Retainers
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Retainers
How fast do your teeth shift back? I was told to wear my wire retainer 22 hours a day right now but I only wear them about 14 hours because I am a high school teacher and cannot teach with them in. Am I really in danger of my teeth moving leaving the retainer out this long.
Do you have any options for Invisalign type retainers, or would your ortho be ok with wearing your last upper tray during classes as options. I can understand high school students are a tough audience - my wife taught them for a number of years.
I would be reluctant to go much less than the ortho's recommendation. In my case I wore braces 20 years ago and my dentist didn't prescribe proper retention. As a result, I'm back with a serious dental problem and an 18 month tune-up!!
I would like to know if you come up with any good solutions as I hope to have the same problem some time in the future. In my case, I travel for a living and meet with public safety officers (not as bad as high schoolers) that are para-military. It would be great to give presentations without a mouth full of plastic and wire!
I would be reluctant to go much less than the ortho's recommendation. In my case I wore braces 20 years ago and my dentist didn't prescribe proper retention. As a result, I'm back with a serious dental problem and an 18 month tune-up!!
I would like to know if you come up with any good solutions as I hope to have the same problem some time in the future. In my case, I travel for a living and meet with public safety officers (not as bad as high schoolers) that are para-military. It would be great to give presentations without a mouth full of plastic and wire!
Retainer
I put my last Invisalign tray in last night just to see if my teeth had moved and it was super tight to the point of hurting. I asked my ortho about wearing a tray instead of wire retainer and he said he doesn't advise it because if any adjustments need to be made you cannot do it with a tray. I go back Monday because my first retainer cut into the top of my gums and I am getting a new one. I am going to ask if I can wear the last Invisalign tray during the day. The only thing is I will be back to the "brush the teeth" routine again after meals. I also noticed that with the first wire retainer that one of the springs that hooked in front of my eye tooth actually turned the tooth in front of it inward. I told my ortho about this and sure enough he said it was doing that so they were going to also make that adjustment on the new wire retainer.
Now that you mentioned it, I remember my retainer had springs pushing on certain teeth after my braces were removed, so my ortho was still moving teeth around.
Probably your best solution will be to discuss your problem with your ortho when you go in and see if there are options that will work for you.
I had a similar problem 20 years ago when my ortho then came up with a retainer-like day appliance that looked like it had a row of paperclips on both sides between my teeth and tongue, and plastic that showed below my upper teeth. I had a night appliance with a bunch of elastics to extrude my rear teeth. I told my ortho there was no way I could wear that thing in my work environment where I constantly met with client departments. He told me to do the best I could with the day appliance, which turned out to be not at all.
I don't know if this has any bearing on my present problem - I had a full relapse of my overbite in addition to some other problems. My new ortho has told me it'll take 21 trays of Invisalign (didn't qualify for Invisalign Express!) and possibly other treatment, for up to a total of 18 months. The surprise for me was that the problem came back after such a long time and that it became bad enough to start doing gum and other damage.
This time I may check on a clear retainer for my top teeth if I end up with Hawleys, even if I have to spend some extra. I don't know if this will work for you. Unfortunately I have a while before I can start thinking about this!
Probably your best solution will be to discuss your problem with your ortho when you go in and see if there are options that will work for you.
I had a similar problem 20 years ago when my ortho then came up with a retainer-like day appliance that looked like it had a row of paperclips on both sides between my teeth and tongue, and plastic that showed below my upper teeth. I had a night appliance with a bunch of elastics to extrude my rear teeth. I told my ortho there was no way I could wear that thing in my work environment where I constantly met with client departments. He told me to do the best I could with the day appliance, which turned out to be not at all.
I don't know if this has any bearing on my present problem - I had a full relapse of my overbite in addition to some other problems. My new ortho has told me it'll take 21 trays of Invisalign (didn't qualify for Invisalign Express!) and possibly other treatment, for up to a total of 18 months. The surprise for me was that the problem came back after such a long time and that it became bad enough to start doing gum and other damage.
This time I may check on a clear retainer for my top teeth if I end up with Hawleys, even if I have to spend some extra. I don't know if this will work for you. Unfortunately I have a while before I can start thinking about this!