I had braces and the orthodontist removed them in 1978. When the braces came off he fitted me with an Ortho-Tain® Positioner. The fitting process was straightforward and fast. My recollection was that it fit like a glove and I was thinking he must have big shelves in back with all these plastic things for all the different size mouths he needs to fit. That’s the logic of an 8th grader. Initially I think he asked me to use it 2-4 hours during the day and all night while I slept. The daytime use was easy because I could wear it in the afternoon after school. I have a memory of wearing it while shoveling out after the blizzard of ’79 in the Chicago area.

After a few months the doctor said I could wear it only at night. It was very easy to get used to and after involuntarily spitting it out the first few nights; I quickly grew accustomed to using this. Then it was only occasionally that I would wake up and not have it in my mouth. Compared to the headgear some of my peers had to wear even after their braces were off, I was quite glad to only have this very simple to use plastic thing. I don’t remember how long the orthodontist recommended I wear it after the braces came off. I’m guessing two years? It wasn’t a big deal because after the first few months it was only at night. After the time was up, I quit wearing it and it stayed in a drawer.

In 1990 I was going through a box and found my old retainer. I was happy because I had a hunch my teeth might be moving over time and this would at least keep everything in place. I brushed it off and used it that night. It was great. I think I recall that my perception was that my teeth had moved some since I last wore it in 1981 but it fit and after a few nights it fit like a glove again. To keep it clean I normally brush it with a toothbrush and toothpaste in the morning and let it air dry during the day. It’s nice because when I wake up in the morning my mouth feels very comfortable.

When I don’t wear it I wake up with a feeling that I’ve been grinding my teeth and that isn’t pleasant. Since I’ve been wearing it for so long I was waiting for the plastic to finally fail but that is not the case, it is as solid today as it was back in 1978. I can’t fathom the force it must handle when I push my lower jaw out. It has discolored over that length of time, but it still works just as well as it did on the first day. Until my puppy got hold of it, now it has chew marks on one side.

In conclusion, I’m very happy with my Ortho-Tain® Positioner. My teeth feel as straight today as they did when my braces first came off back in 1978.

I’ve had clicking and pain in my jaw for the last five years, since I was 11 years old. After using the Ortho-T® for a few months, the clicking has been reduced and is almost gone. I no longer have headaches; in the past, I had headaches almost every day. I was taking an aspirin everyday for my headaches, and I have been able to eliminate that. I’ve also noticed that my top teeth are straighter and my bottom teeth are aligning slowly. I am typically very busy and try to use my Ortho-T® for 4 hours a day, but sometimes I can only fit in one hour a day.

Either way I can feel the difference using this appliance has made on my TMJ and the alignment of my teeth. Before using my appliance I would rank my jaw pain at an 8 on a scale of 1-10, now after only four months I would rate my jaw pain at a 0.

I went to a doctor to have braces put on my daughter and he put her in headgear, which she wore for a year and a half and it did absolutely nothing. But my mother was reading this paper and she saw this ad for Dr. Bergersen. I said ‘what could it hurt?’, so I called and made an appointment for two days later. We went down and he showed me his appliance. And I looked at it and thought oh here we go with another piece of equipment, but he showed me pictures and I thought well maybe this will work so I said we would try it.

So my daughter has had the Occlus-o-Guide® for four months and the change has been so great in such a short time, that I have even told a couple of my friends. I want to get one for myself. It has made a definite change even in my daughter’s personality because at first she was kind of quiet and laid back because she didn’t want her teeth to show, and the kids would pick on her. Not all the time, but you know how kids can be. They would make fun of how her teeth stuck out and I didn’t want her to have to go through that because I went through that as a child and I didn’t want that to happen to her.

Using this appliance has drastically changed everything for my daughter. I am so grateful to Dr. Bergersen for inventing such a wonderful appliance! My daughter came home one day and said ‘mom someone noticed that my teeth were coming in straight’ and she was elated! The Occlus-o-Guide® really works and my daughter’s smile is proof of that!

Well when I first brought her in to see Dr. Bergersen she had just started losing her first baby teeth and I knew that she was going to need some sort of help getting her teeth to come in straight. Knowing that my husband needed braces and that I needed braces our children were bound to have the same problems. We could tell by the way her teeth were coming in that we would need some help. So we brought her to Dr. Bergersen and she started with her appliance when her permanent teeth were coming in and it’s just been amazing to watch the difference – her teeth were doing what I was told that they would do. They were just being guided into the perfect spot.

At a young age if children have problems with their teeth you have to deal with name calling and such. Carrie has never had that problem come up, because before her teeth had a chance to become crooked, they were straight.

I was first introduced to this system by my dentist Dr. Fareid. The main reason for my treatment was due to my severe TMJ that I have had for several years. I had a very annoying clicking in my jaw, and it was very painful when I would open and close my jaw. That was until I started with my Ortho-T® appliance. I began using my appliance daily, especially overnight since I clinch my teeth. Slowly but surely, I began noticing a major change. After a few months, the click was minimized and it didn’t hurt when I opened or closed my jaw. I felt less and less pain.

Today, I have seen major progress in my TMJ. I don’t have nearly as much clicking and hardly any pain. I will continue with my treatment, hopefully soon it will be completely eliminated.

My name is Lupe Leija. I am 40 years old. I have been using my Ortho-T® since February 2010. It’s only been 6 months; but I have had a very positive experience. Prior to using the appliance I felt my teeth were overlapping; now they are even. I feel very good and my teeth are in great shape!

My brother and I came in at the same time, and we thought that I was going to need braces or something to that affect because my teeth were terrible, they were all over the place. I had a 9mm overbite; I can still remember that number because it was so big. But they are great now. My dentist, I just switched for the first time in my life, just told me my teeth are the most perfect that he has ever seen, so it worked great.

One day I was driving my daughter’s friend around and I said ‘What is that thing in your mouth?’ And she said it’s an Occlus-o-Guide®. So I asked her mom all about it. I didn’t like the way my daughter’s bottom teeth were looking because they were crooked. So I took her to Dr. Bergersen’s office and he said she was a good candidate for the Occlus-o-Guide® and within a few weeks you could see a dramatic difference in her beautiful smile. Her teeth are straight and beautiful.

I have two other daughters, Katie and Sydney, and they got started the same day that Christina got started because I brought them with me to Dr. Bergersen’s office. And he said that he has this Nite-Guide® and I thought that sounded like a good program because he could reach little children and get their teeth straightened out at an earlier age. I thought, well, why wait til you are 12 or 13, that’s stupid to me, we will start them when they are little and let them have beautiful teeth while they are growing up.

I have two daughters and the dentist had said if my oldest daughter, Katie, were to fall her teeth would hit first before her nose. My other daughter Lauren I didn’t know too much about because she still had her baby teeth that were coming out and I could see that the teeth that were coming in were crooked. One day I was watching TV and a show came on called, ‘That’s Incredible!’ and sure enough there was Dr. Bergersen.

I brought Katie in to see him and Dr. Bergersen said ‘yes you’re right she is a very good candidate for the Occlus-o-Guide®’. And Katie’s teeth were bucked from thumb sucking and there were spaces in between her teeth. She just looked horrible and I kept thinking ‘ugh, I have got to do something with this child’. Within three months of wearing the appliance they had straightened out and now her teeth are fabulous. And it was a painless procedure.