Adult braces - experience

[BraceFace2025]

DAY 1

I’ve just had adult braces on and I searched the mumsnet forums for people’s experience before I got mine I thought I’d post updates about my experience as I go.

So I looked at Invisalign and my dentist quoted me £3.5k for Invisalign Go which was all they offered. It’s a 6 month treatment.

I then visited a local orthodontist who quoted me for aligners and traditional train track braces.

The aligners were £5400 because they’re custom made by him - I could NOT afford this.

The traditional braces (with ceramics on top teeth) were £4000.

Both would take 10-12 months and braces would offer a marginally better outcome. Marginal because I don’t have significant issues, just some overcrowding which is getting worse with age.

I’ve gone for traditional braces so I can have the assurance of orthodontist lead treatment. I’ve hated my teeth for ages and I’ve been thinking about this for close to a decade (I’m mid 40s) so I figure a year is not that long in the scheme of things to put up with them. And the cost had also put me off before, but now I think the amount of time I’ve hated my teeth, if I’d got it done years ago the cost would just be a distant memory now!

I’ve literally just had them fitted. The fitting was fine, not particularly uncomfortable (I did take ibuprofen beforehand) and they’re not painful at the moment, more just a feeling of pressure. However, they feel very VERY strange. I feel like I can’t talk properly and I can’t bite properly - at the moment I’m not really sure how I’ll ever eat anything solid. It feels exactly like having a mouth full of metal which probably shouldn’t have come as such a surprise!

Here’s a pic of my teeth before and now with braces.

I’m about to embark on Invisalign next week, so am very interested in your experiences. Mine will take 18 months!

I had braces as a child and you do get used to it quite quickly - it was really weird when I had them taken off too as I was so used to them being there.

Just make sure they put a wire behind your teeth after - this wasn’t a thing when I was younger get and ended up doing Invisalign a few years ago as they’d all moved back.

@weaselwords ohh interesting! Maybe you could post some updates here too. I read so many threads on here when making up my mind. We could create the ultimate braces v aligners thread 😁

So far I’ve not experienced any pain or real discomfort just wearing the braces, although there is a feeling of mild pressure. But I have ended up with a couple of ulcers on the tip of my tongue from constantly poking at the braces with my tongue.

I’ve also only really been able to eat soft food or things that are cut up really small as I can’t really chew and its uncomfortable to bite.

I’ve also started on the 5:2 diet this week so it’s been quite helpful with that 😆

I did Invisalign a few years ago. Best money ever spent and no one ever really noticed!

@IDontLikePinaColadas yes I’ve been told I’ll have a permanent wire and I’ll also have a set of retainers which I’ll have to wear 24/7 (except when eating) for a period of time after the braces come off (can’t remember how long, might have been weeks, might have been a month or two!) Then I’ll have to wear the retainers nightly for a while and finally a couple of nights a week forever.

I’ll update you when I get them on Friday. My eldest has had both wire braces and Invisalign and says the latter is less painful. Just inconvenient having to take them out to eat.

I’ve had both the metal braces and the Invisalign and preferred the latter. Mainly because it was easy to clean my teeth as I could take out the retainers. Plus I felt the metal ones really hurt when you have to had them tightened up- teeth were really sensitive for days after. But I don’t think there is any right or wrong here.

Top tip for anyone using mental braces with white brackets- DO NOT eat anything with turmeric in as it dyes the outside part of brackets and you look like you have yellow teeth. I only say this as it happened to me and I had to go in and get them changed. No amount of brushing gets rid of the stains. This was about ten years ago so it might have changed. But just pre-warning.

I think it's very normal for your mouth to feel strange at the beginning. I have invisalign and it felt very weird at first (and then weird again when new attachments were added). My teeth also feel a sensitive the first day or two of a new set. In hindsight, I'd have gone for traditional over invisalign because of having to take them out to eat or drink. The one part I cannot get used to is the elastics which look awful and feel very painful.

I've been thinking about this for years. I'm now late 60s! My mum had a fixed brace at 75!

The thing is, Invisalign is not right for everyone @MellowPinkDeer and @backfromouterspace

I've had 2 consultations. One said yes to Invisalign but with a lot of shaving down of my teeth (they are moderately crowded - worse than yours @BraceFace2025 )

The other (current dentist who I trust more) said I'd need 2 extractions at the top and fixed braces for 18 months.

It's a big task and then there's the retainers afterwards.

For various reasons my mum stopped using her retainer (mainly during Covid as no appts) and her teeth have moved back.

I do wear my retainer all night every night, I did forget it once but it still fit after a week!

I was told I might need some shaving with Invisalign too and that put me off.

Honestly, as much as I don’t love having a mouth full of metal or the massive hit to my expendable income over the next year, mostly I just feel so glad that I’m FINALLY doing this and wondering why I didn’t bite the bullet earlier!

(I’m getting married next September so that was my push to finally sort my teeth out!)

I have to have them too, to straighten a front tooth, I'm 63. It has to be braces as I have three implants which don't move like normal teeth so invisalign doesn't work.
Here goes nothing.
Good tip about the turmeric. Who knew?

Hello everyone,

I got fixed braces on yesterday. I have a mouth full of wax trying to make it more comfortable.

It’s got more uncomfortable all day and I have got these horrible plastic bits on my back teeth to stop me biting down all the way.

It’s made eating really tricky- although I have only had protein shakes and soup so far. I might get straight teeth and lose weight!

That sounds awful. Why wax? I'm sure it will be worth it.

Hi @Sweetbeansandmochi - after saying I wasn’t having any discomfort a couple of hours later I started to get rubbing from the brackets that are meant to hold the rubber bands, which started to get more painful. Some wax and it’s feeling much better this morning. Hope yours is too!

@Gettingbysomehow - it’s dental wax. It comes in narrow strips and you break off a bit and mould it onto the parts of the bracket that are rubbing your cheek inside. It protects your mouth while it’s adjusting to the braces.

@Gettingbysomehow - my teeth look better already just because of the way they have had some bits shaved off. I mean it sounds awful when written down - but I do think it will be worth it.

@BraceFace2025 well…the insides of my mouth are quite sore and it’s slightly swollen. I am glad you are feeling better. I had braces when I was younger so I have a vague memory of it being tender for me at the start but getting better.

Have a good day!

I had braces in my late 40s that took ages, but that might have been moving to Australia in mid-treatment, so not off for several years. Two extractions. As a teacher I was always front and centre speaking, but it was always OK. No-one ever referred to it so I ver felt self-conscious. I lost quite a bit of weight as the urge to snack was zero.

My teeth are very mobile and I lost on the front 11 and have an implant. Now it looks as if despite my excellent teeth and gum hygiene I might lose the other front one. These are the two that were protruding.

It would have been cheaper to have my head sawn off.

I’ve had my Invisalign fitted today and they are quite comfortable! Only painful thing has been the cost of them 😀

Hi there everyone, I had my braces fitted on Tuesday and it’s now Friday evening. I have had quite a lot of trouble so far. They have been incredibly painful and my lips and face around my lips has been swollen. So I look like filler gone wrong. I have got antibiotics because I have also had a hip replacement and this is a precaution in case it’s an infection. I am icing it a lot.

At this point, I wish I hadn’t got them. I anticipated it being a bit sore and tender but this has been the pits.

This is on my To Do list for this year. Have a consultation next month. How easy is it to floss or use teepee brushes for your gums?

Like a pp, I wish I'd gone for it years ago, probably when my eldest had a brace so we could have done it at the same time. I know I'll need one tooth out but wonder if they take the corresponding tooth out on the other side for evenness. I am worried about always wearing a retainer - paranoid I'll choke to death by it in my sleep.

Im so glad I saw this, I am getting ‘train tracks’ at the end of the year and was worried about how they’d look on a 30 odd year old woman but they don’t look bad at all! Much less ‘in your face’ than I thought they would be.
Decided against Invisalign for various reasons. I’m quite excited to get mine now!

Sounds a good start. I hated the first two or three days of Invisalign because they hurt so much to take out. That definitely got better as the attachments wore down and I got the technique.

Good luck OP I had metal braces. I had an awful experience because of how bad my teeth were (4 extractions, 6 months of a removable brace which gave me a lisp then 4 years of braces) but I would 100% without question go through it all again. It was the best decision I ever made.

Choose dark elastics as they don’t stain. Buy wax in bulk online and if you are particularly sore cover the whole lot in wax before bed and you’ll wake up a new person. Sonic Airs are great for cleaning. Keep a little kit in your handbag including a toothbrush and little tree cleaner. Avoid wotsits.

One of my former teaching colleagues got her braces fitted when she was about 40. She was a tad worried about the (secondary school) pupils' reaction.

God bless 'em - they excitedly gave her advice on how to clean her teeth and braces properly. Then one of the girls called out "And watch what ye're doin' if ye kiss someone else wi braces - ye can get tangled up!"