What Happens If I Don't Wear My Retainer After Braces?

The day you get your braces off is an exciting one. After having a mouth full of metal for such a long time, you’re probably more than ready to be done with your orthodontic treatment for good.

While the metal hardware can certainly be left in the past, there’s actually one more step in your orthodontic treatment to undergo that guarantees your newly straightened smile lasts a lifetime: wearing a retainer.

Although wearing a retainer seems like a pain, skipping that step in your treatment plan heightens the risk of your teeth returning to where they came from, negating all that time and money you poured into straightening them.

At Hanachi Orthodontics in Gastonia and Mooresville, North Carolina, Farid Hanachi, DDS, PA, and the rest of our team want you to understand the importance of wearing your retainer consistently after getting your braces off.

In this month’s blog, we discuss what a retainer does, what your retainer options are, and how to care for it to ensure optimal results.

How do retainers work?

A retainer is a custom-made orthodontic device that seeks to hold your new smile in place.

As soon as your jaw and teeth have reached the positions your braces were moving them to, we take the metal hardware off. However, your teeth will want to go right back to the place they came from, since that was considered their “natural” position, which is a process known as relapsing.

In addition, cells in your jawbone are always discarding old bone and creating new bone. This process for keeping your jaw healthy and strong is called bone regeneration, and it’s triggered by things like chewing and talking.

To mitigate the risk of tooth movement from relapsing or bone regeneration, you have to wear a retainer daily while your teeth learn that these new positions are where they belong and your jawbone anchors around them.

Your retainer options

Just like there are multiple available methods for straightening your teeth, there are a few different options for keeping them straight as well. Let’s take a look at each one:

Removable

There are two types of removable retainers to choose from, both of which are custom-fitted and made.

A Hawley retainer is made of a plastic portion that sits behind your teeth and a metal portion that covers the front of your teeth. The other option is a clear plastic tray, like what’s used with the clear aligner orthodontic method.

Both of these can be taken out to eat and clean your teeth, but for at least nine months, they need to be worn at all times outside those two occasions. After that time has passed, you can start wearing them just at night.

Fixed

As the name suggests, fixed retainers are metal wires that are cemented to the back of your teeth. Most of the time, these are used on only the lower teeth, but they can be used for the upper teeth as well.

This type cannot be removed, meaning that it’s incredibly effective. However, you will need to take great care to keep it free of food and other debris that could lead to tooth decay.

Caring for your retainer

To make sure your retainer doesn’t break or get lost and stays clean, we recommend following these care guidelines:

Always place your removable retainer in a case while eating and brushing your teeth
Make sure to brush your teeth after a meal before you put your retainer back in
Avoid eating sticky, staining, and high-sugar foods with a fixed retainer
Use an interproximal brush to supplement oral hygiene habits with a fixed retainer
Gently clean your retainer regularly to avoid the buildup of bacteria

If you lose your retainer or it breaks, make sure to call our office immediately to get it replaced, especially if it’s early on in your retainer treatment. Going even a few days without one puts you at risk for significant tooth movement.

To learn more about how to care for your retainer or to ask any questions about our orthodontic treatments, schedule an appointment with our team by calling your nearest office location or using our online booking feature today.