Q. Hi, my 10 year old daughter has a 10mm overbite and has been given upper and lower retainers. These are quite bulky, awkward and cause her difficulty speaking – because of their inherent design, she cannot close her mouth fully. I was told that the goal was to move the lower jaw forward, before fitting ‘train tracks’ in 6 to 12 months time. My daughter is shy, and finds these appliances socially very difficult. The only alternative offered was removal of 2 upper teeth and then train tracks, but were we told much better results would be obtained using these bulky and awkward retainers. My question therefore is, is there an alternative to these unpleasant appliances that can achieve the same result?