Retainer Wear Question

[dantocanada]

Happy New Year everyone.

I got my braces off in July and have a permanent retainer bonded behind my top front 4 teeth and bottom 6 teeth. I was also given a removable Essix for the bottom and a Hawley for the top. The funny thing is I was fully expecting to be told to wear my retainers 24/7 for the first year or so as everyone else is, so I was quite surprised when I was told I only needed to wear them while sleeping. Well that worked for about a month, then I started to take the odd night off hear and there. So, another month or two went by and then I decided I'd wear it two nights on, and one night off. Well now it's almost 6 months, and I wear them only every other night now, missing two nights here and there. And I have to admit, sometimes if I haven't worn them for 2 nights, they are tight when they go on. But they go on, and I've checked my teeth against pictures from when I first got them off and their has been very little movement (other than settling).

I guess where I'm going with this is am I the only one? I've never heard of anyone else being told to wear their retainer at night only right after their braces came off. Also, do you think I'm playing with fire here by not wearing them that religiously? I have to admit, they are kind of annoying and sleeping without a whole bunch of extra stuff in my mouth is really nice.

Thoughts anyone?

[newbite]

I have permanent retainers top & bottom just like you, as well as top & bottom Essix. I was told to wear both Essix retainers 16 hr/day for a year, and then nightly after that. Some days I wear them up to 20hr, some days as little as 12 (or even 10...), but usually it's about 16hr.

I've heard of people being told a range of times, from 24/7 for a year to just at night (for life). I would strongly suggest you wear it every night for at least a year! If you get too lax about it, a week or two could go by (instead of just two days) and then you try to put the retainers back in and they won't fit. What would you do then? Get new retainers made to fit your now-crooked/crowded/whatever teeth to just maintain what you still have? Or (horrors) get braces/Invisalign again?? Or (even worse) give up altogether and let your teeth go where they want? I've thought about this a lot, obviously haha.

Your teeth don't have to visibly move for your retainers to no longer fit. Your bonded retainer teeth shouldn't move, assuming that wire stays attached and intact, but all the other teeth can move.

I wouldn't risk it!

[ljms]

To answer your question "Am I playing with fire...?" Yes. Definitely.

As Newbite said, patients are given a whole range of times for retainer wear. Retainer instructions depend on factors such as what was done, age, bone density, etc. Deviating from the instructions will result in replaspe. The fact that your retainers are tight when you put them on indicates that your teeth have already moved.

[oldfart]

The constant wiggling of teeth as they moved out of position without the retainer to being in position with the retainer won't really help them settle into thier final position.