Metal Mouth Message Board

Please don't beat up on me for saying this but...everyone that is saying "I'll wear my retainer 24 hours a day!" doesn't have a retainer yet. I do and I don't want to scare anyone but the reason people end up not wearing it much is that IT IS AWFUL! I'm not kidding folks - it's awful! I have a Hawley on top and yes, I've gotten used to it and yes, I wear it as much as possible and always all night but it is awful and I really hate it.

What I'm trying to say is I have sympathy for people who are trying to deal with their retainers but maybe are not wearing them as much as they should. It's easy to say now that you'll wear it all the time but honestly, I cannot stress this enough, it's hard. I mean, you've dealt with probably at least 2 years of braces-hell and you finally get them off and you think it's going to be easy and it's not - it's very uncomfortable, very embarassing when talking, very much a hassle to take it out all the time to eat, just a hassle all the way around! And I guess it's easy to start thinking, gosh, I deserve to relax a little bit.

Please...I KNOW it's not the "smart" thing to do...don't blast me with "Wear your retainer!" - I AM wearing my retainer...it's just that before I got my braces off, I thought people who didn't wear their retainers were just stupid but now I understand a little better.

That's all I'm saying...just that I understand...

Don't worry, flowertowngal, you are absolutely right. I have no idea what it's like to have a retainer, but I know that I'll be as good as I can when the time comes because I have waited WAY too long to fix my teeth. There is nothing that has bothered me more than my teeth, and I never thought I'd get it done.

flowertowngal wrote: "I'll wear my retainer 24 hours a day!" doesn't have a retainer yet.

I really don't think they mean 24 hours a day...I know for a fact though that once my braces are off I will be wearing my retainer every night. I used a retainer before I got braces to stop me from clenching my teeth so what difference does it make. From what I saw of the retainer it's smaller and better then the one I used to wear so it's nothing for me.

Rebecca