How Long?

[JillD]

I have been looking up information about how long orthos recommend patients wear retainers. I am not surprised that they recommend adult patients wear retainers for the rest of their life. But there seems to be a new trend that they recommend their teenage patients wear them for the rest of their life as well. I thought if you finish your orthodontic treatment when you are a teenager, you can wear them only for a couple of years. But that is not recommended any longer. Did you notice this, too?

[Snowglobe32]

I haven't noticed this new trend but I see retainers as being lifelong. The whole purpose of a retainer is to retain. So I assume one would wear 24/7 in the beginning, then nightly, then maybe weekly. Teeth are going to shift over time regardless of wether one has worn braces....the idea is to keep your teeth as perfect as possible so why not wear it?

[plugnickel69]

Maybe if those of us who were teenagers many years ago had worn their retainers continuously we wouldn't have had the relapses that we have. Of course I never had a lower retainer previously, just a wire that went from lower canine to canine without engaging any other teeth. That broke after a couple of years and was permanently removed.

[BraceFace2o1o]

I have always read that regardless of age you need to continue wearing retainers for the rest of your life, as the saying goes as long as you want your teeth to remain straight. Apparently our teeth shift throughout our whole life so I can see why a retainer is needed for a long long time to prevent that movement and the teeth wanting to go back to how they were before braces. I'm not saying every day for the rest of our lives, but at least a couple of nights per week.