Honestly, some days nothing works and you just have to tough it out until your mouth toughens up...
I get where you’re coming from, but I don’t totally buy that the only option is to just “tough it out.” I mean, yeah, the first few weeks are brutal and your cheeks feel like ground beef, but I actually found that saltwater rinses made a bigger difference than I expected. My ortho didn’t even mention it (classic), but my grandma swore by it and honestly, it did help with the raw spots. It doesn’t numb anything, but it seemed to speed up healing a bit, or at least made my mouth feel less gross.
About the silicone strips—tried those after getting tired of fishing wax out of my molars every time I ate. They’re a bit tricky at first, but once you get the hang of shaping them, I found they stayed put way better than the little wax balls. They are bulkier, though, and I did catch myself gnawing on them when I was bored in class. Not a huge fan of that sensation, but at least I wasn’t swallowing them like the wax.
Painkillers never really did much for me either, unless it was right after a tightening. For the day-to-day bracket irritation, I actually liked using a little dab of Orajel or one of those numbing gels. It doesn’t last super long, but it’s a nice break if you just need to eat or get through a meeting without thinking about your mouth. Kind of surprised more orthos don’t bring that up.
I also started carrying a travel toothbrush and those little interdental brushes around, because half the time what felt like “pain” was just stuff stuck in my brackets making everything more sensitive. Not glamorous, but it helped.
I know everyone’s pain tolerance is different, but I don’t think you have to just grit your teeth (pun intended) and wait for your mouth to toughen up. There are definitely some little hacks out there that make it suck less.
