Of course now, another dilemma....

[Anna1185]

Well, as some of you may know, I had my retainer adjusted due to not wearing it for about 4 years and having minor shifting in my front tooth. My Orthodontist shaved it down a bit and pushed the wire inwards so that it would push my tooth back into place. Well, it's pushing my tooth back all right, but it's pushing it back TOO FAR. It's pushing it back so far that it looks like I have a buck tooth due to my other one being normal. I've been wearing it full-time like he told me to, but I'm going to stop if this is how it's going to permanently keep my tooth. I mean, I've only been wearing it a week and I'm past the excruciating pain, but I thought I was doing good for myself by getting it fixed and now it's like I'm screwing it up more than it was before. At least before they still looked normal, I could just feel the shifting with my finger. Now it's visibly noticeable that my one tooth is lower than the other one. Of course since I've only been wearing the retainer for a week, the tooth will shift back quickly but it just bothers me. I can't go back to the orthodontist as taking more time out of work isn't a possibility. Should I just go to nightwear? I'm so torn on what to do...

[Zoso]

Of course, I'm no dental professional. But I thought that night-only retainer wear was intended only for once the teeth are relatively stable - I can't imagine your problem tooth is even close to stability. So it seems as if going to night wear would just be pushing it into the place dictated by the retainer at night then letting it move back again in the day - doesn't intuitively sound healthy to me.

I am sure your ortho can tweak the retainer some more to get things just right. But of course you'll need to figure out how to make that appointment a possibility. So the question is: is this a priority to you?

[eatyourpeas]

Wow Zoso, that's exactly what I was going to say!

[Anna1185]

Well, I made an appointment with the orthodontist for June 2nd. In the meantime, my other front tooth is starting to shift and rotate inwards, so now that one is jutting out and crooked. I just feel so horrible. I was trying to fix the problem and instead, I made it worse. My other fron tooth was perfectly straight and it just makes me really mad that this is happening. I hope the orthodontist can help me but it seems as though he's just making things worse.