If you have finished with your orthodontic treatment and are wearing retainers (or will be soon), this is a special place to connect with others in your (enviable) situation. Ask a question or make a comment about life post-braces.
Just thought I'd share my experience with my Hawley retainers. 28 days after debanding I received my retainers. I've had them now since last week Thursday. The top one is active meaning there is an extra wire placed in the acrylic portion that the ortho adjusted to push my right lateral forward into a better position. I can't bite down all the way with the top retainer and I can't talk properly with it on so my ortho said I can just wear it at night. It also hurts like braces pain since it's doing some work... I'm sure my speech and the pain would improve if I wore it 24/7 and I wish I could, but I need to be able to communicate properly at my job. I'm considering taking some ibuprofen before bed because the pain is hard to ignore. When I wear the top retainer sometimes my top and bottom teeth involuntarily click together and it's extremely painful. The same thing used to happen after adjustments. Ouch...
The bottom retainer is very comfortable and I wear it 24/7 except when I eat or need to clean it. It fits so well that sometimes I forget it's in there and realize only when I try to eat something. My lower front teeth shifted a lot before my retainer came in and it almost completely straightened them the day I got it.
I'm interested in hearing everyone else's retainer experiences as well!
Interesting to read that it can actually move teeth, very hopefull for my case as well
So you say it really helped moving the lower teeth? I remember we had our doubts how that was even possible!
I'm very curious how it develops!
Good luck with it!
I was surprised at how quickly the lower retainer corrected the shifting and the interesting thing as that they aren't tipped forward as much. Because they are more upright now there is a small overjet, but I don't mind it.
The top retainer is moving my right lateral foward pretty quickly too. I'll try to get some pictures up soon. I have finals this week and next week so I've been busy.
Hey just got my lower brackets off last week (topless before Christmas, touch wood -- ooh, er) and was issued with a Hawley and an Essix lower retainer on Tuesday. I have to say, I'm not enjoying the retainer experience, I've been instructed to wear it 24/7 for 12 months, then nightly after that. When instructed on how to insert and remove the retainers by my ortho (insert them in your mouth, in other words), I immediately preferred the Essix, as it's much less noticeable. However, it doesn't fit as snugly as my Hawley and I was worried that it might not be retaining my teeth in their new position as well, so I've taken to wearing the Hawley.
What's bothering me the most, I guess, is the difficulty I'm having with my speech. I'm a in the final year of my PhD, so spend a lot of time on my own during the day, so for the most part it's not a problem and usually forget that it's there, but then when I go home or I bump into someone I know I suddenly I find that I sound like Daffy Duck or Sylvester the Cat (am I showing my age?). I'm well aware that my mouth will eventually adjust to the retainer (the problem is much less severe with the Essix I should add), for the moment it is getting me down, not least because I know that it's only a matter of time before I have to go through the whole thing again with the top retainer.
I'm teaching undergraduates again next semester and I just know I'll be slipping both brackets off before I go to class -- this shouldn't cause any major complications in my treatment, should it? I know these questions are best reserved for my ortho, and I have what I hope will be my penultimate fixed appointment so I will pose these teasers to him then, but in the mean time I thought I'd have it out with some of you fine, like-mouthed people, who have proven to have been so insightful over my (almost) two years in braces (even though my posting has been minimal).
Oh, I should add, that I've switched to the Hawleys for a couple more selfish and indulgent reasons. Firstly (the not-so-indulgent reason), as the Essix retainer felt a little loose to me (are they supposed to?) I was worried about choking on it in my sleep -- this seems less likely with the Hawley. Secondly, I like booze (especially so at Christmas), and I'm of the mind that it probably okay to have a tipple while Hawleyed up, though again, I'd like to hear of others' experiences.
I hope this post isn't too negative, I will never regret getting braces, they've made me a much happier, more orally complete person and the the two years I was behind the wire absolutely flew. It's just these damned retainers ... but what's another year, eh.
raymondo - You're having the speech trouble with just the lower retainer? I wear my lower Hawley 24/7 and it doesn't affect my speech, but with the upper one on I sound like Daffy Duck. If you think your speech sounds bad now...just wait 'til you hear yourself speak with both in!
I have only had the Hawley's so I have no basis for comparison, but I can imagine the Essix would be much more comfortable, especially for the top. On my upper Hawley the acrylic behind my front teeth is so thick that it prevents my top and bottom teeth from touching, not to mention that it puts pressure on my top retainer when I bite against it which doesn't feel very pleasant. I'm going to have to make an appointment with my ortho because I don't think he meant for that to happen. He actually said that he prefers Hawley's over Essix because he believe it's better for the top and bottom teeth to be able to occlude against each other and my Hawley is preventing that.
I went to ortho yesterday. The problem really is my jaw and not teeth moving. So front teeth tipping forward shouldn't be so much of a problem, but looks bad now because of the new overjet created by the lower jaw falling back.
he gave me two options:
1. a biteplate
problem with that, is that it will problably cause my lower jaw to go even a little more backwards, so it would just decrease the joint pain, but do nothing to my bite or teeth.
2. a positioner
I never heard of such thing. They use it against snoring i heard..
ortho claims it can bring my jaw forward again..a little...because it will put my jaw forward at night...i dunno..sounds weird.
I would look into the positioner, sounds like it might do the trick! I'm glad your ortho came up with some ideas, there's still hope of improving your bite!
As for me, I think I'm slipping into the obsession of looking at my teeth too much. My next ortho appt is in 3 months and the retainers are actually able to move things. I'm actually getting more concerned about my top teeth now. My lower front teeth corrected for the most part from the retainer, but the right central is slightly out of line. At my retainer fitting my ortho said that he can adjust the retainer to push it forward if it's still out of line at my next appt.
My top retainer doesn't feel like it fits properly. As far as it pushing my right lateral forward, it's working, but it seems like the acrylic on the lingual of my front teeth is too thick and it keeps my top and bottom teeth from touching when I bite down. Also, while I was in braces my right lateral was pulled down a bit because it was shorter than the left lateral. It seems to have retruded back up so it's noticeably shorter again.
I didn't realize that I'd be just as obsessed with looking at and critiquing my teeth after my braces were off. I guess I expected perfection.
I totally understand about being too critical and obsessing over it.
There's not one day without searching the internet for more information, taking pictures with the webcam of my teeth, and staring in the mirror for hours.
Actually my ortho put me at my place (hehe dutch expression, sorry).
He showed me the molds that were made before any treatment..
What a huge difference!!! (still).
He said it was really necesairy to put things in perspective again.
We came a long way...
But still, if things can improve we should go for it!
So i guess we both found out now that retainers can move teeth, excellent news for us
Now let's see if they can move jaws too...
Glad to here that the retainers help move shifting teeth. That's my problem. I never got my wisdom teeth taken out and my bottom teeth had been tilting inward and not straight as they used to. Once I get them removed I will request a lower hawley retainer. By the way I never had any ortho treatment before.
