8/18/26 Back in the "old days" putting on a lingual bar, otherwise known as a bonded retainer, was…read morevery normal procedure after getting your braces off, especially if you worried about being able to keep putting on your retainer at night when you sleep...for the next 5 decades. Well, eventually my bar broke, so I went to an orthodontist my family had used before. It took quite a long time (45 min. to an hour) to remove the glue from one or two teeth, and replace a little part of the retainer. (Like it WAS like 2" long, it broke at 1.75", they removed and replaced the last .25", and glued it in place.) I wasn't sure that was going to fix the problem of my front bottom teeth shifting, but I only had a couple of months to worry about it, because the glue started falling off, and I had TWO areas that were poking me, and making my tongue raw, so I bought lots of wax from Walmart and tried to keep it covered. But I usually swallowed the wax while eating, and so I just needed to get the problem fixed. But I wasn't going to go to the same ortho. I happened to be over at Southlands on 8/14, and I walked into Garlock Orthodontists, and I asked if they had any availability to have it looked at. It was 2pm, and they said "Yes, how about 3pm?" And during that hour, they took free X-rays, and scans of my teeth and bonded retainer to help Dr. Garlock figure out what can be done. (This place is huge, with lots and lots of techs, I've never seen an ortho office this large before! And the theme is beachy, so very cute.) So Dr. Garlock came and looked at it, and said yes, they could fix it, but not a "temporary fix" like what was done, he suggested a whole new bar, so the glue and bar would have to be removed from all 6 teeth. I was really dreading this, because it was a pain having the glue removed from just 2 teeth, how long would this take? An hour or two?? So I was moved over to Stacy's chair (same day, a few minutes later), and she has either 19 or 29 years experience at this! I laid back and tried to be calm, it helped that the TV above me seemed to be playing something like a Hallmark movie. Stacy was so gentle with getting the glue off that I was able to calm my body and enjoy the movie. Next thing you know, she's gluing on the new bar! What, the whole thing, removing the old and gluing on the new, only took 25 minutes!! I told Stacy she was AMAZING, and I was so glad that I walked in the doors that day! I left there dazed and happy, and when I got home and looked at my teeth closely, she used a lot less glue than the bulky balls of glue I was used to. If you are looking around to have your bonded retainer replaced, please make sure that they have a way to do it in-house, because if they have to send it out for 3 weeks, that is 3 weeks without your retainer (they have to take it off to get a good scan), and your teeth are going to shift a lot in those 3 weeks. So I would highly recommend Garlock Ortho. I know that they also have an incentive program for your children, to earn points for their grades, good Dentist visits, etc., and then they can spend their points on various socks and gift cards to restaurants like Cheesecake Factory. So that's very fun for them! By the way, Dr. Garlock only does braces, he does not do what Dentists do, fill cavities and such. (This is a plus in my book.)