Hi All,
Generally happy with my results - 18 months of braces, upper jaw surgery, and 7 more months of braces, and my teeth look good. They looked fine before, but now they look even better, and more importantly, I have a functional bite....until last night. While getting ready for bed, I noticed that none of my molars touched, so I called my ortho today and they had me come in this morning. My two essix retainers still fit perfectly (wore two weeks full-time, and now just nights), so what they suspect is that I'm clenching while I'm asleep which is driving the molars back down. The fix is to swap out the essix retainers for hawleys - they didn't need to make a mold, as they did the 3d scan for Vivera at my last appointment as I'm moving shortly and wanted an option for out-of-office retainer replacement. Once they're made, I'll use those at night instead.
Hopefully once I've got the Hawleys, the clenching won't affect the molars, and they'll gradually shift back to touch appropriately. Apparently that's a thing that happens? I was worried I'd need to be rebraced, but I guess not! Also, they told me this is a not uncommon occurrence for adults, so if you finish braces with good molars and then they stop touching, don't hesitate to tell your ortho, and if you've got essix retainers, swap them out!
Four Weeks Post-removal and Molars Don't Touch
Moderator: bbsadmin
Re: Four Weeks Post-removal and Molars Don't Touch
Yes, not a fan of Essix retainers. Hawleys are much easier to keep clean.
Braces on: 2/25/2013. Braces Off: 12/23/2015
Current Retainers: Hawley Top, Essix Bottom, and Permanent Lingual Bottom
Current Retainers: Hawley Top, Essix Bottom, and Permanent Lingual Bottom
Re: Four Weeks Post-removal and Molars Don't Touch
Hi uncleezno, have you considered getting an Essix with a bite plane to wear at night? That's what I have.
I have a similar issue to yours: I originally had a very strong overbite, and the braces corrected it by raising my molars, but in the last few weeks of my treatment they started to not touch again. We corrected it while I was still in braces, but my Ortho realized that it would come back unless we addressed my nighttime clenching. So my nighttime Essix has a bite plane built into it. When I wear it, my front teeth rest against it but my molars don't touch each other. This prevents me from clenching the molars and encourages them to keep "moving out" towards each other (I hope that description makes sense
).
I only got my braces off 7 weeks ago, but it seems to be working so far.
I have a similar issue to yours: I originally had a very strong overbite, and the braces corrected it by raising my molars, but in the last few weeks of my treatment they started to not touch again. We corrected it while I was still in braces, but my Ortho realized that it would come back unless we addressed my nighttime clenching. So my nighttime Essix has a bite plane built into it. When I wear it, my front teeth rest against it but my molars don't touch each other. This prevents me from clenching the molars and encourages them to keep "moving out" towards each other (I hope that description makes sense
). I only got my braces off 7 weeks ago, but it seems to be working so far.