Permanent Retainer

saltiness

Here's another dental question:

I had braces when I was a freshman in high school. I only had them for about 9 months and got them out but when they took them out they put a permanent retainer on the back of my bottom front teeth. I didn't even ask about it then, I guess I just wasn't thinking very far ahead at that time in my life but apparently I'm supposed to have this thing in my mouth forever. It bothered me at first but 9 years or so later I'm 23 and the wire part of the retainer just snapped as I was eating a bagel. I've already made an appointment with the dentist to get it fixed and whatnot so that's not a problem but I'm wondering if there's anyone else here with one of these who's had more experience with them. Is it a common thing for these to break and need to be repaired? Am I going to be checking in to the dentist every decade or so for rebuild?

Sevorak

I have the same thing on my bottom teeth and haven't had any problems with it except for it being a pain in the ass to clean around. I'm a year younger than you though, so I may have problems with it yet. Last time I saw my dentist I seem to remember them mentioning that your teeth mostly stop shifting around 25 and I could get the thing removed around then. You might want to talk to your dentist about it when you go to get it repaired.

unilateral

I was fucking around trying to get something out of my permanent bottom retainer once and one side popped off. Like, the glue and everything came off. So then I fucked with it some more and then whole thing came out. This was like 3 AM on a saturday night (or sunday morning) so I called on monday and went to the orthodonist and they just looked at my teeth, told me I didnt need it anymore and used that ray-gun looking thing to get the rest of the bond off.

Basically, dont worry about it. They'll probably just take it out and not replace it, as you're teeth have probably stopped moving by now.

musanman

mine broke, I later went to the orthodontist on an unrelated issue and he was like "whatever no big deal if you want it we can put it in but your teeth look fine"

Steel Fire

Permanent retainers are not actually meant to be permanent. If you still have your wisdom teeth,and the orthodontist thinks they are growing/moving, they would be inclined to leave the retainer in place. Ask the person when they plan on removing it, and if they say never, then I would get a second opinion.

saltiness

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'm thinking I'll have to keep this thing in my mouth for another couple of years because my bottom teeth still seem to want to shift around. They're pretty crowded. It's good to know it's not a permanent thing though. I suppose I'll get some more answers when I go to the dentist tomorrow.