The metallic taste is weird, but I always tell her it’s temporary—just brush, rinse, and wait it out. It passes faster than you think.
I totally get that—my mouth always felt like I was chewing on spare change for a day or two after new wires. For me, the weirdest part was how pressure from tightening would mess with my sense of taste for a few hours. Did your kid ever mention food tasting “off” right after an adjustment? I honestly thought it was just me until I started talking to friends about it.
Yeah, my taste buds totally went on strike after every adjustment. I’d eat pizza and it’d taste like cardboard for a bit—zero fun. The pressure was like an instant “flavor off” switch. Did you ever notice drinks tasting weird too, or just food?
The pressure was like an instant “flavor off” switch.
That’s the best way I’ve heard it described. I swear after every tightening, it was like my taste buds packed their bags and left town. Pizza, burgers, even my morning coffee—everything just tasted... wrong. There was one time I tried to treat myself to a milkshake after an adjustment (figured cold would help, right?), and it tasted like sweet chalk. Not exactly the reward I had in mind.
Drinks definitely got weird for me too, especially anything fizzy. Used to love a good ginger ale, but with braces on and everything sore, it felt like drinking static. Even water sometimes had a metallic tang for a day or two—no idea why. Maybe my mouth was just in full protest mode.
It does get better, though. After a couple days, things usually went back to normal for me. I started planning my favorite meals for the week after adjustments, just to have something to look forward to. And honestly, once you’ve survived pizza that tastes like cardboard, you start appreciating real flavor all over again.
Hang in there—the taste bud rebellion doesn’t last forever. And hey, at least you’ve got a good story for anyone who thinks braces are just about straight teeth...
I get what you mean about the taste thing, but I actually had kind of the opposite happen after some of my tightenings. Instead of losing flavor, I’d get these weird, almost hyper-sensitive taste moments—like, a sip of orange juice would be way too intense, or toothpaste tasted even more minty than usual. It made me super anxious to try anything new right after an adjustment. Maybe it’s just how everyone’s mouth reacts differently? I never really figured out if it was the pressure or just my nerves making everything feel off. Either way, eating was a gamble for a while.
That’s actually pretty interesting—some folks do mention taste changes, but “everything tastes super intense” isn’t something I hear every day. I wonder if it’s a combo of the nerves and all the pressure from the adjustment? Did you ever notice if it faded after a day or two, or did it stick around longer? I’ve seen people have all sorts of reactions, but the taste thing seems pretty unpredictable.
