I know how it feels to have finally gotten rid of those food trapping, scratchy, wire poking braces off, but now that your teeth have been rearranged into a fantastically beautiful smile you must now get ready to try and maintain all of that suffering you just endured for years to come.

Believe it or not, but your teeth have memory.  They kinda remember where they came from.  Now they may not return completely to their original positions, but they can shift around enough to undo all of that hard labor they just went through to get into their best possible positions.  It may not happen overnight but can begin as quickly as within a few days of getting your braces off.  Also, over the years after you’ve been out of your braces they can start to somewhat regress.  Now this doesn’t always happen with everyone but the majority of people can have some type of movement if they don’t wear they’re retainers as instructed.

Back in the day (there goes that phrase again) the orthodontist would inform their patient to discontinue wearing their retainers after about 1, 2, 5 years or so.  However, after several studies were perform by recalling patients after 20 years of being out of braces it was discovered the longer a patient wears their retainers in some capacity, the more likely their teeth would remain in their new position after braces.

You see, bones changes as we grow older, thus the shifting can occur in our teeth.   Even people who never had braces in their earlier years are now getting them in their 30s and 40s because of this shifting.  Usually the lower front teeth began bundling together or becoming crowded and sometimes the upper front teeth do the same.

These days  patients are usually instructed to wear their retainers as least once or twice a week once their orthodontist released them on their own recognizances.  Just like with everything else we must do to maintain something good for us…we must monitor it.