Satisfied now :) - San Mateo, CA
My baby has Damon braces!!!
Okay--this has absolutely nothing to do with my Invisalign, except that we're using the same orthodontist, but my eldest daughter, who is seven, just got Damon Braces yesterday! I had no idea they could start that young. This is what they call "Phase 1", which is to make space for her adult teeth to come in and, hopefully, push out her baby teeth. So far, her mouth is so crowded that that's not even been possible on the bottom. In her upper jaw it's been working fine, but in her lower jaw, she lost one tooth naturally and had another pulled, and nothing else yet.
We're paying $2090 after a $2000 dental insurance payment for this first phase, which is estimated at 15 months but may end up being interrupted. So excited for her, so I had to share :). We also got a family discount, since I did Invisalign through the same doctor, and my husband got his Damon Braces through her.
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I think my teeth are settling :)
I'm still using the Viveras and my teeth are back to where they're supposed to be. There's no longer a great deal of movement during the day, I think, so I'm feeling happy about how things are. I'm still using my cut-off bottom retainer and a full-length top retainer.
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And yeah, after reading another diastema review where she chose not to close it all the way because of the need to wear retainers full-time forever…I didn't realize that was a concern with diastemas. That makes bonded retainers a no-brainer for sure!
Will I never figure this out?
My two front teeth started getting tight again. So tight that food was getting stuck like in the old days, and it was harder to floss. Soooo I went back to the upper Vivera (Align Tech). I am immediately back to clenching, though it's less of an issue now because the equilibration and the half-aligner on the bottom. However, the teeth had shifted so much in the Hawley that I have trouble chewing after taking them out in the morning, just like when I was in aligners. I'd just have them cut off the upper retainer as well, but my teeth are moving all the way back to the first molars!
So here is what I'm wondering. Are my new wisdom teeth possibly the culprits? They are coming in in my top jaw. If I go to a bonded retainer, will the same thing just happen? Gah. Do I have to go to full-time retainer-wear in order to get this sorted? I am not pleased. I don't think I can bear full-time Vivera retainers, with the chewing problems.
But that's where I'm at, currently.
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Okay, I'm gonna start looking right now.
But seriously, yes, it's true. You will marry your retainer. Like a regular marriage, you can divorce it, but you have to get remarried, to a new retainer, right away. But there are different ones to choose from. You can choose the 'old-fashioned' Hawley, with the cute metal wire, that I modeled above. You can get the plastic Essix type, which lasts a long time but is quite thick--don't know if it's BPA-free. You can get the Invisalign-manufactured Vivera retainers, which are thin but don't last as long as Essix, also modeled above. And you can get various styles of permanent, 'bonded' retainers, which aren't removable by you and are invisible on the back side of the teeth. You can also get both the bonded and a clear-tray type to use simultaneously!
For the first 6 months to a year, you generally wear the retainer full-time, just like Invisalign, only without the annoying attachments. After that, you move to nights only or every other day or some other method recommended by your doctor. It just becomes a part of your life. Once you move from full-time wear, the retainer is a non-issue in your life, really. So please don't let that dissuade you. The things to know are that you will have to wear it and that you will have to replace it periodically, because it will weaken over time. So know that's a cost that continues for the rest of your life.
I hope this is helpful for you, but please ask more questions if I didn't address something.