<p>My d’s ortho would not use invisalign on her because of her paticular problems, but he did put clear brackets in the front top. It cost extra and there are still wires but her braces are less noticable.</p>
<p>I think braces today are just smaller than in olden days. With his mouth closed you can’t tell there’s metal in his mouth at all. Even when he smiles I still think he’s dashing. I told him how handsome he’ll be when they are off, and he said, “Yeah, it might be overwhelming.” :D</p>
<p>A little off topic, but in 7th grade my best friend threw her retainer away in the lunchroom. While we were leaning over pawing through the garbage (what a good friend I was), a cafeteria lady came over and told my friend to have her mother take her to the doctor, as her back looked crooked. Major surgery, insertion of a metal rod and six months flat on her back in a full body cast, her scoliosis was fixed. </p>
<p>BTW we found her retainer.</p>
<p>My son who wore braces for 2.5 years rarely wore his retainer. His teeth are still perfectly straight, but have shifted a little so that the two middle teeth don’t really meet in the middle, but he’s okay with that.</p>
<p>So, for how many years do people have to continue to wear their night retainer? Forever? Will the teeth inevitably slide back to the old (bad) position no matter how long it has been?</p>
<p>yeah they will move some ^</p>
<p>My retainer is the invisable kind, so its not that noticable. :)</p>
<p>My orthodontist related teeth moving to wrinkles–it’s a part of the aging process.</p>
<p>Kinda funny story: I was supposed to have braces for about 2.5 years. Roughly 2 years into the process, my checkup ortho tells me he’s going to fit me for retainers because my braces are ready to come off.</p>
<p>I go out side and tell mom, who’s waiting in the car. Mom doesn’t believe me because my entire smile leans to one side. She takes me back inside and asks to see the orthodontist who runs the practice. He comes out and explains to mom that yes, my teeth are done, but some people just have asymmetrical jaws. To this day my smile leans to the right; I would need major corrective surgery to fix it.</p>
<p>I wore braces back in the infancy of orthodontia as a specialty, early 1970’s. I feel like my parents wasted their money because you’d never know now that I wore braces and would need major jaw surgery to correct my bite at this point. NOT going there!!
Funny incident, now not then, junior year in HS, braces off for about a month, out playing my sport and get hit in the mouth with softball – braces back on for four months – just what a 16 year old girl wants for prom season:)!</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback on Invisalign. Good to hear good ortho’s consider them, and others have used them. Yes, understand loosing them is one of the biggest downsides!</p>
<p>Orthodontics is pretty interesting. What happens when the braces go on is that the wires are adjusted (depending on the treatment plan) in order to put pressure on the bone on one side of the teeth. The bone resorbs and the teeth move. Obviously this is a slow process which is why it takes so long.</p>
<p>The reason a retainer needs to be worn is that as the bone resorbs on one side, there is lots of room for the teeth to move around in their sockets because the bone needs to rebuild on the other side. Again - takes a long time. All this is going on within the jaw and can’t be seen and kids get frustrated with having to wear a retainer for such a long time after they get the braces off. The bone needs to rebuild and get strong enough to hold the teeth in the new positions.</p>
<p>I entered dentistry in the mid 70s as a dental hygienist and practiced for nearly 20 years. Spent a couple of years with an orthodontist and then several years with another orthodontist who did adult ortho. There is a lot to consider including readjusting the actual “jaws” (mandible and maxilla)</p>
<p>Lots of people have teeth that look “fine” when they are young but actually have jaw issues which cause them to have “improper” bites. Typically, they will see periodontal problems and teeth movement in middle age. These are the ones that will lament about how they had beautiful straight teeth and now they are all jumbled. </p>
<p>Retainers are so worth it. So many thousands and thousands of dollars are wasted because the retainers aren’t worn. And again, the issues will show up in middle age and you’ll hear people talk about how they wore braces and “now look what happened.”</p>
<p>I didn’t have braces as a child, but now that I’m older and have had some tooth/gum issues I see how important it is to take care of this stuff when you’re young. Hence, my push to get ds braces.</p>
<p>“The reason a retainer needs to be worn is that as the bone resorbs on one side, there is lots of room for the teeth to move around in their sockets because the bone needs to rebuild on the other side.”</p>
<p>Pengo, it would be curious to see if a very low dose oral bisphosphonate might facilitate bone build up in it’s layering effect and osteoblastic effect during teen braces and shorten the process. I doubt such a study would ever be done though, given their low association risk with osteonecrosis of the jaw bones. This remains a paradox to me.</p>
<p>Giveherwingsmon - I left dental hygiene when my son was born (18 years ago) and haven’t really kept up with much of anything. Stayed home for 5 years then became a real estate broker. Go figure.</p>
<p>Anyway, my hubby is a dentist (not an orthodontist) - I will ask what he knows about it. He is into alternative medicine, doesn’t take even an aspirin and is even against fluoride (boy, did we quibble over that one!!!) so I doubt he would “approve” of that kind of treatment but he may be able to enlighten me. :-)</p>
<p>You’re probably right about the study though - what parent is going to subject their kid to something that may be damaging? I know I wouldn’t. Thankfully, my son was a good patient and wore his retainer until the night before his 18th birthday. I wonder if the drawings I made for him so that he could understand the process had anything to do with it.</p>