Essix Retainer With False Tooth: What to Expect and My Honest Experience

If you're about to get an Essix retainer with a false tooth built in - or you've just been told you'll need one - this is the honest account I couldn't find when I was going through it. Most retainer guides talk about wearing one after braces when your teeth are basically sorted. Mine was a whole different situation.

I have three teeth that never developed - no adult lateral incisors ever formed in the gum on either side of my front top teeth. By the time my top braces came off after 26 months, I had gaps right at the front of my mouth and needed a retainer with false teeth built in to cover them while I waited for permanent bridges. I wore an Essix retainer with false teeth for several months. Here's everything I wish I'd known.

What is an Essix retainer with a false tooth?

An Essix retainer is a clear plastic tray that fits over your teeth - like an invisible mouthguard. It keeps your teeth in their new position after braces. For most people it's completely clear and barely noticeable.

When you have a missing tooth, a false tooth can be built into the retainer to fill the gap. This can either be a proper acrylic false tooth made to fit the space, or a composite material that the dentist builds up and cures directly in the retainer. Mine started as composite - my dentist built it up in the chair to cover the gap.

From a short distance you honestly can't tell. Up close it's obviously not a real tooth, but as a temporary solution while you wait for permanent work it does the job of hiding the gap when the retainer is in.

Photos of my Essix retainer with one false tooth:

What the Essix retainer fitting appointment was like

The appointment itself was about five minutes. I sat in the chair, the orthodontist pushed the retainer on to show me how it fitted, then removed it and asked me to do it myself without looking in a mirror. I managed it fine first time. That was it.

She told me it would take around 48 hours to get used to it. In my experience that was about right for the retainer itself, though adjusting to the full situation - gaps, false tooth, having to remove it to eat - took considerably longer.

What it feels like to wear

The first few hours are the weirdest. The retainer feels bulky and hard, like a thick plastic shield over your teeth. My tongue kept exploring the edges of it and catching on the top where the plastic is quite sharp. The sides of my tongue felt sore and almost swollen for the first day or two from rubbing.

I also had a really noticeable lisp to start with. Ts and Ss were almost impossible. By day two it had improved a lot, and within a week most people wouldn't have noticed, but there are still certain words that came out oddly even after weeks of wear.

The speech issue is probably worse when you have false teeth built in, because the retainer is slightly thicker in those areas.

Photos of me wearing the Essix retainer with one false tooth:

The false tooth is next to my front teeth on the left side of the photo.  The smaller tooth to the right was my peg tooth which was going to have a veneer or be built up into a normal sized tooth, but couldn't handle all the braces and retainers, so became wobbly!  I had the peg tooth extracted in the end and another Essix retainer with two false teeth in until my bridges were made.

Eating and drinking with an Essix retainer with false tooth

You have to remove it to eat - anything at all, including snacks - and to drink anything other than water. This sounds straightforward but it adds up to a lot of taking it out and putting it back in throughout the day.

The rule I was given: always brush your teeth before putting it back in. Any food residue or acid trapped under the plastic against your teeth causes damage. Which means eating anywhere you can't brush your teeth immediately afterwards becomes a problem. Spontaneous days out with a picnic - tricky. Eating in a restaurant and going somewhere else after - needs planning.

For me, having missing teeth made this even harder because removing the retainer to eat meant revealing the gaps. If you're in the same situation - waiting for permanent false teeth while wearing a retainer - this is one of the harder parts to navigate and it's not talked about enough. For those without missing teeth it's simply a case of taking it out, eating, brushing, and putting it back.

The one unexpected silver lining: I stopped snacking almost entirely. Too much faff to take it out for a biscuit.

The disgusting bits (being honest)

I'm going to be straight about this because the guides I read beforehand weren't.

The retainer fills with saliva throughout the day. When you take it out there are strings of it hanging off. It needs rinsing every single time. After a night's sleep the smell and taste when you remove it in the morning is genuinely awful - all that bacteria and breath accumulating overnight in a sealed plastic case against your teeth. It gets easier to deal with mentally, but it never stops being grim.

It also gives you bad breath. Not just morning breath - daytime bad breath even when you're brushing your teeth more than ever. I was brushing up to four times a day and using mouthwash and it still happened. It's just what saliva pooling in plastic does.

If you hate spit (I really hate spit), this will be the worst part of the experience.

Photo of Essix retainer with two false teeth:

Once I had my peg tooth extracted, I had a new Essix retainer with two false teeth to hide the gaps, until my permanent bridges were complete.

What happens when the false tooth falls out of the retainer...

It happened to me twice, so I'm going to flag it as a genuine risk.

The first time was immediately after my peg tooth extraction. My dentist built composite into the retainer to cover the fresh gap. I got home, the wound was bleeding heavily into the retainer, I took it out to rinse it and the composite went straight down the plughole. I was due at the school run in 20 minutes. I shoved a piece of cotton wool in the retainer and left.

The second time the dentist re-did it and etched the sides of the retainer first to create a better bond. That one stayed.

If your false tooth is composite rather than a properly fitted acrylic tooth, it can dislodge. Ask your dentist to etch the retainer before adding composite - it makes a real difference to how well it bonds.

How to clean an Essix retainer with a false tooth

Rinse it immediately after removing it - warm or cold water, never hot as that warps the plastic. Then use a toothbrush to thoroughly clean it, getting into all the grooves and around the false tooth area which collects more debris. I do this every time I take it out and again before I put it back in.

Retainer cleaning tablets or solutions are available and can be useful for a deeper clean, but I don't use them personally - a thorough brush and rinse works fine for me.

Now my bridges are fitted and my teeth are done, I only wear the retainer a couple of times a month to keep my teeth in place. The same cleaning routine applies - rinse and brush after and before each use.

The plastic does split eventually. Mine started splitting at the front after about two months of full-time wear. They're not designed to last forever and cost around £100 to replace when they do crack.

How long do you wear it?

I wore mine full time for three months, then at night only. My orthodontist's standard advice was three months full time, then part time at night indefinitely - or until permanent false teeth were fitted in my case.

Full time means in whenever you're not eating, drinking, or brushing your teeth. It is relentless at first. But it does become habit surprisingly quickly.

Photo of me wearing Essix retainer with two false teeth to cover the temporary missing teeth gaps:

My overall verdict on the Essix retainer with false tooth

It's not a pleasant experience, but it does what it's supposed to do. The gaps are hidden when it's in, which matters enormously when you're going through months of waiting for permanent teeth. From a few feet away nobody can tell you have missing teeth or a retainer at all.

The hardest part for me wasn't the retainer itself - it was the eating situation and what that did to my social life. If you're heading into this, factor in the eating logistics more than the wearing logistics. The wearing becomes normal fast. The not-eating-in-public thing takes longer to find workarounds for.

I eventually switched to a Hawley retainer with two false teeth at night to give the Essix a rest - I've written a full comparison of both if you want to know which I preferred. And if you want the full list of everything I found difficult about the Essix specifically, I've also written 12 reasons I hate the clear plastic Essix retainer which covers it in more detail.

For the full story of the braces and everything that came after, I've written about getting braces as an adult including all the cosmetic dentistry over on Healthy Vix. And if you want to see the month by month progress, my adult braces journey with photos from start to finish covers the whole timeline.