Not voting, because I don’t have a kid. But I had braces with plastic retainers as a teenager and wore them regularly through middle and high school. We moved, they broke over time, the ortho no longer had my imprints to make more after the first one broke so I went a few years without anything. I had more made because my teeth were starting to shift and because I’m a serious nighttime clencher (I wear them every other day I can sleep without clenching), left them on the counter while I showered and came back to ants wandering on them and threw them away. I’m now doing a round of Invisalign, after which I’ll be back to the plastic retainers.
Husband ha braces in middle school. Still has his metal retainers. He hates them, but I’m kinda jealous. Aside from the teeth clenching at night, I’d 100% prefer them.
Post by formerlyak on Sept 21, 2022 8:09:14 GMT -5
Our ortho only does the plastic clear ones if there is a medical reason. I think because of durability. DS has a metal on top and plastic on bottom, because toward the end of his treatment, our dentist found internal root resorption (basically the tooth was dying from the inside out) and the molar had to be pulled. The ortho used a spring type spacer to hold the space where the tooth was pulled while he finished the braces and then gave him the plastic retainer with a built in tooth spacer thing when the braces came off. When he stops growing he will get an implant and a regular metal retainer.
If not for the tooth extraction, he would have had to and bottom metal.
He also only wore it at school for maybe 3 months. Then he wore it any time he wasn’t at school.