Now that you have completed your time in braces, the treatment is not yet over! To keep your smile looking beautifully straight, you will need to wear a retainer for some time to allow for the surrounding bone to harden enough to prevent the teeth from shifting.
Types of Retainers
Retainers are always custom-made to fit your mouth and come in removable and fixed varieties.
Traditional removable retainers usually consist of a metal wire that surrounds the front teeth and is attached to an acrylic arch that sits in the roof of the mouth. If needed, the metal wires can be adjusted to finish treatment and continue minor movement of the front teeth.
There are also aligner-style retainers which are also referred to as Essix retainers. These retainers offer a more aesthetic alternative to wire retainers. Depending on your needs, your retainer may cover the entire arch of your teeth or may go only from canine to canine.
Fixed retainers consist of wires bonded behind the bottom and/or top teeth. This device is usually required no longer than a year after wisdom teeth have been extracted but it is often kept in place for life.
Pros and Cons
Removable retainers can be taken out for eating and hygiene routines. However, removable retainers also get lost easily, you will be responsible for keeping yours in the case whenever you remove it to eat or brush.
A fixed retainer is great if you don’t want to risk losing your retainer or if you find it a hassle to keep track of how many hours you wear it. However, teeth with fixed retainers will require a bit more work to remove tartar while flossing. Patients with fixed retainers find floss threaders useful to pass dental floss through the small spaces between the retainer and the teeth.