Oldfart Orthodontic Diary

[Dee17]

Great news and terrific result! Merry Christmas to YOU!

[metalliKa]

Wow! Wow! Wow! Definitely an early Christmas present worth opening!

[oldfart]

I hate decisions. I am still stuck on the retainer dilemma. For the top I have two choices. A modified Hawley with lingual shields to prevent tongue thrust. Or a clear Essix. On the bottom is an Essix (with permanent lingual retainer also). That one I like.

Orthodontist guideline: I can wear the Clear during the day and the Hawley at night as they know it would affect my speech. But completely my option as to which one to wear. Just need to be sure the Hawley is in at night.

I am trying to wear the Hawley as much as I can, but don't like the speech issues that it presents around my wife and kids. I feel like I'm an orthodontic masochist by wanting the wear the bigger bulkier more lisp inducing Hawley than the simple, easy to use Clear Essix. I did have the wings cut off about half to speak better. But my speech is only about 75% clear.

My updated list of pros/cons.

Clear Pros:
Tighter fit for exact location of teeth alignment.
Doesn't affect speech at all.
Not as noticable up front.
Incorporates one more molar than the Hawley.
Can be remade for half the cost of a Hawley.

Clear Cons
Not as effective for retention of crossbites. (which I had)
No vertical protection for posterior tongue thrust.
Makes teeth look plasticky if up close
Harder to clean
Any bacteria between teeth and retainer just sits there until cleaned.
Will wear out.
Will stain

Hawley Pros
Stronger, will last longer
Single wire visible but only up close
Has additional lingual shield for posterior tongue thrust protection.
Better arch/crossbite retention.
Easier to clean
Won't stain.
Can eat a little bit with it in. Just is hard.

Hawley Cons
Speech. This is the only big one. The sides of the top retainer go down and block my tongue from resting against my top teeth and to a lesser degree my bottom teeth. So when I talk my tongue cannot touch my teeth at all beyond the canines the retainer itself is used to make all sounds instead of teeth. Which means, Ds, Ts, Ss, Ls, are all really lispy.
Big and Bulky. The acrylic in the palate goes all the way past my top molars.

Not as good for exact teeth location as the Essix. You can't see any difference, but you can tell there is just a slight difference when switching.,

retainer.jpg

The midline is not as far off as this pic looks like. It's just an odd camera angle or was holding my jaw wrong. But you can see my wings.

[NeilH]

An interesting dilemma. The fact that your ortho has given you the choice during the day must mean that both solutions are suitable for long term retention. Maybe the best option is to slowly build up your Hawley wear at times when it's less critical to be able to speak clearly whilst accepting it's never going to be perfect. I'm sure both have their merits for the reasons you have outlined and Essix retainers would probably serve you well to keep everything lined up whilst the nighttime Hawley wear will keep the tongue thrust at bay. If you see any movement, you could increase the Hawley wear until you achieve a happy relationship between the two. It's hard to put myself in your shoes but maybe I would percivere with the Hawley from mid evening to morning and accept the benefits of the Essix during the day.

[oldfart]

Actually got my retainer stuck in today. I went two hours around dinner without having either one of them in. I popped in the Hawley which i had them tighten last week. Was tight as expected, an hour later went to take it out.. and Couldn't.. had to wait another hour before the teeth were loose enough to remove it.

Reminds me of one of those time lock safes. If inserted, cant remove for two hours.

of

[NeilH]

Maybe that's a concept for a new type new of removable retainers, those that refuse to be removed until their job is done!

It sounds as if maybe more Hawley wear is necessary as retainers shouldn't be so tight they can't be removed. I've heard of Essix being hard to remove but not Hawleys.

[oldfart]

I've heard of time locks on headgear, so maybe. I'm just retention OCD right now. I probably could just as well wear the easy Essix and now have relapse issues. But with the molars feeling tight when i switch from the Essix to the Hawley i can tell there already is some attempt by the teeth to slide or tilt in a bit in the areas I had some crossbite corrections.

[oldfart]

I ended up deciding to go 100% Hawley on the top and not even wear the Essix. I could definitely feel a difference after wearing the Essix with the upper molars and premolars tending to tilt a bit in. And speech is about 80% normal. Hard sounds like Gs, Ks and Qs are still a struggle.

[Len]

[quote="oldfart"]I ended up deciding to go 100% Hawley on the top and not even wear the Essix. I could definitely feel a difference after wearing the Essix with the upper molars and premolars tending to tilt a bit in. And speech is about 80% normal. Hard sounds like Gs, Ks and Qs are still a struggle.[/quote]
Will you have to use them forever ? I've seen a whole lot of people telling me they need to use theirs forever but my orthodontist told me I'll be using mine only for an year so I wonder if It'd be better to use it more time, too just in case.

[oldfart]

The plan is full time for a year and then cut back to just at night. It is a bit overwhelming knowing that its still 10 more months of stuff in my mouth, and hoping I can figure out a way to make those hard sounds. I would double check with your ortho, verifying if he meant full time usage, or nights only. As almost every ortho that posts their retention plan says they want adults wearing at night forever.

[oldfart]

Updated pic. It's dark but you can see where my retainer hits my tongue when I try to talk. If I eat with it in I have to put my tongue in the correct spot or I bite it between the retainer and my lower teeth.

[oldfart]

I've been 100% Hawley for a week now, and talking is getting there. Still have issues making hard Ks, Qs, and Ls sounds. What is annoying is the constant pressure on my tongue when I talk. I suppose I will get used to that also. Just is getting even more and more annoying. Not sure if it would be easier to take a grinder to the wings of the retainer to cut them back, or cut the outside third of my tongue off. (just kidding on both of them). Although I did trim the retainer a bit once on my own.

What type of annoying pic should I do tonight....

[oldfart]

13113115_10154184321851457_636003689_o (2).jpg

Just a pic showing whats left of my open bite on the side.

[oldfart]

The one bad thing about being in retainers is it's hard to come with topics as very few things change once your braces are off.
But they do still change, even if they are small things. So here is what happened at my last retainer check.
1) Tighten the bottom wire to try to push back the middle of the front two teeth.

2) Push one canine loop back(right side of pic) more toward the tooth as it was pushing a bit into my cheek. The downside is those caused the wire to be a tad lopsided. But the comfort of not having the canine loop poking me outweighs my OCD of a straight lower retainer wire.
3) On top retainer lower the wire about 1/2 mm. There was just a tad of an overbite forming with the wire as high as it was. This is kinda noticeable, but I can definitely feel an improvement. Not sure if they just lowered the wire, or lowered the whole retainer as it does feel lower.. but i can't prove it.

changes.jpg

The top pic is after the adjustment. Sorry I had my head on crooked so the pic isn't as straight. It is nice worrying about little 1/2 mm corrections and minor tweaks. smile emoticon

[Dee17]

I have an Essix retainer for my top teeth that I am supposed to wear at night. Also a cemented in upper retainer behind my top two front teeth. This thing has apparently come loose and my top teeth have now shifted and the gap has opened again. Argh! I have a cemented bottom retainer. I've never seen a Hawley-type retainer for the bottom teeth. How does it go in? I'm just curious!