Braces off yesterday and Essix retainer

[SunshineRay]

I have to admit that braces were easier then the retainer. I have to wear it 24/7 for at least 2 months until my next appt. I dont mind the look, feel, taste.....so far. My main problem is eating and drinking. I am a sipper all day. I drink one soda a day, in the morning, and it lasts me 2-3 hrs. I drink flavored water all day and tea through a straw in the evening. This morning I changed my routine to brush right before I left the house and left my retainer out for the 20 min drive to work and I chugged my whole soda, rinsed my mouth and put in the retainer.

How do you guys handle drinking and eating?
How long do you leave your retainer out? I feel like I am rushing to get it back in.....except for this morning but I still drank as fast as I could.

Any tips would be great!

[JillD]

No tips from me. But I understand your stress. It seems that other people on this forum were more relaxed with their retainers, but I could not. I read a lot of people developed cavities while they were going through Invisalign treatment. I think Essix retainers are not that different from Invisalign, so I was very diligent with my teeth clean because I didn't want to have any tooth problems after two years I invested in nice teeth. I was less stressed with my Hawleys, though. I heard that people with Invisalign need to keep their teeth clean all the time because the teeth don't get natural cleaning from saliva. But with Hawleys, my teeth were more exposed to saliva.

But you may need to wear your retainers only two months, which I don't think is that long. I wore my removable retainers over six months.

[SunshineRay]

Well I dont know if the 2 month is just a checkpoint to make sure everything is going well. He was kind of vague on the plan. I know eventually I will only have to wear them at night (forever!) but its the in between that I'm not sure of the time-frame.

Thanks for making me feel less crazy!