Warning:  The fakes I am about to discuss are not necessarily safe to use.  In my case the potential impact to me was over-shadowed by the on-going damage to my bite from a clenching condition in my sleep.  The net result was positive, but probably only because the alternative negatives were just so great.  A clenching jaw can exert forces on the teeth that make the most powerful orthodontics look like a walk in the park.  I don't cover it here, but even the pressure from my tongue during the day applied to a fake appliance, caused a change in the arch that I had a quote on of three months of orthodontics (second opinions said I didn't need it, but still I had that quote). and it did it in two weeks!  Imagine if the change had been negative!

I can't even recall all the attempts I have made, even back in middle school, but here is my latest two:

I qualified for a free take-home whitening kit from my dentist.  While I now have flashy, white teeth in my smile, the real gem of this service is that they make custom whitening trays from old fashion impressions - none of the Invisalign scanning.  When I asked if I could have the actual clay molds of my teeth, the staff thought that was not an odd request, even though I don't see why it wasn't.  I bought some stainless steel wire from AliExpress which was said to be for dental purposes.  It was quite cheap.  I fashioned a labial bow on the molds and had it run from front teeth, behind the canines and then back along the palate at the gum line and then formed little hooks in front of the second molars.  I had ordered Instamorph, which is a kind of prototyping plastic that melts in hot water.  I melted down a little of this and rolled it into a snake-shape, then broke it in half and put one half on the molds at the gum line, then put my labial bar into the mold over top of the Instamorph roll followed by another roll of it on top.  I then pressed it all down and tried to push the Instamorph to where I wanted it around the palate.  Placing the mold with home-made retainer into the freezer, I waited five minutes and then removed the retainer from the mold and put it in my mouth.  While it fit, there was the feeling I was continually running my finger over thumb prints and the edge of the plastic was unevenly terminated on the palate and was a bit prickly in places.  I re-heated the retainer, without the mold and better shaped the parts I didn't like.  To get rid of the thumb prints, I put the molten retainer in my mouth and ran my tongue back and forth all over the Instamorph very quickly and hard until it was smooth, then removed it carefully and put it back in the mold which I then put into the freezer.  Bingo!  I wore the retainer out shopping and learned to talk in it.  Instamorph causes a little more lisp than I had with an acrylic retainer in high school. (Damn Mum throwing it out when I went to University!)

I question this second story in that the appliance may or may not be considered a fake:  I located a guy overseas that seemed to be a practising dentist or ortho or false teeth guy, or maybe all three.  He had an online service for making retainers (I now find there are several of these services around the world).  You get a home impression kit which you return and get back upper/lower Hawley retainers in your clay molds.  I got the top one made more like a bite plate and was going to use it as a night guard for teeth clenching protection.  A local practitioner had told me it would be great for me, considering my bite was a little deep, but was not willing to make me one.  The retainer I received suffered from a bad home impression kit and did not fit perfectly, nor was the bite plane even, and it was not that stable in my mouth and so did not perfectly protect me from clenching.  I liked to wear it during the day either when I had detected I might clench, or just for fun out shopping.

Question:  Was this a fake retainer?  Was it possibly because I used it for recreational purposes that I felt it was fake?  Is it fake because the guy who made it did not ever see me as a patient.   Let's just assume I can consider it a fake for this discussion.

I went to a prothodontist, looking for a similar product.  They had asked me to bring with me to the first consultation any false teeth, old retainers or night guards I might have, whether I still used any of them or not.  After a full evaluation of x-rays, my bite and so on, he went on to ask about old appliances.  I told him how I had ordered an appliance from an over seas lab and it had not protected me that well from night time clenching.  He got me to put my *fake* retainer in and for the next five minutes he had me open and close and took measurements and looked at it from all angles.  I would be too embarrassed to wear fake braces consisting of brackets on the labial bow of a retainer from one of the services that make them, but here I was wearing a fake retainer and having it *thoroughly* inspected by a specialist in appliances!  He made a few comments finally about how it hardly kept my back teeth apart and how the bite plane didn't contact the lower front teeth all the way around.  I explained why I had designed it with so little separating of the back teeth (comfort) and how I had minimized the palate coverage for minimal lisp and how I had intended to use it during the day during situations where I had detected I clench.  He said the labial bow is not necessary.  I could not say that the appliance had to have steel in it because I preferred it to be there (fetish), so I said I felt it was giving it extra stability.  Ortho patients with braces across their front teeth get bite plates without labial bows routinely, but I pretended I did not know this.  In the end he made me a lower bulked up Essix retainer style of night guard.  Yeah I can wear it during the day no problem, not much drooling or lisping, but it has no steel so I don't like it and wear it seldom during the day, especially since I have alternatives in the *fake* department.

It was so stimulating showing my fake retainer to this guy that I am thinking of showing it to my dentist in my next regular check-up.  He was the one who referred me to the prosthodontist in the first place and he had also told me he thought a Hawley style night guard would be a good idea, but would not order me one.  Just wait till I show him I ordered one from overseas!  I have subsequently fashioned a model using instamorph.  I am going to tell him that instead of marking up a photo of a retainer to express my design to the guy overseas, I am going to send him my prototype made with Instamorph for my next order.  I can't wait to get his reaction to my home-made retainer/night-guard.  Just to clarify: The dentist made me a bulked up, upper Essix-style night guard that I could not use due to extreme drooling.  The orthodontist I saw could not make me a Hawley style night-guard/retainer/bite plate unless I went through 5 grand in ortho treatment which he did not think I needed.  The prosthodontist was too afraid to make an active appliance (yeah, the Hawley would have been active, by default, opening my deep bite) and the dentist seems not to be allowed to prescribe active appliances.  Costs:  The lower Essix style was 1300; the over seas was 5 plus 465 in shipping, duty, expediting, impression kit and so on; the original 'drooler' was 400; the Instamorph one was less than 1 if I don't include my own labor.  Insurance covered the 400 & 1300, spaced 9 years apart.  I have made about half a dozen Instamorph models.  They stain easily but I can afford to make a new one every month.  The problem is that the Instamorph is very slightly flexible, whereas the acrylic is not and this makes quite a difference when the jaw is applying huge pressure on the bite during night-time clenching.  However, interestingly, the Instamorph model is perfect at *Not* moving any teeth as the appliance just can't apply force to any teeth.