I Lost My Retainers At School Today! What To Do?

[Pianote]

I lost my retainer at school. I've been wearing them for 9 months (got them a few weeks before I left the United States). Is it possible for a  dentist here in China to replace them?

[Lu]

I assume there are dentists in China who can replace them. I think for you, the best option is to go to a dentist in an international hospital. They are a lot more expensive than Chinese hospitals, but I think you'll be a lot more at ease. Perhaps call ahead to ask if they can make retainers for you.

 

Also contact your dentist at home to ask if they can help. I don't know much about retainers, but perhaps if your dentist knows your teeth and still has the necessary information, they can make new retainers for you and ship them to you? Or at least your dentist can send you (or your Chinese dentist) the information they have about your teeth and the treatment plan they had in mind with the retainers.

 

Alternatively, go without retainers until you are back in your home country and can get new ones. Depending on what you needed the retainers for and what the consequences would be if you don't wear them, this is probably the easiest and cheapest option. But perhaps contact your dentist at home first, to ask their opinion.

 

This is one of those unfortunate instances of bad luck that is a lot more complicated to resolve than it would be back home. Good luck, I'm sure things will be alright in the end.

[Pianote]

@Lu  An international hospital? Don't you mean an international dentist?

[Lu]

Yes, an international dentist, but I would start trying to find one at an international hospital. To be honest I've never been to a dentist in China, so not sure where to find them, but that's where I would start looking. But perhaps someone else will come by with more ideas.

[yueni]

Where are you located? My dentist is part of the Arrail chain, and they are pretty up-to-date with modern dentistry, and even offer Invisalign. They should be able to assist with retainers. I know that they have clinics in the larger cities in China. Is there one near you?

 

Here's a link to their website:

http://www.arrail-dental.com/en/index.html

 

Check to see if your insurance covers them. Mine does.

[DavyJonesLocker]

I've been several times to dentists in China and been impressed with them. Some are as good as any ones I've used in central London. Its best to go to the fancy part of your town to find a decent one. They can't afford to stay in business by giving bad services at expensive commerical rates. A recommendation of one is important as is having a translator. My colleague as always don't trust anything Chinese so go to an international one but pay silly prices. 

Any Chinese dentist I used gave me the option of China made fillings crowns or Japanese, American etc. My partner snapped off her front tooth and they did an immaculate job of repairing it. 

 

As Lu mentioned I have heard dental departments in international hospitals can be good but no experiences myself. 

[LuDaibola]

3 hours ago, Pianote said:

I lost my retainer at school

I'm curious as to why no one suggested posting notes around the school to see if anyone has found it.  It's fitted for your teeth only so it wouldn't be of any value to anyone else.  Is this a nonstarter for some reason?

 

1 hour ago, yueni said:

Check to see if your insurance covers them. Mine does.

 

Yeuni, I'm very surprised to hear of insurance that covers periodontics.  Would it violate the rules of the forum for you to tell us the name of the company?

 

2 hours ago, Lu said:

go without retainers until you are back in your home country

 

I have an appointment with my periodontist this afternoon - yes, at age 67, I'm wearing braces - and I'll ask him how long one can go without their retatiner before teeth start to realign themselves into their former position.  Maybe your periodontist gave you this information already.  I know from early days when I hung out on the metalmouth forum many, many adults there bemoaned the fact that they'd stopped wearing their retainers and, now, had to endure another round of braces.

 

Hope things work out for you Pianote...let us know how it goes.

[Pianote]

@yueni  Thanks. I live in Guiyang.  The closest clinic to me is in Guangzhou. Do you think it'd be ok if I just found a dentist here in my city?

 I ask because all the going back and forward to get fitted for retainers and I dont want to have to call off from work.

 

@LuDaibola  Yes! I paid $5,000 to get my teeth fixed and worked a $7.25/hr job while I was in college to pay for the braces. You best believe my teeth wont ever be going back to how they were. I was talking to a lady about 60-70 years ago who had just gotten out of braces. She said when you get your braces off, live in your retainer. I have always kept that in mind.

[LuDaibola]

16 minutes ago, Pianote said:

I paid $5,000 to get my teeth fixed and worked a $7.25/hr job while I was in college to pay for the braces.

 

That's impressive...and spending this money to fix your teeth at your age may have saved you much more money down the line because when teeth are misaligned, it isn't just a cosmetic issue, it can become a bigger problem requiring a much greater expenditure down the line.  When all is said and done, my total bill will come to a little over $30,000 (I have a team of 5 dentists working on them: a prosthodontist, periodontist, orthodontist,  dentist, and an oral surgeon).  Speaking of which, I meant to say that I had an appointment with my orthodontist this afternoon.  I get them mixed up sometimes.  Anyway, I'm impressed that you did this for yourself.

 

Have you decided that posting notes around the school, perhaps even with a reward, won't do any good?

 

 

[LuDaibola]

2 hours ago, yueni said:

Check to see if your insurance covers them. Mine does.

 

When I asked about this, I meant to say orthodontics NOT periodontics. Hope you caught that.

[Pianote]

@LuDaibola  $30,000?!?!? I thought $5,000 was insane.

And I will go back to the class where I think I left them and  ask  if anyone has seen them. 

Is this your first time in braces?

[LuDaibola]

Yes, there was never anything terribly wrong or unsightly about my teeth but I did have serious periodontal disease over the years and certain aggressive treatments were really expensive and I didn't think I could afford them.  I lost some about 5 teeth that way and, after I got implants on one side of my mouth, I thought, "That's cool.  I can eat now so I won't worry about the other side."  Well, when you're missing teeth on only one side everything becomes misaligned.  The official diagnosis was "traumatic misalignment."  I'm actually not a huge proponent of doing whatever one can to stay young (even just alive) at my age so it was a difficult decision to fork out this kind of cash but my parents both lived to be 90 and my father's death was definitely hastened by problems he had with eating and part of that had to do with his teeth so I decided to go for it.  If I live even another 10 years I figure it will have been worth it.  As far as the cost goes,  I think that dental tourism is eventually going to become as big a thing as medical tourism.  I looked into this and saw some setups in Cambodia and Thailand that looked good but I just couldn't pull it off.  The one in Cambodia was German-affiliated, as I recall. 

[yueni]

@LuDaibola  I should clarify. I meant that my insurance covers dental care with this (quite expensive) dental chain. I have not gotten orthodontics with them, and pretty sure that it isn't covered. I do know that they do invisalign and that they do have orthodontists on staff.

 

@Pianote  If you are able to find a good orthodontist in Guiyang, I don't see why you need to travel so far to get fitted for orthodontics. I could only recommend what I know, and what I know is the dental care I have personally experienced in China! Perhaps ask around the expats in Guiyang and see who they use for dentists and/or orthodontists. If nobody's used an orthodontist, just go see a dentist and get a referral. Good dentists tend to recommend good orthodontists.

[LuDaibola]

45 minutes ago, yueni said:

Good dentists tend to recommend good orthodontists.

 

I second this.  When they make a recommendation their own reputation is on the line so they're often pretty careful/thoughtful about this.  All of my dental professionals have asked me for feedback about the others I'm seeing and, of course, they look at the work that each of the others is doing and reach their own conclusions.  It is important to have someone you trust...my husband is now going thru his own ordeal because he had an incompetent dentist in the past.

 

Thanks for responding Yeuni.  There are actually plans here that cover implants and such...they have waiting periods, though, and I didn't think they were worth it.  Maybe I was wrong.  On the other hand, we have a Dental Plan (not insurance) that greatly reduces extractions, cleanings, and other procedures that can be done in a dentist's office.  My husband has saved hundreds of dollars and I save $50-60 every time I get a cleaning which is every 3 months.

 

Well, I'm off to the orthodontist now.  He's in another town and, unlike in New Mexico (where I lived until recently), where you hop on I-25 and are in the next town in 15 minutes, here in Pennsylvania is takes forever to go 20 miles!

[陳德聰]

In Guiyang, I would say unless you can find a better recommendation from expats, you can just go to the Guiyang Stomatology Hospital aka “Guiyang Hospital of Stomatological” (貴陽口腔醫院) where they basically do every tooth thing that you can think of. Including invisalign, according to a post one of their dentists made a couple years ago online.

 

This option would require you to find someone with good English AND good Chinese to go with you. You might be able to pay a translator but you’ll probably feel more comfortable if it’s someone you know.

[LuDaibola]

Spring has finally arrived here in Pennsylvania so my drive through the countryside to my appointment was a treat for my eyes..this is such a beautiful state.  At any rate, I did ask my orthodontist what he thought about your situation and he said that, although this varies from individual to individual, after 9 months your bones have probably hardened enough so that going without the retainer for up to 3 months even would not present too much of a problem.  So, really, it looks like you may have some time to figure out what you want to do.  It's so nice that so many forum members have had experience with dentists in China even to the point of suggesting specific practices.  I  can only imagine how hard this is for you on top of all of the other adjustments you must be making to living in a different culture and being so far away from home.  Hope someone found the retainer and handed it in the lost and found.  Best of luck with this.

[Pianote]

@LuDaibola  Awww. Thanks so much! I sure hope my gums have hardened so I can go a few weeks without a retainer. There's no way I am letting my teeth go back to how they were. 

And yes, different culture. While I was running this morning this guy was hostile at me. He angrily pointed at me saying something and when I slowed up he acted like he wanted to fight me. I will start bringing my phone from now on.

Have you ever lived in China?

[889]

What were you doing? If running in a bike lane, for example, you might encounter that kind of hostility.

[Pianote]

@889  no. I was running on a trail where people frequently walk/run. He wasn't exercising he was just walking to work or something.

 

is it ok to carry mace here in China ?

[889]

If you encounter hostility in China, retreat. That's just part and parcel of being a foreigner, anywhere. Always keep a low profile.

 

(And don't even think about Mace!)