D recently got her braces off. Right now she is in the clear Essix retainer. She is to wear them 24/7 for one month. Then she will go to an upper and lower for night only.
Should I be concerned about shift? I see some people have permanent, especially on the bottom.
Recommendations? What do you wish you had done?
Thanks.
The orthodontist told my daughter she’d have to wear the retainer forever (which seems a bit much) and she has a permanent bottom
Retainer. But after she got her braces off she was neglectful about wearing the top retainer and we had to pay to have braces put back on.
My fear also
My daughter got fixed retainers put on after her braces came off - both top and bottom. Over ten years later, they are still on and her teeth have not shifted at all. Some of her friends got the removable retainers, didn’t wear them (or lost them) and ended up with a second round of braces (ouch!)
It pains me to see the crooked teeth on my kid that stopped wearing his retainer. His teeth don’t look all that different from the pre-braces days. Nobody told us in the initial stages of getting braces that the retainer was forever. Kind of a big waste of money in my opinion. I never heard of a permanent retainer.
By permanent, I presume you mean cemented to the teeth? My kids did not need braces so I don’t have experience with modern braces but I had a cemented retainer on the bottom and a temp at night similar to instructions you were given. My teeth shifted on the top. Had a dentist pull bottom retainer over a decade later.
Ancedotal from a person with no dentistry skills - I wish I had pulled wisdom teeth before removing retainer. I think that might have prevented shift. Orthodontist said to have them pulled when he removed braces but my parents couldn’t afford it, particularly after paying for braces. Should have paid for wisdom teeth to be pulled (impacted) before the braces.
Yes, the permanent or fixed retainer is a slim piece of metal cemented to the back of your teeth. For my daughter, they span the middle 8 or so teeth - one on the top and one on the bottom. She still has her wisdom teeth (they will probably need to be pulled at some point). She got her adult teeth early (except those wisdom teeth) so she was done with her braces by twelve. Her young age was another factor in deciding on the fixed retainer. Her ortho strongly recommended it - so we did that. Her before teeth were so bad that the ortho wasn’t sure they would straighten out - they did beautifully.
Son has the cemented retainer bar on bottom and wears a removable one at night. We were told forever. He doesn’t have to wear the removable one every single night (he did at first), but wears it a least every couple nights to be sure nothing is moving. He is a freshman away at college now, so I hope he is still complying.
Regarding wisdom teeth, his ortho advised having them removed when son’s braces were removed.
I had braces as a teen. Never had the option of a retainer, and yes, the teeth totally shifted as an adult. I decided to try again as an adult because of severe shifting, and am hopefully nearing the end of what was supposed to be 13 months of Invisiline (going on 24!). Orthodontist insists that anyone with braces will need some type of retainer forever. We’re now trying to decide whether a permanent metal strip, or nightly retainers. Son has a permanent strip, and says it is extremely difficult to clean properly, because he has a tendency to develop plaque / tartar, and it builds up around the metal. My dental hygienist thinks a nightly retainer would be better for me for the same reason. Orthod. insists the permanent is what I ‘want’. Still deciding… But you may want to also talk to your regular dentist & hygienist regarding best option for your daughter.
Son was supposed to wear a retainer- that lasted awhile but not like it should have. Over a decade later now, don’t get to see or ask.
How do you floss with the permanent retainer?
D had just horrible teeth and had to wear braces twice, starting at 7 years old. You would think she would have worn her retainer religiously (no one ever mentioned a permanent retainer or I would have done it in a heartbeat), but no, she didn’t. Now, 3 years later, her teeth are crowding in again and the shape of her face is changing, too (smaller, less pronounced jawline). It breaks my heart. But she is an adult, so she will either pay for the next set of braces herself of live with the consequences.
My D16 was pretty lax about using her retainer as she went through high school (and lost if for stretches at a time. I once found it in a sneaker under her bed).
She had some shifting after not wearing it for a long time (but not too much) and recently got the clear retainers for overnight, which she is more willing to actually wear (she has more sense as a college sophomore).
I had braces as a teen and had a retainer I was supposed to wear all the time for a while and then after some period of time which I cannot recall they told me to just wear at night. I tried to follow the instructions and did well for many years. Sometimes I would realize I had not worn my retainer at night for several months or more and would put it back on. It would be very tight and I would then wear it religiously at night until it would happen again and again. This lasted for a long, long time until I somehow lost the retainer probably 15-20 years ago. My teeth have not shifted noticeably and I am almost 50.
My wife has a bar on her lower teeth. They were so stubborn that they would shift back noticeably within a day. She has a special floss that she has to thread through below the bar. That, and Sonicare tooth brushes.
Her first round braces as a teen the orthodontist told her she only had to wear her retainers for a year. Her teeth shifted, so she did braces again at age 40.
Years ago, it was thought that you could straighten your teeth, wear a retainer for a few years, and then your teeth would get used to their new positions and stay there.
Orthodontists today know better. My kids were told from the outset that that they’d need retainers the rest of their lives, maybe not every night, but at least a few nights a week. If you put in your retainer and it’s tight, then you need to wear it more often.
After abandoning my retainers after college, my top teeth stayed in their new spots fairly well, but my bottom ones are slightly crooked again. I hope my kids fare better.
I agree with the poster who said make sure wisdom teeth are removed. I had braces as a kid but back then nobody told you to wear retainers forever. I also had only two wisdom teeth removed. I started to noticed in photos that during my later 20s and into my 30s my teeth were shifting. When my own children were going through ortho as teens and I was in my 40s the shift was more noticeable. I decided to have adult ortho and this time I did Invisalign (which is amazing). It has been five years and I still wear my retainers (the clear ones) nearly every night. I am so happy with the results. I have noticed on many teens who don’t wear their retainers that their teeth are shifting before they ever get to college. The bottom line is you have to wear some sort of retainer after treatment.
D is 14 and all wisdom teeth are 100% impacted. Should I still push for this or wait a few years?
Lifetime retainers make sense if you think about why you needed braces in the first place. The geometry of the jaw, cheeks, and lips all contributed in some way to crowd the teeth and force them to be crooked. In that sense, once the teeth are straightened by braces they are now in a position that is “unnatural” for the mouth. Therefore over time, without the support of retainers, they will return to the original positions.
I had a permanent lower retainer (google pics of “permanent retainer” to see what it looks like) and a plastic upper retainer after getting my braces. The lower retainer lasted about 10 years but recently broke from a tooth moving. An upper tooth moved slightly as well, probably due to me slacking off on wearing the upper retainer at night. I was feeling bummed about the whole thing but thinking my orthodontist wouldn’t be able to do much for me, then my dog chewed up my retainer!
I finally went in to see the doc and he’s putting me into Invisalign for 10 weeks, basically for free (my original journey was long, involved, and painful, so my orthodontist has some pity for me)! Happy days, I was picturing him wanting to put those metal bracket torture devices back in, which I was prepared to refuse.
Anyway, wear your retainers and get a couple extra when they’re making them so you have some spares. The new upper retainer I got is much smaller and easier to tolerate than my 10 year old plastic one, so if you have an old one that gives you trouble then talk to your ortho. Good thing too since it’s the same as the Invisalign’s I’ll be wearing for 20 hours per day times 10 weeks.
And check out this floss with built-in threaders if you or your kids have a permanent retainer. It’s a million times easier/faster than user those loop threader gizmos. Also keeping the permanent lower retainer clean has been pretty simple for me (my dental hygienist has commented a few times on how clean I keep it). I just take a few extra seconds with the electric toothbrush in that area - it’s really no extra work at all.
The type of retainer an orthodontist uses is usually practitioner-specific. The most common are the removable Essix, the cemented on lingual wire (usually front 6 teeth, usually lower only), and the removable wire with pink acrylic.
Retainers are for life. I find that most kids do best with the cemented on wire for the lowers and a removable Essix for the uppers. Minimal shifting as long as the kid wears it. Flossing with braces can be accomplished more easily with the Platypus flosser or the FlossFish.
We make retainers for kids who hate the wire/acrylic ones, who have some shifting but don’t want to go back into braces, and others whose originals don’t fit. Best compliance comes from upper and lower clear plastic essix retainers.