Metal Mouth Message Board

I had a decent sized gap between my two front teeth before braces about a few millimetres, and it's starting to open up again. When I floss, it just goes right through without any effort. I got the braces off in august, but I noticed my bite is off. My front teeth hit my bottoms pretty hard and they push when I bite down all the way. I'm on night time wear now with Essix retainers and I really don't want to see that gap coming back. My front teeth feel loose from all the pushing. Even if I was to call my ortho, really what's he going to do? I'm considering getting a permanent retainer on the top. What would you guys do?

I would call my ortho asap with a view to getting a bonded retainer. I have had one on my upper teeth for 3 1/2 years and it has been fine.

Jem

I'm going back to full time retainer wear for about a week, and then I'll go see my ortho and see what he wants to do.

I wore my retainer pretty much full time for the first 2 years. Obviously, nighttime wear only isn't working for you right now.

Just because the ortho says to wear "nightime only" does not mean you have to. They are your teeth, your time and money went into the process so wear them as long as you wish to keep your teeth straight.

Here's the main issue: my top front teeth hit my bottoms pretty hard, and it pushes my front teeth out. At the end of the day, you can see the gap and even feel it with floss. No resistance at all in the front teeth. I'm wearing my retainer full time now.

Have you seen your ortho yet? I am wondering what they said to do. I just got my braces off a couple days ago and will have to wear mine full time for 2 weeks, then 12 hrs a day for 4 weeks and then only night time wear. I hope mine stay put.

That happened to me when i got my first set of braces off. I also had previously had a gap in my front teeth of a few mm. I had a Hawley retainer and if I took it out for even an hour you could see the gap coming back. A bonded retainer sorted it.

pjade1 wrote:Have you seen your ortho yet? I am wondering what they said to do. I just got my braces off a couple days ago and will have to wear mine full time for 2 weeks, then 12 hrs a day for 4 weeks and then only night time wear. I hope mine stay put.

my ortho put a piece of floss through it and said that there was contact at the bottom, but not at the top. He basically told me not to worry about it. I don't really agreee though.

My daughter had to wear her top and bottom retainer night and day for 6 months - and that was even with permanent bonded retainers both top and bottom! Now she wears them at night only.