Metal Mouth Message Board

I had my adjustment the other day and I got my debanding date which is Nov. 14. Very very excited about that but I have a quick retainer question. I have read about most people have to wear their retainers 24/7 for at least a few months. My ortho said that I am giong to have a hawley with a bite plate but only have to wear at night. Is there anything wrong with this? Has anyone else only had to wear it at night?

ok, so this is what my ortho told me. no one else use any of this without consulting your Ortho first... He says he tells people to wear reatiners for 24/7 in hopes that they will wear them at leat half that time 12 hours. so when i went for my last retainer check he told me I was wearing mine too much. i have no idea what that means... so then he asked me if I was really wearing mine the 16-18 hours a day like he told me too, and I was. So now im instructed to only wear my retaimer 8 hours a day. I have no idea why. I just do as im told...

Best wishes
Leah

Its best to do as your told then to overdo what your told Thats the way I look at it. I mean my orthodontist told me just brush at least 3 times a day well I brush about 5-7 times a day Not sure if thats over kill. I just feel that when food gets stuck in the braces I minus well brush my teeth and get that food out so I have the clean feeling again.

SDFD TSchott

This is to answer Leah and Paul and is related to my experience:

I too was told to wear retainers 24/7. When I went for my first retainer check after the braces came off, I was told I was apparently too vigilant in my retainer wear. I was brought down to 12 hours, then overnight wear. The reason in my case was for my bite to settle, in other words for my upper molars to "come down" so they would "lock" into place with the lowers, which can take up to 1 year. I'm still waiting patiently...

Hope this shed some light...

Hmm...I don't really understand how one can overdo wearing a retainer. I always thought they can make slight adjustments to your teeth but not much. I thought the bite settles whether you wear it full time or part time. Has anyone else had to wear their retainer 24/7 before moving to nights?

I got my hawley yesterday and was told to wear it as much as I could that day to get used to it and only nights after than. The type of retainer and how much you have to wear it depends on your teeth issues to begin with so everyone will be different.

My retainer has moved my teeth during the night. I assume that they will setttle during the day and then be retained at night again. This pattern will continue until my teeth learn to stay were they are. Then after a year or two I will only have to wear it a few nights a week.

Hi there.. I recieved my retainers (top and bottom) today and was told I MUST wear them 24x7 for the next two months.. Even when I eat which I find impossible. My goal is to wear them 24x7 except for eating.. Let's just say I'm counting down the next 60 days!! I will be celebrating on new year's eve. I guess my question is this- when they say wear at night.. what does that mean..? 8 hours, 6 hours... ?????What is standard..

Hi. I picked up my upper retainer yesterday (Hawley). I was instructed to only wear it 10 hours a day - about two hours before I go to bed and then all night. I have a permanent retainer behind my lower teeth.
The assistant said that my lower teeth need to mesh with the uppers to help keep them aligned, so that is why I don't wear the upper retainer any more than 10 hours and that, mostly at night. I was also placed in a bite positioner for 1 week prior to getting my molds made for the Hawley. Now, I wear the bite positoner for 1 hour a day for the next three months, in addition to the above mentioned retainer wear.

So, your orthodontist's instructions sound pretty close to mine, Paul.

My orders were to wear mine ( essix ) for 24/7 for the first two months, much to my dismay. ( I still think retainers are worse than braces. ) That excluded eating though.

I imagine the person that had to wear them all the time didn't have Essix? I would hope not. Ew.

I graduated to nightly retainer wear after that for a year. Then they said to wear it 3 times a week for the rest of my life after that. I'm just going to do it every night just to be on the safe side. I can see myself forgetting which day I wore and then finally getting irritated and scrapping it altogether.

Hi, why are you getting temporarily rebraced, even though you have done what you were told?

IMO, ortho error. He had moved a tooth 2 1/2 weeks before debanding. I wondered if it was too soon, but never asked. Of course it didn't stay. Since the retainer wasn't a constant force like braces are, it didn't it make it stay put either.

I only have to get the front 4 or 6 bracketed for 2 months. Not too bad and at least this time they are going to stay.

Other than that, I've had no relapse.

Question for you - what about an active retainer? Mine has springs in it which is supposed to move/keep the teeth that don't want to stay put close to where they should stay. I know they moved in the years since my treatment but the retainer still fits - so I figure if I wear it often again, it'll fix the problem.

I hadn't heard of that. I guess it wasn't an option because my ortho never mentioned doing something like that.

I'm fine with getting the braces put back on for a bit. It's what I wanted anyway. I feel like that will get me the results I wanted.

Thanks for the input though!

Hi, how is it going now that you have been rebraced? What did you get? How long did it take? I decided to go for invisalign. I haven't got the aligners yet. They will come from America around about christmas time. I hope it's just after christmas rather than just before.