When most patients consider orthodontics, they usually think about only the time they spend actively straightening their teeth with braces or Invisalign. Most people are unaware that the retention stage – that is, maintaining your straightened teeth after you’ve finished treatment – is a very crucial aspect of orthodontic treatment. After the time, efforts, and investments you’ve put in to achieve a straight smile, it is only necessary that we want you to enjoy your healthy, beautiful smile for the rest of your life.
How to maintain a straightened teeth after Invisalign or braces?
After straightening your teeth with braces or Invisalign, it is pertinent to keep them in place so that they don’t shift back to their misaligned position. When your teeth shift, the bone will have to regrow around your teeth in their new position – this could take some time. And even when all of the bone has regenerated, teeth will move if they are not positioned in the right spot.
As we grow older, the teeth tend to move towards the front of the mouth. Even though you may have undergone dental treatment in the past, you are not excluded from this – particularly if you no longer wear your retainers as you age.
This explains why several adult patients who have had braces find that their teeth still shift back to their former incorrect position.
The importance of retainers
Retainers are essential to maintaining your newly straightened teeth in the right position and preventing them from relapsing back to their misaligned position. It’s quite unfortunate though that many a patient stops wearing their retainers.
There are several reasons why people may stop using their retainers, some of which include:
- It wears out over time and loses the capacity to keep their teeth in the proper position.
- It’s been a while they wore it and are unable to get it into position again
- The retainer is old, and they are unwilling to place it in their mouth
- The retainer cracks or breaks
- The patient may also lose their retainer
In most dental clinics, patients are given one retainer upon the completion of their treatment. And any of the above situations can happen with just that single retainer.
It’s only human nature for you to postpone going back to your dentist to receive another one. Moreover, even when they are not wearing the retainer, their teeth may reverse, causing a relapse. Then the orthodontist would have to redesign the retainer depending on where your teeth have shifted.
This is going to be zero fun for a patient who has put in so much effort to achieve a straight smile with Invisalign or braces.
Maintaining healthy, straighter teeth
At Chatfield Braces London, we aim to do things the correct way and help our patients to maintain their healthy, beautiful sets of teeth for life. Our procedures are a bit different to make sure our patients don’t experience a relapse. To achieve this, we make use of state-of-the-art retention technology known as Vivera™ retainers made by Align Technology.
With these retainers, you’ll get 4 highly durable sets of retainers. So, if you break or lose one, you’ve got backups. You can also keep a set-in hand for when you split your time or travel.
Considering that you’ll alternate between the four, it will guarantee that you’ll regularly have a strong new set that won’t get gross and yellow or wear out. What’s more is that the digital print of your newly straightened smile is stored on record forever – which means that if you ever have to order additional retainers, our orthodontists can have them crafted from the sample of your perfect teeth.
Also, Vivera retainers have been reported to be one of the most durable plastic materials for orthodontic treatment, so they will remain sturdy – we are always after the best for our patients!
If you have concluded on dental treatment and would love to get Invisalign treatment in London, don’t hesitate to contact orthodontics! or maybe your teeth are even beginning to shift, and you are looking for a way to stop them from relapsing more, we’d help you with that as well.