How I Lost My Retainer, Let Me Count The Ways
Some years ago, (longer than I care to remember), I was wearing my orthodontic retainer faithfully. I was cruising around town with my friends and suddenly realized I didn’t have my retainer. The last place I remember having it was at the Dairy Queen. Yes, I had placed it on the tray, covered it with a napkin or something and thrown it out! I went searching through the garbage, but never found it. This seems to be a common teenage problem. Some of our patients eventually lose their retainer at McDonalds, or at a ball game, or the dog ate it, etc.
Many dentists have told me all kinds of stories of how their patients lost their retainers. It seems to be just par for the course. So, let me know how you lost your retainer, because I know you probably did. Ha!After you post your comments, you can check out this humorous book on how some kids lost their retainers: myretainer
Labels: Fun Stuff, Orthodontics
posted by Dr. Dean Brandon @ 1:20 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
When I was in the fifth grade, I was in the lunch room with my tray. I was embarrassed to be wearing a retainer, everyone else had braces! I had to remove it to eat lunch so I wrapped it up in a napkin. Wouldn't you know it, at the end of the day...I remembered my retainer. After school, I searched through the garbage while my mother was called to pick me up. When she arrived, I hadn't found it. She took me home a paddled my butt with a flipflop sandal. We were pretty poor in those days, it was a huge expenditure for my folks to buy another one. Which they did and ultimately, I grew out of that one!!
There is a new service we learned about from our orthodontist. Its called Evertain and you get two sets of retainers and two years of replacement on any lost or broken ones. We couldn't believe it. We were worried our son, who seems to lose everything, would worry about losing it and letting us down. We were equally worried about having to discipline him when it happened. Evertain has been great and we don't worry about it now.
are you kidding I needed braces when I was in seventh grade and I thought that was so cool because that was the fad at that time so my sophmore year is when I got my retainer I would lose it left and right you I thought the rubber bands were bad enough but the retainer I had to go thru the trash several times and the last one I grew out of.
My orthodontist installed what they called a permanent retainer on my four middle teeth on the top row as well as my six middle teeth on the bottom. I remember them telling me it was truly permanent, but this was eleven years ago and I was only fourteen. So perhaps there is something I missed during that info session.
At any rate, I've been cruising along through high school, college, the rest of my life, thinking these things were infallible and never leaving. But just last week, as I was flossing between my top teeth with my special floss, one of those brackets popped off. Then so did the one adjacent to it.
I tried not to mess with it all day while I waited to be able to call my childhood orthodontist (who's still in practice, now three thousand miles away from where I live) as it was a Sunday. But by the end of the day, I pried it off-- remarkably easily-- with my fingers.
And that is how I lost my "permanent" retainer! (Do you think my teeth will move now that they are free? And P.S. It's so much easier to floss!)
I was at a swim party for my friend and left my retainers in my purse, leaving my retainer container at home. I speculated a few times how i lost it, and i came onto two ultimate choices. One, it could have dropped the one in the changing room. Or, two, I dropped it when I left my purse on a bench on it's side. I lost the bottom one only, and my parents were still pretty pissed. I was a little disappointed too. I had to get another molding, and another retainer. There goes my Christmas present.
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