Congratulations!!

By this point, you have travelled a long road to obtain your nice smile. Unfortunately, your orthodontic journey is far from completed. As you were informed previously, there is no time in one’s life when teeth can be considered totally stable. This is true whether or not orthodontic treatment was ever performed, sometimes due to oral, muscular or postural tongue habits. Therefore, there are some instructions that will keep your teeth stable.

1. Retainers

Clear Night Retainer

In order to maintain the teeth in their orthodontically corrected positions, retainers are necessary. There is no scientific information available to support a safe time to discontinue using retainers.

In our office, we recommend that removable retainers be worn at night at least until age 19 for adolescents and for 3 years after removal of braces for adults. Please take your retainer with you if you go on holiday. Wire retainer splints affixed behind the teeth should be cared for to a very high standard, as you have been instructed. If poor oral hygiene is noticed around these wires, they will have to be removed. We instruct family dentists to examine the areas surrounding these wires on a regular basis for cavities and/or gum problems.

If your removable retainer(s) or your wires break, please keep all of the pieces and call the office immediately. If you lose these devices, they should be replaced. Depending on the cause of the problem and the extent of the work required, there may be a charge for repair or replacement. We follow you for 6 months free of charge after alignment is completed. Following that period, there is a nominal fee to re-cement or replace your splints and retainers.

2. Wisdom Teeth

Wisdom teeth or third molars are the last teeth in one’s mouth to develop. They form in the back of the mouth behind the twelve-year molars and should come in between the ages of 18 and 25. If they do not come in on their own, they are considered impacted. Impacted wisdom teeth can cause pressure to the adjacent molars. Occasionally, in conjunction with the general dentist or specialist oral surgeon, we will advise removal of impacted or potentially impacted wisdom teeth.

3. Relapse

Typically occurs if the splint retention wire breaks and/or the retainers are not being worn.

Should your teeth shift or “relapse” to undesirable positions, there are three possibilities you may consider:

i) Accepting the changes if they are minor, and we provide a new passive retainer

ii) Re-treatment with limited braces or clear aligners for severe relapse for a short period of time.