Wearing a Retainer at Age 26

"Yes," is the answer. I went to the dentist a few weeks ago - just for a regular check-up and cleaning, and it conveniently coincided with the week I chipped a tooth. Yeah. I wasn't doing anything crazy to chip it - it just kind of happened. If you want to know how, it was pretty simple: I was chewing a piece of gum!

So anyway, I went to this dentist in Glen Ellyn. I had never seen her before. Actually, I've never seen a female dentist before either. I was hoping for someone a little bit more caring/gentle/whatever with my teeth. Let's just say I was pretty happy with her performance.

When she saw the small chip (and I mean very small), she said it was probably caused, in part, by some natural shifting that was going on in my mouth. She could tell I had braces when I was younger, and suggested that I might try to wear my retainers again. Maybe by re-correcting the bite, she thought, we could prevent any more damage to the tooth. Yikes! Yeah, you can say "painful."

So this past week, I finally bit the bullet, so to speak, along with the metal and plastic of my retainers, and put them in again for the first time since high school. As you can imagine, I'm in some pretty serious mouth-pain right now, but I'm expecting it all to pay off. Also, I have to be honest: I didn't really think I was going to get these things in again at all...

Looking ahead to the next few weeks, even with my teeth all out of wack right now, I'm looking to finish up lead vocals for the new album. No, I won't be singing with my retainers in! I couldn't imagine the horrible lisp I'd have!

So wish me luck as I "thsths-ing" my heart out!

--

Do you have an interesting experience with your retainers? Post about it here.