Metal Mouth Message Board

I got my braces off yesterday and had a fixed retainer placed behind my lower front teeth. It is a small chain-like piece that looks harmless enough. Well, they have to attach it with several globs of glue...so in your mouth, it feels intrusive. I'm betting I'll get used to it, but on day 2, it does feel in the way. My tongue keeps playing with it.

Flossing will be a challenge. I figured it could be threaded through the back. Nope. You have to thread between your teeth at the gum line. That is fine and dandy for three of the spots. The remaining two have such close contacts that the threader has to be literally shoved through my lower gumline. Ouch!! We are assuming the gums will toughen up--they are pretty sore and a bit swollen right now. I go back in 4 weeks and he'll check the progress.

All in all, I think I made the right decision for me regarding retainers. We'll see...

It was stupid awful trying to thread floss when I had a bonded retainer, I used a small proxybrush instead. I liked having the bonded, I had it for YEARS, but for some reason, some tiny spaces and shifting/flaring occurred even WITH it. If you're ever unhappy with the bonded, get a removable. It's nice being able to floss without jumping through hoops.