08
Jan
My daughter is 10 and has braces on her upper teeth.
She doesn’t like wearing her retainer at night. How important is wearing the retainer? I feel embarressed to tell the orthodontist that my daughter doesn’t wear the retainer all the consistently
It is very important to wear her retainers. I have had my braces off for 8 years and i still wear mine at least once a week. When i put them in, i can tell that my teeth have moved some…and this is after 8 years! She really needs to wear them if you spent all that money on braces!
I have them now and wear them at night so if you want her teeth to go back to normal dont tell her to do it but if you want them to be nice then ya tell her to !!!!
It is imperative that she wear the retainer or her teeth will shift. My brother didn’t want to wear his retainer and eventually his model straight teeth shifted.
It’s probably not a good idea to solicit medical or dental advice from people who don’t know you or your daughter, but in this case, the best advice should be obvious.
Your orthodontist will be able to tell that your daughter hasn’t been wearing the retainer, since her teeth will not have progressed as much as they should have.
Best advice I could give you would be to TELL your daughter to wear the retainer…don’t ASK her… it’s not your job as a parent to always do things the way she wants them done (or not done)… it’s your job to do what’s best for her, and if she needs to wear a retainer in order for her to avoid problems with her teeth later, then you need to make sure she wears it.
How would you feel later if she developed more serious (and costly) problems with her teeth all because you didn’t have the guts to make her do what was best for her?
And, how will your daughter feel about you when she develops problems with her teeth later on, at and age when it’s REALLY embarrassing to have crooked teeth? She’s going to look back and blame you for wimping out to a 10 year old.
If you’re going to let your daughter decide every time what’s best for her, why bother taking her to an orthodontist in the first place? Wouldn’t she be happier watching her favorite TV show than sitting in an orthodontist’s chair?
Time to be a parent. You can be her best friend after you’ve BOTH grown up a bit more.
well, that keeps her teeth from shifting back to their origional position. so the $5,000 you spent were pointless.
After your braces come off and you have a retainer your are in a period called active retention. During this period the final positioning of teeth is achieved because spaces from the wire and the metal have to be closed and roots have to heal in bone sockets. The full time wear is necessary because the teeth are loose and need to be moved into their final position. Settling is still going on. When active retention is complete you enter a period called recall when your retainer only needs to be worn at night so that the stability is maintained and until the wisdom teeth have either grown or been removed. Jaw growth isn’t complete until age 18-21 and the control of orthodontics results depends on retention (retainers). I just got my retainer and that is the information for one of the papers they gave me. The retainer may be annoying to wear, clean , etc. but the overall result is worth it. Especially after you have to pay all the money for braces and then not wear the retainer and they just move back crooked. Hope it helps.
It is VERY VERY important that your daughter wear her retainer at night, if she wants her newly straightened teeth to be beautiful. Also didn’t you pay big bucks for this new straight smile ?
Good Luck.