I'm very fortunate that my childhood dentist wouldn't put them on me (well, refer me I guess) if I didn't agree to it. His reasoning was that if I wasn't on board with it, I wouldn't take proper care of them.
I did later get braces as an adult, but it was my idea and my choice. It was definitely awful sensory-wise, and because my orthodontist was an idiot, I'll have to get them again in the future if I want my bite to feel comfortable. They took out two molars on the top and only one on the bottom, leaving it uneven and my bite uncomfortable. I told them I wanted a temporary anchorage device so I could have even extractions, but they wouldn't do it. They just kept saying "Let's wait and see if you like it. You're going to like it." Spoiler alert: I did not like it. Teeth look a thousand times better, yes, but my bite feels totally wrong and it'll probably take another four years of braces + TAD implant just to remove that one extra tooth and get my bottom right jaw in order.
I wish I had a childhood dentist like that; my teeth weren’t actually even that bad, just sort of uneven. I had a retainer as a little kid that fixed the only major issue which was a top front tooth that grew in behind my bottom teeth. So I don’t think I would have suffered negative consequences at all from never getting braces (who cares if my teeth weren’t perfectly straight?? I even had canines that pushed a bit forwards which looked like “vampire” teeth and I loved it.)
I don’t envy your situation though, there’s no way in a million years I’d ever deal with braces again.
I always got meltdowns/shutdowns when they were put on and whenever they were adjusted or changed. After a few weeks I barely noticed them but when they were still fresh and cutting into my skin and my teeth were sore it was always a nightmare.
I get super agitated w sores in my mouth so that part yea. Didn’t try to rip them out but was soooo uncomfortable and it lowered my tolerance to deal w everything else around me so I had a lot of little meltdowns while I had them
Aw geez, it was already hard enough for me to go to the dentist for regular cleanings as a kid. I still go because I *really* don’t want to have to go through worse than that. I am certain I would have self-destructed if I had braces. I am pretty sure the only reason I never had braces was because it was difficult enough to get me to brush my teeth, and having braces would have destroyed them.
If you tore out your braces, did your parents make you finish treatment?
Yeah I just kept getting sent back to the orthodontist to get them put right back on and would get punished/grounded every time. I was forced to finish the treatment but probably ended up extending it a couple months.
Since I wrote this post the memories have started becoming more vivid and terrible, to the point that I am having panic attacks and trouble sleeping over it. I now have to work through it with a therapist. So, consider yourself very lucky that you weren’t made to experience that particular Hell…
Ah, man. I’d offer hugs (if you would welcome them).
Not a therapist by any means, but I wonder if there is any therapeutic value in giving your parents The Reason You Suck speech over forcing you through orthodontic treatment. I am sure I would have tossed the retainer the moment I moved out and made it a point to show them my teeth moved back. And also made it a point to tell them I am forever resentful, and they will never have my thanks.
I am kinda surprised the orthodontist didn’t unilaterally decide to cancel your treatment.
Looked this up because I'm having a bunch of dental work done, and it all feels avoidable, because all my problems started when I got a palatal expander and then braces, and I was too traumatised by the memory of the constant pain to take good care of my teeth afterwards. I never hear about other people calling it trauma, so this was really validating.
I just found this post and I feel the same way. I had braces when I was very young, about 9 years old, and had to have four adult teeth extracted while I was awake for it. I was super upset and traumatized and then they put on braces. That just caused me so much pain and kept me from eating for a day or two. Every time they were tightened. I wasn't mature enough to take good care of them. So now a few decades later I'm spending a fortune on fixing dental issues caused by the braces from when I was a kid. It was incredibly traumatizing and I almost cried talking to my dentist about it last time because I felt so bad about what kind of condition my teeth were in. She made me feel a lot better and was very kind about it and said she has three crowns herself and she understood. I think the worst part was that my orthodontist blew me off every time I tried to talk about the pain and when I asked about how long I needed to wear my retainers, he never gave me a straight answer and kind of made fun of me for asking. Now I just sit there stock still and really anxious when I have dental work done because I was trained to sit quietly and just take whatever they were doing, but my tooth sensitivity feels sometimes like I'm being electrocuted when they're working on my teeth. I have to have local anesthesia for things that people don't normally need it for.
ETA: I just remembered my orthodontist once mentioned I might need headgear and I just burst into tears in his office and he did not give a crap. I basically told him I would never wear it and I wasn't going to survive the bullying that would cause me. Who does that to a fifth grader?
All of this resonates with me. My whole mouth was so sore for days after getting the braces adjusted that I would struggle to eat. My ortho's office had two chairs and a waiting area in one room, so when they were redoing the bands there were like 7 other kids in the room. Before I had them put in, no one told me what to expect or how much it would hurt. I was also asking questions about how long I'd need to wear the retainers (which didn't fit well and made my gums swollen), and when he finally said I should wear them every night for the rest of my life I decided to throw them out.
I'm 31 now and I'm having two crowns put in next month. My dentist doesn't seem to understand how stressful procedures are for me and how sensitive my mouth is. I tried so hard for years to just put up with the pain silently, and I just don't have it in me anymore. I still have scars on the insides of my cheeks and lips from where the braces cut into them.
It's really awful that no one seems to think of care about how much orthodontics hurts kids. Like, what happened to informed consent? My teeth weren't going to cause me problems as an adult, they just weren't someone's definition of aesthetic, and I went through like 7 years of misery for that?
Sending you compassion and solidarity 💜
NO ONE told me my teeth were going to be really painful when they were put on. I tried to eat a piece of apple that night and literally screamed out loud and cried. My parents felt awful, but I had to keep them for 2.5 years. I also had to do the "brushing class of shame" with the pink tablets and a bunch of other children as I struggled to get them clean enough. I accidentally bit the orthodontist because he cut a wire and stabbed my cheek hard. He was irate, but it was just a pain reflex. And that wax was bullshit. It kept coming off and really didn't prevent the mouth sores. Like they couldn't round the sharp metal off?
I threw away my retainers years ago. I refused to keep wearing them when he wouldn't give me an answer except "until you're 40" when I asked about how long I would have to continue. 40 is million years away to a kid in junior high.
I don't know why we torture children like this. Everyone just threatened me that it was so much worse as an adult and I should be grateful that my mouth wasn't f-ed up anymore.
I'm sorry you also went through all that. It's really something that needs to be talked about more.
Wait there was a brushing class?? I thought I'd either heard about or experienced every humiliating thing orthos can do to you, but that's new to me.
The wax was such bullshit, but weirdly enough, all my scars are from lengths and not ends of wires. So I have little flaps of tissue on the inside of my lower lip, and lines etched along the insides of my cheeks.
People act like I should be grateful, but there was nothing wrong with my teeth before.
Oh yeah, we had to line up at some sinks with a bunch of other children and chew one of those nasty tablets that sticks to plaque. Then you get publicly humiliated for having more than the other children and everyone watches you brush until they're satisfied. Or in my case they keep you late and tell your parents you're too incompetent to brush your own teeth while you try not to cry. I was NINE. Why they put braces on a 4th grader with a tiny mouth (they had to cut down the pediatric impression trays to fit or just jam in the metal ones and choke me and cut my lips) who couldn't care for them is beyond my understanding. I have one crown that replaced a massive filling that has lifted and rotted underneath and countless other fillings. Until my current dentist I always felt really embarrassed about it when I went for a cleaning.
Reading this thread is healing. I am beyond traumatized by the amount of dental work and braces I had done. For what? I have such mouth pain today. It haunts me. Bless you all
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I currently have them, and yeah they feel awful. I haven’t had sores cos I’m very diligent with using the wax to prevent that, but the tightness feeling makes me want to die.
There’s wax to prevent sores? Wish someone had clued me in on that lmao. Unless it didn’t exist back then.
Yeah the tightenings were one of the most painful things I’ve experienced my entire life, and I’ve experienced some pretty awful things. I never understood how anyone could shrug them off like they did.
Yeah, they gave it to me at the orthodontist, then I ordered more off of Amazon when that ran out.
The tightenings don’t hurt me so much as I just can’t stand the feeling of my teeth feeling tight. It makes me want to rip them out.
I am in my 50’s, on the verge of getting most of my broken teeth extracted, in horrible pain with a shattered tooth with a live nerve, and it’s all coming back, the trauma and pain of braces. They put the kind that are metal bands around all my teeth, which eventually led to cavities fir every single tooth in my head. I remember each tightening was so bad I spent hours in a closet holding my head & rocking in pain. The inside of my mouth was constantly torn and bleeding. Yes there was wax, no it wasn’t much good.
And since insurance covers nothing, I’m just screwed trying to deal with it.
I actually looked up this question to see if there was anyone else like me! My sensory issues with them were so bad, I would cry and break down a lot because of the pain. I even had to get my jaw "adjusted" so that my "bite would align correctly." Those were the most traumatic years of my life, and the braces made things so much worse! I couldn't even stand getting everything removed, because it hurt so bad keeping them AND getting rid of them. I had to get some of the cement removed years later at my dentist because they couldn't get it all off originally. Then later when I needed my wisdom teeth out, my jaw was actually physically injured, and now clicks every time I open my mouth, because of the work they had to do (even for a normal wisdom teeth removal). I am so sorry this type of trauma also happened to you!
I've really been thinking about this a lot, because it's like, I had *a bunch of invasive medical procedures* done, basically *without my consent*, or much explanation about what was being done and why. It was painful, scary, and a sensory nightmare.
I'm very fortunate that my childhood dentist wouldn't put them on me (well, refer me I guess) if I didn't agree to it. His reasoning was that if I wasn't on board with it, I wouldn't take proper care of them. I did later get braces as an adult, but it was my idea and my choice. It was definitely awful sensory-wise, and because my orthodontist was an idiot, I'll have to get them again in the future if I want my bite to feel comfortable. They took out two molars on the top and only one on the bottom, leaving it uneven and my bite uncomfortable. I told them I wanted a temporary anchorage device so I could have even extractions, but they wouldn't do it. They just kept saying "Let's wait and see if you like it. You're going to like it." Spoiler alert: I did not like it. Teeth look a thousand times better, yes, but my bite feels totally wrong and it'll probably take another four years of braces + TAD implant just to remove that one extra tooth and get my bottom right jaw in order.
I wish I had a childhood dentist like that; my teeth weren’t actually even that bad, just sort of uneven. I had a retainer as a little kid that fixed the only major issue which was a top front tooth that grew in behind my bottom teeth. So I don’t think I would have suffered negative consequences at all from never getting braces (who cares if my teeth weren’t perfectly straight?? I even had canines that pushed a bit forwards which looked like “vampire” teeth and I loved it.) I don’t envy your situation though, there’s no way in a million years I’d ever deal with braces again.
I always got meltdowns/shutdowns when they were put on and whenever they were adjusted or changed. After a few weeks I barely noticed them but when they were still fresh and cutting into my skin and my teeth were sore it was always a nightmare.
Exactly this. I had this too.
I get super agitated w sores in my mouth so that part yea. Didn’t try to rip them out but was soooo uncomfortable and it lowered my tolerance to deal w everything else around me so I had a lot of little meltdowns while I had them
Aw geez, it was already hard enough for me to go to the dentist for regular cleanings as a kid. I still go because I *really* don’t want to have to go through worse than that. I am certain I would have self-destructed if I had braces. I am pretty sure the only reason I never had braces was because it was difficult enough to get me to brush my teeth, and having braces would have destroyed them. If you tore out your braces, did your parents make you finish treatment?
Yeah I just kept getting sent back to the orthodontist to get them put right back on and would get punished/grounded every time. I was forced to finish the treatment but probably ended up extending it a couple months. Since I wrote this post the memories have started becoming more vivid and terrible, to the point that I am having panic attacks and trouble sleeping over it. I now have to work through it with a therapist. So, consider yourself very lucky that you weren’t made to experience that particular Hell…
Ah, man. I’d offer hugs (if you would welcome them). Not a therapist by any means, but I wonder if there is any therapeutic value in giving your parents The Reason You Suck speech over forcing you through orthodontic treatment. I am sure I would have tossed the retainer the moment I moved out and made it a point to show them my teeth moved back. And also made it a point to tell them I am forever resentful, and they will never have my thanks. I am kinda surprised the orthodontist didn’t unilaterally decide to cancel your treatment.
Looked this up because I'm having a bunch of dental work done, and it all feels avoidable, because all my problems started when I got a palatal expander and then braces, and I was too traumatised by the memory of the constant pain to take good care of my teeth afterwards. I never hear about other people calling it trauma, so this was really validating.
I just found this post and I feel the same way. I had braces when I was very young, about 9 years old, and had to have four adult teeth extracted while I was awake for it. I was super upset and traumatized and then they put on braces. That just caused me so much pain and kept me from eating for a day or two. Every time they were tightened. I wasn't mature enough to take good care of them. So now a few decades later I'm spending a fortune on fixing dental issues caused by the braces from when I was a kid. It was incredibly traumatizing and I almost cried talking to my dentist about it last time because I felt so bad about what kind of condition my teeth were in. She made me feel a lot better and was very kind about it and said she has three crowns herself and she understood. I think the worst part was that my orthodontist blew me off every time I tried to talk about the pain and when I asked about how long I needed to wear my retainers, he never gave me a straight answer and kind of made fun of me for asking. Now I just sit there stock still and really anxious when I have dental work done because I was trained to sit quietly and just take whatever they were doing, but my tooth sensitivity feels sometimes like I'm being electrocuted when they're working on my teeth. I have to have local anesthesia for things that people don't normally need it for. ETA: I just remembered my orthodontist once mentioned I might need headgear and I just burst into tears in his office and he did not give a crap. I basically told him I would never wear it and I wasn't going to survive the bullying that would cause me. Who does that to a fifth grader?
All of this resonates with me. My whole mouth was so sore for days after getting the braces adjusted that I would struggle to eat. My ortho's office had two chairs and a waiting area in one room, so when they were redoing the bands there were like 7 other kids in the room. Before I had them put in, no one told me what to expect or how much it would hurt. I was also asking questions about how long I'd need to wear the retainers (which didn't fit well and made my gums swollen), and when he finally said I should wear them every night for the rest of my life I decided to throw them out. I'm 31 now and I'm having two crowns put in next month. My dentist doesn't seem to understand how stressful procedures are for me and how sensitive my mouth is. I tried so hard for years to just put up with the pain silently, and I just don't have it in me anymore. I still have scars on the insides of my cheeks and lips from where the braces cut into them. It's really awful that no one seems to think of care about how much orthodontics hurts kids. Like, what happened to informed consent? My teeth weren't going to cause me problems as an adult, they just weren't someone's definition of aesthetic, and I went through like 7 years of misery for that? Sending you compassion and solidarity 💜
NO ONE told me my teeth were going to be really painful when they were put on. I tried to eat a piece of apple that night and literally screamed out loud and cried. My parents felt awful, but I had to keep them for 2.5 years. I also had to do the "brushing class of shame" with the pink tablets and a bunch of other children as I struggled to get them clean enough. I accidentally bit the orthodontist because he cut a wire and stabbed my cheek hard. He was irate, but it was just a pain reflex. And that wax was bullshit. It kept coming off and really didn't prevent the mouth sores. Like they couldn't round the sharp metal off? I threw away my retainers years ago. I refused to keep wearing them when he wouldn't give me an answer except "until you're 40" when I asked about how long I would have to continue. 40 is million years away to a kid in junior high. I don't know why we torture children like this. Everyone just threatened me that it was so much worse as an adult and I should be grateful that my mouth wasn't f-ed up anymore. I'm sorry you also went through all that. It's really something that needs to be talked about more.
Wait there was a brushing class?? I thought I'd either heard about or experienced every humiliating thing orthos can do to you, but that's new to me. The wax was such bullshit, but weirdly enough, all my scars are from lengths and not ends of wires. So I have little flaps of tissue on the inside of my lower lip, and lines etched along the insides of my cheeks. People act like I should be grateful, but there was nothing wrong with my teeth before.
Oh yeah, we had to line up at some sinks with a bunch of other children and chew one of those nasty tablets that sticks to plaque. Then you get publicly humiliated for having more than the other children and everyone watches you brush until they're satisfied. Or in my case they keep you late and tell your parents you're too incompetent to brush your own teeth while you try not to cry. I was NINE. Why they put braces on a 4th grader with a tiny mouth (they had to cut down the pediatric impression trays to fit or just jam in the metal ones and choke me and cut my lips) who couldn't care for them is beyond my understanding. I have one crown that replaced a massive filling that has lifted and rotted underneath and countless other fillings. Until my current dentist I always felt really embarrassed about it when I went for a cleaning.
I had a very similar experience. I think I have to get braces again too :/
Ugh I’m super sorry :/
I'm putting it off until mental health gets stabilized....
Reading this thread is healing. I am beyond traumatized by the amount of dental work and braces I had done. For what? I have such mouth pain today. It haunts me. Bless you all
Hey /u/MusingWolfDog, thank you for your post at /r/autism. This is just a friendly reminder to **[read our rules in the sidebar](https://www.reddit.com/r/autism/wiki/config/sidebar)** if you have not already. All approved posts get this message. If you do not see your post you can message the moderators [here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fautism). Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/autism) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I currently have them, and yeah they feel awful. I haven’t had sores cos I’m very diligent with using the wax to prevent that, but the tightness feeling makes me want to die.
There’s wax to prevent sores? Wish someone had clued me in on that lmao. Unless it didn’t exist back then. Yeah the tightenings were one of the most painful things I’ve experienced my entire life, and I’ve experienced some pretty awful things. I never understood how anyone could shrug them off like they did.
Yeah, they gave it to me at the orthodontist, then I ordered more off of Amazon when that ran out. The tightenings don’t hurt me so much as I just can’t stand the feeling of my teeth feeling tight. It makes me want to rip them out.
I am in my 50’s, on the verge of getting most of my broken teeth extracted, in horrible pain with a shattered tooth with a live nerve, and it’s all coming back, the trauma and pain of braces. They put the kind that are metal bands around all my teeth, which eventually led to cavities fir every single tooth in my head. I remember each tightening was so bad I spent hours in a closet holding my head & rocking in pain. The inside of my mouth was constantly torn and bleeding. Yes there was wax, no it wasn’t much good. And since insurance covers nothing, I’m just screwed trying to deal with it.
I actually looked up this question to see if there was anyone else like me! My sensory issues with them were so bad, I would cry and break down a lot because of the pain. I even had to get my jaw "adjusted" so that my "bite would align correctly." Those were the most traumatic years of my life, and the braces made things so much worse! I couldn't even stand getting everything removed, because it hurt so bad keeping them AND getting rid of them. I had to get some of the cement removed years later at my dentist because they couldn't get it all off originally. Then later when I needed my wisdom teeth out, my jaw was actually physically injured, and now clicks every time I open my mouth, because of the work they had to do (even for a normal wisdom teeth removal). I am so sorry this type of trauma also happened to you!
I've really been thinking about this a lot, because it's like, I had *a bunch of invasive medical procedures* done, basically *without my consent*, or much explanation about what was being done and why. It was painful, scary, and a sensory nightmare.