer and pull out a bit before you want to dig in so they can defrost
- Protein powder – on a liquid/soft diet it can be harder to get protein, so supplementing drinks (lattes, smoothies) with protein powder is a good boost
- Cans of soup – I like Amy’s and Progresso’s Gluten-Free Minestrone
- Silken tofu – the safest tofu, perfect for miso soup, adding to smoothies, or scrambling for a softer scrambled tofu
- Apple sauce – Perfect for packing on the go! I prefer no sugar added
Bracing For the Future
I wonder where I would be right now if I hadn’t lost my retainers to Heathrow Airport. Would I have realised a lot of the issues that cropped up as soon as I stopped wearing them? Would I have braces?
I never thought I had a problem with grinding or clenching my teeth at night (though the holes in my retainers probably should have clued me in). I never thought my mis-aligned bite was a pressing issue. Going without retainers for this time helped expose issues that were just lurking below the surface.
I never imagined I would get braces again. I was fine with Invisalign, because they seemed much more prevalent among adults. But when I first heard braces were a distinct possibility, I was against the idea because I felt really self-conscious about it. I haven’t personally known any adults with braces (if you are one, please say hi!). And I feel I already struggle enough to look my age (I know, I know, I’ll appreciate my youthful looks later in life). Braces probably won’t help my cause.
But hopefully they will help a much more important cause! As my sister told me, I’m one day closer to a more well-adjusted jaw. And I’m very grateful for that!
One week of braces down, 69-77 weeks to go! (I’m due to have braces for 16-18 months.) If you’re interested, follow along with my experience getting braces as an adult. Let me know if there’s anything you want to see covered in this series! You can follow along with more frequent updates on Instagram @bitesbybekah as well.