Retainers after Braces

[Kaz Likes Cookies]

So I'm officially a goner. I got braces back in like sixth grade and got em out freshmen year of high school. I absolutely hate the clear plastic retainer my ortho gave me. It's hurt since day 1. So, me being the stubborn person I am, I refused to wear it. Well, 3 years later, I've got some crowding back. Does anyone know if you can use retainers 24/7 to put the teeth back in place? I've got my parents on my back telling me I wasted their money and stuff and I'd really like to fix this without getting braces again. (I'll have to pay if i do). Do you seriously have to wear these stupid retainers all your life? I find it incredibly stupid if you do.

To discuss:
Brace horror stories
Retainers for life
Why braces shouldn't cost an arm and a leg!  

[invisible-weirdo]

You should start wearing them again, though you might need to visit your dentist again so they can make you a better fitting one if your teeth have moved. Hopefully they haven't moved so much to make them have to put the braces back on again,

I'm with you on hating the clear plastic retainer. I kind stopped wearing it for several months, though I'm trying to slowly get back into the habit of wearing it regularly.

Anyway, yes I'm pretty sure you have to wear those stupid retainers for ever. Yes, it is stupid, but really, it's so much better than braces (at least in my opinion. God I hated those things...)  

[sth the relinquished]

Retainers retain. They don't fix. You should have used them then. Using them now, however, will help things not get worse, until you get braces.

Again.

While you stew that thought around, also think about listening to your orthodontist. They don't just tell you to do stuff for kicks . It's serious business.  

[Chexley]

I'll paint you mornings of gold,
I'll spin you Valentine evenings...

I agree. I had some minor crowding and my dentist recommended Invisilign to me. You will have permanent dots placed onto your teeth to anchor the plastic (they shave them down when they are no longer needed).

With retainers, you can either wear them 24/7 after your teeth have been moved to where they need to be OR you can wear the retainer at night.

I'm still wearing my Invisilign braces, but only at night because I'm lazy. I like Invisilign better because 1) there's no metal, 2) there's no monthly visits and 3) no painfully tightening resulting in swelling and bleeding. When you first get them, you'll have a slight lisp. The dots, if placed on your front teeth, may create a sore on your lip. It goes away. smile

Though we're strangers till now,
We're choosing a path between the stars.

 

[everlane]

I've never had braces and totally not complaining. I know someone who got her teeth all straightened out but when her wisdom teeth came in it screwed it all up again. Kinda the reason why I started screening for wisdom teeth like way early because my teeth are fit in there pretty tight as is.

Oh getting wisdom teeth out was not fun. They had to smash it up into 4 pieces, chip away some of my jawbone, then pull the pieces out one by one. neutral  

[Lady Bee D Taste]

I have had all three. Braces, Retainer [Which I am wearing now.] and my wisdom teeth out. My retainer will move my teeth back a little if I haven't worn them in a month or so but it really isn't fun. I am in pain pretty much the whole time till it fits right again. So it really isn't the best idea.

My wisdom teeth experience was pretty okay for the most part. They broke two and kept two whole. I have them in a little sterile bag. C:

Also I have lost three bottom retainers. They cost one hundred dollars.

 

[wakusei]

I had braces on both my top and bottom teeth when I was teenager. About a year or two ago, my dentist said he noticed movement in my bottom teeth and recommended I wear a retainer. I had gotten some when I first got my braces off but naturally I stopped using them after a while.... I got a new bottom retainer from my orthodontist and wear it at night. My teeth seem fine now. Don't look out of place to me...

But I guess it all depends on how MUCH shifting your teeth have done.  

[Kalstolyn]

Kals is questing again!

I have had braces TWICE. The first time was with headgear. The second time was with those rubber bands that go from the top teeth to the bottom and are anchored in the back, and they extracted four "pre-molars" to "relieve crowding". I only had one year between getting the first set off and getting the second set put on, so I basically wore my retainer for the entire year. I had a "permanent" retainer on the bottom, but I busted it by eating halloween candy that had been denied to me for the two years prior due to having braces. After I had my braces removed, people kept on asking me if I had gotten my hair cut.

My second set of retainers I wore constantly for probably the first year after having the braces off. After that I was supposed to wear them at night, but I got lazy. Also the bottom one kind of cut into my mouth under my tongue. If I went for a while without them, they wouldn't fit right, but if I wore them religiously for a while after that, they would shift my teeth back into place again. Then one night I went to force my upper retainer into my mouth and surprise surprise, the plastic plate snapped in half right up the centre.

We had moved to a different province by then, and went to a different orthodontist. Well she was horrified when she heard the tale of my teeth. Turns out that they yanked out four perfectly healthy teeth for nothing, and that in order to correct my bite properly, I actually need some serious break-your-jaw-and-wire-your-mouth-shut-for-six-weeks surgery AND THEN two years of braces (again. joy). The alternative is to wear retainers for the rest of my life or to lose all my teeth before I'm fourty due to wearing out the enamel the wrong way. Incidentally, the necessary surgery is considered "cosmetic" and therefore is not covered under any dental plan. I can't afford it, and I also can't afford dentures, so basically I'm screwed.

To top it all off, having my teeth shifting around so drastically and frequently caused one of my two front teeth to die. That's right, it is dead. The nerve receded out of it and it filled itself in with calcium, effectively performing a natural root canal.

Jimsheep had braces for a couple of years too, but smashed out one of his two front teeth (he actually smashed it out twice, they couldn't save it the second time) so he had to wear a retainer with a false tooth on it for WAY too many years -- until his wisdom teeth appeared and were removed, and until he could afford to have an alternative false tooth installed -- if he stopped wearing the retainer, the gap from that tooth would have closed up as his teeth crowded to the front of his mouth.

@ sth the relinquished: The ortho in the town where I grew up totally told people to do stuff just for kicks. He also swindled basically the entire town, with the help of one of the dentists, and slapped braces and headgear on a whole pile of 9-year-olds.

Check sig for details!

 

[sankapoo]

Retainers won't put anything back in place unfortunately. ( I wish they did because in my lack of wearing them my teeth have shifted a bit) they just keep them from moving. And once they've moved, if the retainer still fits, it will just keep it from getting worse. So, definitely wear your retainer.  

[Jafthasleftthebuilding]

Just remove all your teeth and get dentures! Problem solved, ta daaaa! biggrin  

[SuchSweetSadism]

My problem is spacing rather than crowding because I wasn't born with molers, so I plan on getting invisalign as well.

But I know someone who has severe crowding and she got her's off as a freshman in HS too, she stopped wearing her braces a lot last year when she was a freshman in college, so she just did it every other day. She's no wearing them once a week as a soph and everything appears to be fine.

I'm guessing it's diligence though so I'd suggest sticking with it.  

[Aachren]

How bad is your shifting?

I got my braces off when I was 9. (Yes, I was the only kid in the 2nd grade with braces and we won't even get into talking about my headgear.)
I wore the upper retainer for, oh, 2 years and the bottom one for about 6 months. (My bottom one was a permanent and I kept popping it loose, so it was removed.)
Now, more than 10 years later, I have some shifting, but not so bad as to need braces.
I have even teeth with just enough irregularity that people refuse to believe that I ever wore braces.
I happen to like that though; I get weirded out when I see people with over-straightened teeth that look so perfectly like dentures.