My Child needs block braces, Worried.

[Twoboysandme123]

Hello, first time posting so hope I've posted this in the right place.
Basically last week I took my DS who's 13yrs to see an orthodontist after being referred by his dentist.
After assessments, Xrays etc we were told that he would benefit from having braces to correct his overbite and straighten his teeth, which didn't come as a shock to be honest as I was expecting that to be the case anyways, I was more surprised the NHS were agreeing to fund it as his teeth do not look particularly bad and I know they have a strict criteria nowadays so was looking into going private.
Anyways we left the surgery happy, having been told he will need to wear twin block braces for 9 months followed by fixed braces for 2 years.
However I've since been looking at what the block braces are, watched videos of children with them on and its absolutely terrified me!!!
I just don't know how he is going to cope with them, he's autistic so this is a massive massive thing for him to go through and although he's agreed to the braces, he doesn't know exactly what they are like, I'm too scared to even say now I've done some research.
What concerns me is the difficulty with speaking and eating with them in, how uncomfortable they may feel and him being subjected to being bullied.
I'm afraid it's really going to knock his confidence and he will go into his shell, he doesn't talk much in social situations much anyways but what if this prevents him from doing so at all :-(
I'm literally panicking about it now, he gets them fitted first week of Sep, I was hoping it would be the summer holidays so he would have time to adjust but they cant do it till then. I'm gutted for him, I only want the best and I know in 3 years time he will have lovely perfect teeth but that is along time away.
Does anyone have any advise or experience with the twin block braces? Are they really that bad? Am I over reacting? How did your child cope with them? I would love to hear from anyone in a similar situation or who as gone through this.
Kind regards L.

Hi my oldest dd had twin blocks, and whilst they were uncomfortable at first, she dealt with them (through the help of some calpol). they learn to talk with them normally, although at first they have a lisp, and whilst some children are told not to, I would recommend taking them out when eating else they get covered in food. they look fine, but give your son mints or mouth spray because with their mouths being open quite a bit of the time, they tend to dry out and smell unfresh. all the best x

DS chose to have herbst pistons instead of twin blocks (Google herbst appliance) Partly because the treatment time was shorter - because you can have tracks on at the same time which you can't with the blocks. He also has ASD and couldn't be doing with people who had blocks and spat everywhere and couldn't speak properly And of course him constantly stretching his hinges wasn't annoying at all...

It wasn't the easiest thing to put on - but he did like the fact it was not removable because he admitted if he could take it out he would have if it annoyed him or it hurt.