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I've had my top and bottom permanent retainers for about 2 months or so and just got my debanding date set for January 31st.
My question is if flossing around the permanent retainers really gets easier? I've been avoiding it, but my orthodontist told me I really need to do it and that it will get easier???
The worst is between my two top front teeth. It feels like I'm sticking a needle through my gums, I literally get tears in my eyes. It takes me probably 30 minutes to floss around my two retainers.
Hmmm I'm wondering why it takes you so long to floss. I have upper and lower permanent retainers and at most, it adds like 2-3 minutes onto my flossing routine. Are your wires super close to your gum line, perhaps? Or maybe there is too much glue, which your ortho could grind off? I'm assuming you use floss threaders to guide the floss?
SARPE: December 19, 2013
Expander out/TPA in: May 13th, 2014
Upper and lower braces: May 21, 2014
Lefort I + BSSO + sliding genioplasty: June 11, 2015
Braces off: November 28th, 2016!!!
Braces on again, upper and lower: September 3, 2024
jaime wrote:Hmmm I'm wondering why it takes you so long to floss. I have upper and lower permanent retainers and at most, it adds like 2-3 minutes onto my flossing routine. Are your wires super close to your gum line, perhaps? Or maybe there is too much glue, which your ortho could grind off? I'm assuming you use floss threaders to guide the floss?
Part of the problem is that I'm flossing between both my braces and the permanent retainers. Some of the retainer teeth it goes between very quickly, but a few of them the brackets are lower and I have a hard time seeing where to shove the threader through so that it goes beneath the wire in the back. My bottom retainer isn't so bad, but my top one is much closer to the gum line and gives me more problems.
