My retainers are loose?!
Question: they don't seem to hold my teeth back anymore and there is still a gap between my two front teeth at the top. I haven't been to my orthodontist since 2006 because he said the treatment has finished and to just wear my retainers at night. Is it worth making an appointment. I wear them everynight now and i can't really feel any pressure i'm sure there used to be. During the day my teeth come out and the gap between the two front teeth gets slightly bigger.
Answers: they don't seem to hold my teeth back anymore and there is still a gap between my two front teeth at the top. I haven't been to my orthodontist since 2006 because he said the treatment has finished and to just wear my retainers at night. Is it worth making an appointment. I wear them everynight now and i can't really feel any pressure i'm sure there used to be. During the day my teeth come out and the gap between the two front teeth gets slightly bigger.
Absolutely schedule a visit with your orthodontist. After a year or so of retainer wear, it's not uncommon for an orthodontist to dismiss or release a patient (In my office, I generally watch patients for a year and a half after braces come off). Generally by that time, we'll have seen any major relapse tendencies or changes that are going to occur...but it's not a perfect system. It might be that your retainers simply need to be adjusted or tightened, and the vast majority of orthodontists won't charge you for that visit if you were treated in their office. If you're still seeing the tendency for a space to open between your top two front teeth, you might want to consider a permanent retainer in this area. The orthodontist would basically bond a wire to the backs of your top two or four front teeth. That's a difficult space to keep closed, and your orthodontist will probably recommend something along those lines based on what you've described here. Good luck!
Time for a trip to the dentist!
Yep. Go see the orthodontist now, before your teeth shift more.
yes go see your orthadontist cause if you wait too long you might have to get braces on again
your teeth might have shifted. did u wear them regularly?
I used to observe the same thing with my retainer, after I stopped going to my orthodontist.
Theoretically, the doctor knows when the roots of your teeth are strong enough to handle being on their own (with the night-time reinforcement of your retainer). Once he says you can stop going to see him, that should be that.
After you're on your own, you will notice some slight movement from time to time, but the roots should be locked in place. I waited weeks, then months, and then years to see what would happen, but my teeth are still in good shape, some 18+ years later. I think once you've had braces, you're just more paranoid about where exactly your teeth -feel- like they are ;) I finally threw out my retainer in college because I wasn't going back to the ortho anymore, and I hadn't noticed any movements in these "test periods".
The day I threw it out, I washed it off and tried it out. Aside from a slight misfit on my left front tooth, everything seemed like it was in the same place.... so in the garbage it went.
That being said, if you objectively notice your teeth moving back to where they were, you should make an appointment to get them checked out. Most Orthodontists will do this as a courtesy (especially if they don't really have to do anything), and it is worth taking them up on just to be sure.
deff make an appointment