Once your braces are removed, you will want to do everything you can to keep your smile in place in the years to come. In the retention phase of your orthodontia, you will be wearing an appliance that will help keep your teeth from shifting back to their previous positions.
You will either be wearing a removable retainer, or a permanent one fixed to your teeth. Permanent ones consist of a wire bonded to the inside of your lower front teeth. The upside to fixed retainers is that you can’t lose them, but they are a bit more challenging to floss.
Removable retainers can be a custom-made, lightweight plastic that fits over your teeth or a plastic metal combination custom-made to fit in the roof of the mouth, protecting your upper teeth. Flossing your teeth is easy when you take these out, but losing the retainer is something you want to prevent!
How to Safeguard Your Retainer
If you are a fan of organizing, you will know that the best method to safe-keeping is to keep everything in its place. For a removable retainer, you will want to keep it in your mouth, but when you take it out you will want to have a consistent place to put it. A colorful (easier to spot, harder to lose!) container specifically for your retainer is a must have. If it is always where it is supposed to be when you are not wearing it, chances of losing it are greatly reduced.
If you remove your retainer while you eat, the challenge is to keep it in its safe place: its container. How many horror stories have you heard about people losing their retainers after wrapping them in a napkin or tissue? Too many! Don’t be that person. And if you take your retainer out in public places, label your container conspicuously so that if it is ever lost, a Good Samaritan may send it your way.
These are just a couple of tips to protect the life of your retainer. Please visit our office or give us a call if you have any questions or concerns at 281.376.4533.