Orthodontia - Retainer question

In My Humble Opinion
1

My daughter [/b[Moon Unit** just completed her first round of orthodontia - involving palate expander, and braces to sort out her upper front teeth. There will be another round in a couple years when more of her permanent teeth come in.

She got her braces off last week and I took her in to get her retainer this morning. To my shock, her “retainer” was a clear plastic thing. Designed to cover only her front 4 teeth. This gadget is quite literally smaller than the end joint of one of my fingers.

They swear that it will not fall out during the night. They seemed unconcerned over the fact that it will be functionally invisible when dropped on the floor or bedding.

I believe it’s called an “Essix Retainer” - see http://www.archwired.com/FAQ.htm. Only hers is just for the 4 front teeth, so roughly the middle 1/3 of the one shown at this site.

My child has ADHD-like issues and will, I guarantee, not notice if the thing falls out during the night. It is pretty much guaranteed to not work out for her. Just for the heck of it, I set it on my bedspread just now… had I not known exactly where I put it, I could not have found it.

I could see a full-mouth Essix retainer working - more teeth to “grip” so less likely to fall out, and a larger object to spy when searching for it. I know one of the reasons they did just the first 4 teeth is because she’s got a lot of gaps due to missing baby teeth / adult teeth not yet grown in. As it is, I wound up pitching a fit and insisting they make a more traditional retainer.

Anyway - the question for Dopers is: Have any of you used such a retainer? How has your experience been? Have any of you used such a pared-down version of one? Is the orthodontist insane or am I overreacting?

2

I had a succession of retainers before, during and after I had braces. A couple of them were pretty tiny. I didn’t have trouble with any of them falling out, because

  • it was molded to my mouth and fit extremely closely, there was kind of a suction effect so even when my mouth was open it stayed in place
  • when it was in I found I couldn’t keep my tongue away from it, so my tongue held it in place

Of course once your teeth shift, the fit is lost and all bets are off. My mouth can still recall the feeling of playing with a loose retainer.

Maybe you can ask the ortho to make it colourful so you can spot it if it hits the floor?

3

I had an essix retainer I wore 24/7 for a month after my braces were out. It didn’t cover all my teeth, but did get most of them. It stayed on quite well due to suction. I can pretty much promise it won’t fall out in the middle of the night. I don’t think your daughter will have any problems with it; however, essix retainers are usually only temporary. She’ll probably get a hawley or fixed retainer after she’s completely done with treatment. There’s no point in making one for her now if there’s more treatment planned. For the most part, orthodontists tend to know what they’re doing, even when it seems they’re just sadistic evil demons bent on torture. I swear I never thought cramming a bazillion little elastics into my mouth in a cat’s cradle configuration could ever actually make my mouth look like I wanted it, but by gum it worked.

The archwired site is a great reference, I found it when I first started my braces journey as an adult a few years ago. My pictures are up in the reader photos section somewhere too.