Do the front wires of Hawley retainers touch your teeth?

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#1 Post by **wearetheborg** » Thu Sep 23, 2010 6:35 am

Do the front wires of Hawley retainers touch your teeth?

My dentist who made the replacement retainers claims they need not...

#2 Post by **jackjack** » Thu Sep 23, 2010 11:36 pm

Yes they are pressed against the teeth. How else would they hold them in place?

#3 Post by **wearetheborg** » Fri Sep 24, 2010 9:17 am

jackjack wrote:Yes they are pressed against the teeth. How else would they hold them in place?

Thats what I thought. I went to my regular dental surgeon, the ortho was just back today. They both said the replacement retainers were substandard. New molds were made.

Sigh

#4 Post by **jackjack** » Sun Sep 26, 2010 11:33 pm

Oh good, so you're getting new retainers??
I complained about my top retainer having a gap between the acrylic and back of teeth. Get my new top retainer on Friday.

#5 Post by **wearetheborg** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 6:27 am

jackjack wrote:Oh good, so you're getting new retainers??
I complained about my top retainer having a gap between the acrylic and back of teeth. Get my new top retainer on Friday.

Actually I went to another ortho, who then made a seperate set of essix type retainers as a replacment for my replacement hawley retainers, which in turn were meant to replace my original retainers :-\

Today I went to the dentist, and told him about the ortho and the dental surgeons opinions on his original retainers, and he agreed that the technicians had done a substandard job; so he is making another set of hawley retainers himself tomorrow...

#6 Post by **alimommy1** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 8:01 am

The front wire touches your teeth unless you have one out of line that needs to be pushed forward. The same would be true of the acrylic on the back side - if you have a tooth that needs to be moved back, there would be a space between the tooth and the acrylic so it could move.

#7 Post by **jackjack** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 1:52 pm

None of my teeth needed any more movement post braces, so the extra space concerned me. I paid thousands of dollars for these teeth! You should expect your treatment to be done right.

#8 Post by **drrick** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 2:16 pm

The bow can be adjusted so it touches the teeth.
On teh oterh side of the coin I have seen bows so tight that they wore a notch in the teeth (that would be too tight)