Back in the early 70s I had the band type, where they drive bands onto the tooth in question, so you also had pain from the thud of the bands being driven onto the tooth, I would have killed to have the kind where they just glue wire mounts onto the tooth 
I wore braces for about two and a half years; they were removed about two years ago. Although my bonded retainers have since fallen off - I’ll get new ones eventually, I’m sure - my smile is still in tact because I continue to wear my removables whenever I go to bed.
Eight seems awfully young to be fitted for braces, given that I was seventeen when mine were installed. For me, the hardest part was the week-long period before the braces were put on, when I had to wear spacers in my mouth in order to create enough room for the braces to fit. It felt like I had friggin’ rocks jammed between my molars for seven days.
Braces pain for me was never too severe, but I’ll echo what everybody else has been saying in that the most painful parts are the three or four days immediately following a tightening. Stock up on aspirin I guess.
As someone else said, I think braces are considerably more tolerable for teens then adults as their teeth aren’t quite as solidly in place yet.
I agree, but the kid in the OP is 8! That’s a little young for the ‘man up’ philosophy.
That comment was WRT to people that get braces at a ‘normal’ age. Say 7th grade to about a senior in high school. I mentioned earlier that I think 8 is too young. I’m surprised he even has adult teeth in far enough to be moved into place (and stay there as new teeth come in and push them around) unless the plan is to have them on for 10 years.
So everyone experiences pain differently … and for an eight year old to rationalise pain is a challenge.
I had braces as an older teen and they were complete agony. I was in tears for days, in pain for at least a week after each adjustment and I thought of them as torture devices. Every movement of my head was awful.
If your child was being slowly tortured by twisting their thumbs in an ‘olde medievale’ device would you expect them to just ‘man up’ and cope with it?
I’ve been through many pain incidences and I still shudder at the thought of the nightmare of braces. If I could go back in time knowing the level of pain I was going to experience I would never have done it.
Please be sympathetic to your child, please do what ever you can to help them (including advocating for him at the appointments - less adjustments?) … and if he is in too much pain please consider if it really is worth inflicting that on your child.
Yes, even more than the pain this is my concern. They have no idea how his teeth would have grown in as he got older at that age. I got braces put on when I was 10, because my cheap-ass parents got a discount for having mine done at the same time as my 12 year old brother. They used a knee joint Xray to determine that I would one day be 6’4" tall. I figured that would make the pain worthwhile, but the assholes were wrong, they owe me 4 inches.
I get it. I’ve been paying close attention, and he seems at an tolerable level of pain. He woke up and moaned for a while, and then happily played Stacraft for a few hours, so he’s okay. We also rented a movie and got some ice cream, which we don’t normally do - he seemed okay the too. 
As way of update, we tried to cut the my wire as instructed, but it only dented the wire, and my clippers. My husband took him to the Ortho to get the brackets put back on. I like the Prtho staff, so that’s good. They’re nice and patient with our stupid questions.
Our regular dentist, and the Ortho, and my dentist brother in law all said it was “normal” to start that young in most cases nowadays. As I said, I did some research on my own as well, and the reasons why make sense. I’m okay with it, and he will have a semi-permanent retainer throughout his teenage years to guide and keep everything in place.
I was quite impressed with the quality of the X-rays the Ortho does - quite clear and very indicative of what and where everything is going to move into place. He took an hour just explaining everything to us, with models and diagrams and everything.
Would he enjoy a Snow Cone maker, maybe? He could have cones or slushies whenever his teeth ache. They make sugar-free syrups, too, so his dentist wouldn’t hate on him.
For examples:
If he can hold still for 20 minutes to wear an ice pack, it’s worth a try. The pain comes from within the gums so even though it’ll wane it comes back again. It was so bad for me at 13 that I tried to pull them off w/ my dad’s pliers. I sobbed and sobbed; the pain lasted about a week.
I understand age 10 and under is the norm now. I don’t know how parents afford it, seems like they just finished paying off toddlerhood.
I just don’t think kids would keep something like Invisalign in. I can assure you the Frankle did me very little good as I didn’t wear it if I could help it, which is why I got a Lars device and bottom braces.
Braces hurt all the fucking time. If they aren’t hurting because they just got tightened up they’re rubbing you somewhere in your mouth. Such is life with braces. But I’m glad I had them - my teeth were along the “fake racist Asian scientist” novelty teeth lines.
While it is unusual to get braces at 8, it is not necessarily too young. FWIIW I am a dentist. Often placing the braces earlier means they don’t have to be on as long especially in cases such as narrow palates which can be expanded until the bones fuse at about the age of nine or ten in boys. One year at 8 beats 2 to 3 years at 13.
Count me in the “braces as torture devices” camp.
My teeth and jaw ached all the time. Not horribly, just a low-grade constant pain that made me not want to eat or move my head around or talk.
When they were tightened, it was hell for about 3 days, then back down to that constant nagging ache.
I had 8 teeth out, and none of the extractions hurt like the braces did, because they HURT!!! and then they got better, and then the pain was gone.
With braces, it was nothing but constant achy pain for 3 years, and because my teeth were so bad, I never knew when they would be coming off.
Don’t even get me started on the rubber bands and the neck-brace I had to wear at night that were supposed to align my jaws but actually gave me a permanent dent in my neck vertebrae, cracks in my jaw hinges, and tension headaches from the muscle strain.
On the other hand, my foster sister had braces for 6 years, and hers never gave her any trouble at all.
(And my mother had the old-fashioned band braces, and it was horrid to live with. No matter how bad I felt, it was always “well, at least yours are only glued on and they didn’t scratch your tooth enamel off!” Even when she saw the cracks on the x-rays, she just said “well, at least it’s not *visible *damage.”)
6 years - eek!
We didn’t realise our son was going to need braces until he was 16. His adult teeth were very slow to come through.
We couldn’t afford them until he was 18. Our orthodontist was dubious about doing them on someone that age. He is now a convert as our son was one motivated patient & did everything he was told. As far as I’m aware he only broke one wire in the 2.5 years they were on. They just came off last month & his teeth look sensational. He wears a retainer at night.
The worst was the extractions. But the ortho did say he couldn’t believe our boy during the fittings. The ortho said it had to have been painful & our boy didn’t even blink. With age came maturity I guess.
The biggest pain was diet. There were so many things he loved that he could no longer eat. & the things he could eat made his picky flatmates (at the time) didn’t like. So meals sure weren’t much fun.
Hmmm. I wonder if it hurts more to have braces when you’re older? I was ten when I got mine, and twelve or thirteen when they came off. I’m pretty wussy when it comes to teeth pain, but beyond it hurting the first 3-4 days, I don’t remember it being painful the way a lot of people are describing, definitely not painful to the point of agony when biting into things, even just a day or two after they went on and that was with dealing with 4 pulled teeth at the same time. It hurt like hell the 2 or 3 times the dentist forgot to bend the wires after tightening them because the wires will poke into your mouth until they bleed, but most tightenings were just mildly sore for a day or so after.
My memory isn’t overly reliable in general so I asked my mother about it, and she said I didn’t complain about pain much so I guess my memory is accuate in this case. If it was due to being unusually young, hopefully the OP’s son will have an easier time with the tightenings too.
Maybe things are different now - I got them as an adult - long pointless story - but what I recall as causing the worst pain was the wires and other parts rubbing against the inside of my mouth. The orthodontics office had not remembered to mention ‘wax’. If this is possibly a problem, go to the nearest drug store right now to get some.
My experience with braces is farther back than I care to state. Back then, there was a metal band around each tooth. To make room for that the night before I had to put pieces of large rubber bands between each tooth. So I ended up with metal bands with the fastening in front for the wire and slightly loose and VERY sore teeth. So there was a chronic pain that subsided until I forgot and bit on something. I highly recommend OTC pain relief and soft foods for the next couple of days.
Here’s my opinion, based on some old memories, of what’s going on with your son:
- His teeth ache. That’ll go away.
B. If there’s a band around his teeth, the tip and edges of his tongue will be a bit raw from toying with the bands. Eventually his tongue will toughen up.
III. The fastenings on the front of his teeth will irritate the inside of his lips, cheeks, and whatever parts of the mouth they come in contact with. He’ll get accustomed to this. Wax can help, but I found it to be more bother than just getting used to them.
4th. I never had much discomfort after a regular checkup/tightening, but maybe that’s just me. At least, through the veil of time, I don’t remember much. I’d recommend OTC pain relievers and soft food as necessary. - I just remembered, unless he sleeps on his back, the pressure of the side of his face pressing against a pillow can cause discomfort for the first couple of days. You should be aware of this.
Before his regular appointments, make sure he’s got a mouthful of freshly brushed teeth. You may want to bring a toothbrush, toothpaste, a bottle of water, and a rince/spit cup or something for him to use while you’re driving him to his appointment.
Oh, and when to take your son off soft foods to more substantial food? Just ask him. He’ll clench his teeth together and decide if it hurts too much. It’s not much fun for him now, but the misery will pass.
Am I the only one that was bothered by the constant sharp poking of the lips and cheeks? I was forever catching my mouth and had little tears and scrapes that would of course swell up and then get re-caught and torn and scraped. The ortho used to give us this useless wax stuff to coat and prevent, didn’t help and it was horrible. Soft food only for the aching jaws, but nothing with any sharp bite or acid like orange juice or tomatoes.
Initial installation and subsequent tightenings made me ache for a few days. The headgear was gawdawful and made me actually cry. I remember craftily unhooking it for some tension relief and leaning with my head on my hand to cover up the fact that it was undone, my teacher caught me every time.
On the plus side, I went from being a chubby kid to a va-va-voom teenager since I couldn’t hardly eat anything, so there’s that.
I got braces during 7th grade (mid 80s). I didn’t have any strong pains besides some tightening issues. Also, I didn’t feel bad or embarrassed or shy. I did have trouble eating some food items though.
At the time, I liked the Peanuts comics/cartoons, so my mother got me a poster of this. I loved it so much, it’s still hanging on the wall of my old bedroom.
