Metal Mouth Message Board

I did not wear retainers 24/7 in initial months; yes I was supposed to but sometimes I would eat food, and did not want to wear retainers immediately afterwards etc.

However, I always made sure I wore the retainers at night. And am still wearing them at night 2 years later.

Are there any long term effects of not wearing the retainers 24/7 in the initial months?

My last check in with the ortho was one year back (I have moved) and he said to wear the retainers as much as possible; and he said the teeth seemed to be holding their position.

No long term effects. Some orthos(like mine) feel nightly use is sufficient. And this has obviously been the case for you because at one year your teeth had held their position and your retainers still fit you. You'll know it when you have any significant relapse because thats when you won't be able to get the retainers on.

I guess every person is different. I've heard of people's teeth shifting literally overnight - I wonder if that is actually possible?

Anyone know if your having a posterior crossbite corrected and the ortho says you will have permanent bonded retainers top and bottom - how do those (front) retainers keep a crossbite in the back from returning??

Bonded retainers on the front teeth do absolutely nothing to prevent posterior crossbite from returning. You will also have to wear either a hawley or essix to keep the back teeth where they belong.

overfortyish wrote:I guess every person is different. I've heard of people's teeth shifting literally overnight - I wonder if that is actually possible?

It is indeed, even now, my teeth shift a bit during the day, then during the night the retainer shifts them back

Its easy for me as I have two missing teeth (implants were only placed recently), so with the placeholder teeth, the retainer is a bit tight when I put it on, and in the morning, its loose.