My Braces Experience – Do Braces Hurt?

In my previous post, I shared my experiences in choosing the orthodontic treatment option and the cost associated with it. Finally, I made my decision to get white ceramic braces on top and metal braces on my bottom teeth. As a first-timer in braces, I wondered how the braces would look on me, and most of all, how painful it would be. Do braces hurt? How long does the braces pain last? In this post, I recorded my experience getting braces attached and any pains associated with the braces from day one to the end of the first week.

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• Getting Braces Attached on My Teeth
• First Day
• First Week
• Summary

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Getting Braces Attached on My Teeth

The office visit for getting braces took about two hours. First, dental assistants took some pictures of me – two X-rays, my face from front and side, both with smiles and without smiles. Then, they moved onto polishing my teeth. After that, finally, the process of attaching brackets started.

Attaching brackets and wires took two people, my dentist, and one dental assistant. First, the dental assistant put sunglasses on my face. The sunglasses protected my eyes from UV lights used to cure the adhesive. Before putting the first bracket, my dentist put something really sour in the back of my mouth near my bottom right molar. The disgusting liquid kept leaking onto my tongue, and I couldn’t wait for the dental assistant to remove it.

After the sour liquid (whatever it was), my doctor attached a bracket on my back right molar on the bottom. When she approved the positioning of the bracket, the dental assistant held UV light over the molar and secured it to the position. They repeated the same procedure starting from the molar on the other side until all my bottom teeth had brackets.

After that, the dental assistant randomly asked me what color I wanted. I wasn’t sure what he was asking. It turned out that he was asking me what color of rubber bands I want on my brackets. I wanted to be as discrete as possible so I picked clear. Then they moved onto adding a U-shaped wire on my brackets with the rubber bands. The doctor carefully measured the length and attached it by using special devices. Once the wire was in place, I felt some pressure all over on my gums and teeth, but there was no pain from the braces.

They repeated exactly the same procedure on my top teeth from attaching the brackets to adding a wire. I felt no difference between getting metal braces versus ceramic braces. It took about an hour total to attach the brackets and wires. Once the whole process was done, the dentist showed me how to apply orthodontic wax on my braces. Then she sent me home with a care packet (a take-home instruction sheet, a mouth mirror, orthodontic wax, dental floss samples, a toothbrush, and a small hourglass).

Pain?

Overall there wasn’t too much pain associated with braces getting attached to my teeth, just some uncomfortableness. During the whole process, my lips got badly chapped. While the pictures were taken and the braces were attached, the doctor and the dental assistant literally pulled my lips to every direction you can think of, and it felt like my lips were splitting in half… The doctor applied lip balms several times during the visit, but I should’ve asked to apply it more often.

Also, some dental tools poked my gums, and it caused some sharp pains. I flagged my dentist every time it happened to minimize the pains.

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First Day

How did the braces look?

The moment of truth. Was paying extra for getting white brackets worth it?

Honestly, my heart sunk when I saw my teeth the first time. I didn’t expect to look cute with the braces, but the white brackets looked so huge on my top teeth (they felt huge, too). They were more visible than I hoped… The color blended well with my teeth but I didn’t know the size of the white brackets was larger than the metal ones. Another disappointment was that the metal brackets on the bottom teeth were more visible than I imagined. I thought they would never show but the shiny metal twinkled whenever I talked or smiled.

Braces Pain on the first day

When I first left my dentist’s office, I was totally fine. All I felt was a little pressure on my teeth. Unfortunately, it was just the beginning…

As time went by, I felt more and more pressure on my teeth. Three hours later, I felt sore in my entire mouth. If you ever experienced any pain from your wisdom teeth growing, imagine that pain is everywhere in your mouth.

Biting and chewing made the pain even worse. Every time I bit into anything, sharp pains shot through my teeth. I had planned to eat a small bowl of chicken salad, fried calamari, and chocolate pudding for the night. I should’ve planned softer food for the dinner, but I underestimated the amount of pain.

My front teeth were completely useless. To eat a piece of chicken, I used my front teeth just to hold it in place and used a fork to rip a small piece off. Biting off was not an option.

Back molars were a little less painful, but they were still too sore to chew hard. When I tried to eat a tiny piece of calamari, a wire in my back molar came off! The take-home instruction sheet from the dentist didn’t list calamari, and I thought the calamari was small and soft enough…

Thankfully, the instruction sheet mentioned “how to fix loose wire at home”, and I was able to put the loose wire back into the hole. After this incident, I was too paranoid to chew anything on the back molar. I only put tiny pieces of food in my mouth and just swallowed them whole. The only thing I was able to eat without problems was chocolate pudding. By the time I ate all my food for the night, almost two hours had passed.

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First Week

Braces Pain on the First Week

The first week was definitely rough. The teeth pain I felt on the first day continued to bother me whenever I was awake.

On top of having the dull aches, the brackets agitated inside of my mouth. One of the brackets on my back molar had a hook. It was sharp enough to leave some cuts inside of my cheek. To relieve the pain, I put a small amount of orthodontic wax on the hook until the cuts healed.

I also put some orthodontic wax on my bottom brackets before I went to sleep. Without it, the brackets left painful indentations inside of my bottom lips during the night.

Eating was still the biggest challenge in my daily life. I got sharp pains all over in my mouth. I needed to make conscious choices about what to eat. Mac N’ cheese, soups, and oatmeals were all I could eat. I was frustrated with not being able to enjoy food like I used to. Naturally, the frequency of snacking decreased. In a matter of three days, I quickly dropped a few pounds off my body. 

The front teeth seemed slow to heal compared to the molars. When I wanted to chew anything, I moved the food to the back of my mouth. At least, the pain slowly faded as time went by. It took 10 days for me to feel somewhat normal.

Taking Care of Braces

I had to make habit of brushing my teeth every time I ate anything. Every time I ate, the food stuck everywhere I never imagined before the braces. I was embarrassed to smile or talk until brushing my teeth.

On top of brushing, I purchased a Waterpik and special floss for braces to deep clean my teeth at least once a day.

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Summary

Overall, getting braces is relatively pain-free, but living with braces for the first week is whole another story. My very first week with braces was rougher than I imagined. I totally underestimated the uncomfortableness and the pains associated with the braces. I ate soft food for more than a week, and I’ve been deep cleaning my teeth every day after the braces.

If you are looking into getting braces yourself for the first time, I hope my experiences gave you some insight. Thank you for reading and good luck with your orthodontic journey! Please leave some comments below if you have any questions. I’d love to hear from you:)