Metal Mouth Message Board

How soon after your braces were removed did you get your retainer/s? I was previously told I could collect my retainers the same day but that has now changed and I will have to wait one week to collect my retainers after my braces are removed.

If you had to wait, did your teeth shift visibly or just by feel? if so did the retainer put everything back into place?

It took my a week to get my essix retainer after i finished with my brace...but lucky for my i had the Inman Aligner removable brace so my ortho just told me to wear it for an extra week till your retainer comes so your teeth dont shift.

88oscar wrote:It took my a week to get my essix retainer after i finished with my brace...but lucky for my i had the Inman Aligner removable brace so my ortho just told me to wear it for an extra week till your retainer comes so your teeth dont shift.

That is good at least your teeth wouldn't have shifted in that time. I have a traditional metal brace so will have it taken off then impressions done and wait one week to collect removable retainer

I had to wait a week to get my Essix retainer as well, so I had nothing holding my top teeth in place for that time (had a permanent retainer on bottom). When I got the retainer, it was a little tight for a few days but everything was fine. No shifting (or at least none that I noticed) and my teeth are still perfectly aligned.

sarasea wrote:When I got the retainer, it was a little tight for a few days but everything was fine. No shifting (or at least none that I noticed) and my teeth are still perfectly aligned.

That is fantastic! reading your post has made me feel so much better about waiting 1 week brace free before my retainer is ready.

Sounds like we're going to have the same retention, upper clear and lower bonded on front 6 teeth.

Hi BF,

Can't wait to see your debraced pictures!

All being well, I am getting my brace removed at 8.30am on 22 July. I am getting a bonded retainer at that appointment and then go back at 4.30pm the following day for a clear retainer. The clear retainer will be for night time use but I don't know whether I will have any initial period of having to wear it 24/7.

Jem

I have bonded retainer on bottom and went one week with that before getting my clear one only to be worn at night straight from the start. I had no problem with the bottom teeth during this period as the bonded retainer holds everything in place anyway.

As for the tops, I had impressions taken with my brackets still on which meant my retainer was ready as soon as the brackets came of the following week.

I don't think you have anything to worry about

Just got my tin grin taken off last Thursday (June 27th) and picked up my upper Hawley and lower Essix retainers on Monday (July 1st). So, 4 days. By last Friday night/Saturday morning, my bite felt "tight" as my teeth were already starting to shift! It was weird though, even without a retainer, my bite felt much better in the mornings...by night time my teeth were starting to crowd each other again.

I am wearing my retainers 24/7 at this point and this morning when I took them out to eat and brush/floss my teeth, I could tell my bite felt how it did the first day I got my braces off--MUCH better! I will say that the lower Essix retainer is pretty painful at this point since my teeth had started to move already, but it fits fine, just a little tight. I was told it would take about a week for the pain to go away and for it to not be so tight. The Hawley is REALLY comfortable though!

Hi everyone, thank you for replying to my thread. I am so glad to read that the retainers will put the teeth back if there is any movement between brace removal and retainer collection... which could very well happen if it's not the same or next day.

There has been a change since making this thread. I am now getting my retainer the next day. I recently had to reschedule my debrace day due to to a pesky space I discovered in my teeth and when I rebooked the new removal appointment I was booked in for the day after to collect my removable retainer - so glad!

jem wrote:Hi BF,

Can't wait to see your debraced pictures!

Thank you Jem! I can't wait to see yours too. We are now getting debraced the same day

Unfortunately I had to reschedule my brace removal AGAIN. I was squeezed in at the next earliest appointment possible but I couldn't get booked in to collect my retainers the next day this time , the earliest they could do was 4 days after. Anyway my teeth are already shifting, I actually noticed movement within the first 36 hours and it seems more and more teeth are shifting as time goes by. The first movement I noticed was that one of my laterals started to move down out of the gum. The latest is my upper centrals, I was flossing my teeth and the floss went in SO easily and then bam there was a hair line space between the two teeth! As I flossed moving the floss up and down the sides of the teeth the gap got even bigger . A lower gap has also started to open up as well. I expected maybe some movement while waiting for my removable retainers but not this much. I hope like others experienced in this thread that my removable retainers will move my teeth back into place. I'm going to go crazy worrying until my appointment to collect my retainers.

I got my braces off last Wednesday (8/14), I left the office at 11:15 and my clear retainers were ready by 2:00. (They make them in office) I have had them in all day, every day except for eating. I am so afraid to go without them! I think they have only been out for a total of 5 hours since I got them. I do not know how someone can do invisilign...the constant having to brush after eating before I can put retainers back in drives me crazy! I have decided to forgo my snacks while at work. I am also hoping to lose about 5 lbs on my new plan.

Here is a question I have been thinking about...does the amount of time spent in braces have anything to do with the chance of shifting? My braces were on for almost 4 years...so, I was wondering if someone who only had theirs for say 2 years, had a better chance of relapse?

braceface~ my ortho said it is best to use thin dental floss. I haven't really been able to find "thin" floss, not even sure what it is, so I have been using my regular stuff. Also, I did have a small black space between my two front teeth, he advised not to use floss for a while because he wants the gum to fill in the space.

How badly are your teeth shifting?

Snowglobe32 wrote:I have decided to forgo my snacks while at work. I am also hoping to lose about 5 lbs on my new plan.

Oh me too! Which is good because I have gained some weight recently

Snowglobe32 wrote:Here is a question I have been thinking about...does the amount of time spent in braces have anything to do with the chance of shifting? My braces were on for almost 4 years...so, I was wondering if someone who only had theirs for say 2 years, had a better chance of relapse?

I have wondered this too. I was in braces for 33 months and with the movement I've had within only 2 days after my braces being removed I'm thinking mine are going to be a pain to keep in place, possibly meaning 24/7 (well apart from when eating and brushing) retainer wear for a longer time than most before I can switch to nights.

Snowglobe32 wrote:braceface~ my ortho said it is best to use thin dental floss. I haven't really been able to find "thin" floss, not even sure what it is, so I have been using my regular stuff. Also, I did have a small black space between my two front teeth, he advised not to use floss for a while because he wants the gum to fill in the space.

How badly are your teeth shifting?

I used to use a floss that was round in shape, it was quite thick and I sometimes struggled to get it between some teeth. A few months ago I tried satin tape floss, it's the thinnest I can buy in stores here and it's flat so goes between the teeth very easily compared to the rounded one I used to use. I have still been using it since getting my braces off but the hairline space opened up and with very slight pressure opened up even more. I already had a black triangle but the hairline space went right down the length of the two teeth so the two centrals did not meet at all. To someone else, particularly someone who has never had braces, I would say my teeth haven't moved a major amount but to me it feels a lot. It is mainly spaces opening up (which is slightly frustrating seeing as I started with overcrowded teeth and 0 spaces) and teeth either coming down out of the gum or going back up after they were moved in the opposite direction during my treatment.

I think if I could have collected my removable retainers the day after like my previous appointment was set up for it would have saved the spaces opening up but because I got debanded on a friday I couldn't get seen until the week after and the earliest appointment available at short notice was Tuesday.

BraceFace~

Does your ortho offer positioners? I was measured for one when my braces came off. I was told it takes about 6 weeks to be ready. I have to wear my essix until my positioner is ready, then I start wearing my positioner as much as possible for a couple of days (start on a weekend they recommended). Then after that, I have to wear it at night and for about 4 hours a day. After some time, you can cut back on the time you wear it.

It is supposed to hold your teeth in perfect placement. Even if you stopped wearing your retainer and things started to shift, your positioner is supposed to put them back in place. Whether or not this is true, I don't know. The research I have done says they are great.

One of the assistants only wears her on Sunday nights. She has been out of braces for 10 years.

I was also told that a positioner, until you get used to it, is like wearing 250 elastics at one time!

I got temporary clear retainers made in office, the day after debanding. I was supposed to get impressions for my final clear retainers on debrace day, but instead we ended up contemplating the best retention plan for me, and ran out of time. I returned the following week for the impressions, and then picked up the retainers 3 weeks later. So I had the softer temporary retainers for 4 weeks, and I definitely noticed a shift. I struggled to wear the upper retainer during the day until the last week, but it was never tight.

My new retainers are very tight, and I can already tell my teeth are trying to move back the way they were.

I had a positioner as a teen. Nasty thing. It's like a big rubber sports mouth guard. Your supposed to bite into it periodically, and this motion sets the teeth. Problem is it really works the jaw, so if you have jaw joint issues, this will make them worse. Good luck if you got his route.

No my orthodontist doesn't offer them, only offers bonded, essix and hawley. I had to google a positioner, I didn't know what it was but when I saw info/pics I remember looking it up last year.

I've had my clear retainers 6 ish days now. When I first put my lower one in it didn't feel tight and it didn't feel loose either and it continues to feel like that no matter how long I leave it out of my mouth, I suspect this is due to my (back up) bonded retainer. I guess the teeth cannot do much moving with the bonded compared to the uppers that do not have a bonded retainer. The first time I put my upper clear retainer in it didn't feel tight but it did feel tighter than the lower, it didn't cause any discomfort at all like some people have experienced when the teeth have shifted slightly, which mine had shifted so I was expecting some discomfort. Ever since then the upper fits in the same as the lower (not tight and not loose) even if I leave it out for a few hours.

I am already starting to wish I had gone for hawleys instead though. There are a few reasons why, I'll list some:
1) My back teeth (molars) no longer touch when I take the retainers out (they feel as if they are meeting when the retainers are in but they aren't really it's just the upper and lower essix material that covers the biting surface of the teeth meeting). If I really force my jaws together I can barely make my back teeth meet but doing that is painful on my joints and it feels extremely unnatural. If I relax and try to bite naturally without forcing my back teeth to touch then the only teeth that meet are my canines, 1st premolars and 2nd premolars
2) My jaw has been aching quite a lot ever since I started wearing them and that's probably because of reason 1
3) I don't think they will stay in one piece for long with my night time clenching/grinding
4) I am doing my best to keep them clean but I cannot see them staying clean and clear for very long
5) Because of reason 3 & 4 I don't think they are worth £200 and I cannot afford to keep paying that out to replace them