Often people ask us how long they need to wear their retainer after having orthodontic treatment. There are many factors that may influence how long someone needs to wear their retainer, but the best recommendation we can give you is to wear your retainers for as long as you want for your teeth to stay straight!
Simply, the longer you wear the retainer, the longer your teeth will remain in their desired position since teeth can shift without regular wear of a retainer. Regardless of whether you had traditional braces or Invisalign treatment, you will still need to wear a retainer in order to maintain the results achieved through orthodontic treatment.
Without consistent wear for the rest of your life, you unfortunately risk the chance of your teeth returning to their pre-orthodontic position. Text: Did you know that the Hawley retainer is the most popular type of retainer?
It features a metal wire that surrounds the six anterior teeth and holds them in place. A simple way of understanding why this happens is to think of your teeth as having a memory of their own.
Typically, it takes about a year for teeth to become stable in a new position. During this time period, your teeth are especially likely to want to shift back to their old position because bone has not yet fully formed around their new position to keep them stable.
A retainer helps train your teeth to stay in their new ideal position while this process takes place. When your orthodontist feels confident that you are achieving some stability, they will allow you to transition to nighttime only wear.
You should continue wearing your retainer every night until you have been in retainers for about a year. You are on your last set of Invisalign teeth trays, and you are excited. Your teeth look great, and you only have a few days left before you take off your aligners for the last time. You would be even more excited if you did not have to swap your Invisalign for a retainer. That thing is to wear a retainer for a while, but not forever.
You are probably asking yourself why you need to wear a retainer at all. Treatments that straighten the teeth work because the jawbone can be adjusted and the teeth along with it. If they are left to their own devices, they will start to shift back to their old, familiar positions.
That is where a retainer comes in. When worn, a retainer holds the teeth in their new position. By holding them in place, the retainer prevents the teeth from reverting to undesirable positions.
When a person wears a retainer, they train their newly straightened teeth to remain in their new alignment. When the Invisalign comes off for the last time, the teeth will be straight. Your retainers will help prevent this from happening as you age. Though the process becomes slower and slower, if you stop wearing your retainer, your teeth will gradually move back to their original position.
In a way, teeth remember their original position. Even after the bones and ligaments that surround your teeth change, your teeth will want to slip back into their original alignment. In certain cases, your orthodontist will attach a permanent retainer to the backs of your teeth.
Patients that receive this will wear the retainers all the time, even while they eat and brush. That does mean you will need to sleep with them. However, you can remove them when you eat or brush your teeth. After that initial three months, you will wear your retainer for 12 hours a day or night for the next nine months. By the end of this first year, your teeth should be more securely placed and less likely to quickly relapse. The straight answer is pun intended!
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