Pros & Cons of Permanent and Removable Retainers after braces

It’s a relief when you complete your braces treatment, but there is a stage left. Your orthodontist will provide you to wear retainers. They do the work of retaining the corrected position of your teeth. It’s crucial to wear retainers after braces. If you don’t follow this last step of the treatment, you risk losing all the effects of your braces treatment.

In this article, we will explain the two main types of teeth retainers recommended to wear after braces. These are permanent retainers and removable retainers. Let’s understand their respective properties along with their pros and cons.

Permanent Retainers:

Permanent retainers are also known as fixed retainers. Your orthodontist will fit them to your teeth through a curved wire from the back of your teeth. The wire is fixed to retainers in such a way that your teeth stay in their corrected position. Permanent retainers are suggested when there are higher chances of teeth coming back to their previous place.

These retainers can be placed on teeth and removed through a process done by your orthodontist only.

Pros of Permanent Retainers

1. Low Maintenance
These retainers are convenient to maintain. Only follow your oral hygiene daily and let them do their work fixed on your teeth.
2. Discreet
The wire is bonding the retainers from behind, so it’s pretty invisible to other people. So you go through the last stage of your treatment without people around you noticing it.
3. Completely Effective
Since it’s not in your hand to remove them, there is no chance of a human error. Wearing them all the time makes them completely effective.
4. Long-lasting
There is the glue that is used to keep the retainers bonded to the teeth. This glue lasts long to protect the retention of your teeth.

Cons of Permanent Retainers

1. Cleaning Visits
You can’t miss your schedule for dental cleaning with fixed retainers. The calculus can be built up in them.
2. Difficult to Floss
The wire in the back of your teeth makes it difficult to floss your teeth. However, a floss threader can be a solution to this problem.
3. Long Procedure
It takes a lot of time to bond a fixed retainer to your teeth. The sitting can take up to an hour, and it can be a little painful.
4. Food Restrictions
There are a lot of food restrictions with permanent retainers. For example, you can’t eat hard, acidic, and sugary food because they can harm the retainer.

Removable Retainers

These retainers come as an appliance. You can wear and remove them yourself at the time of eating a meal or brushing your teeth. These retainers are custom-made for your set of teeth. Their effects remain on your teeth only when you wear them. Thus orthodontist will recommend you to wear them for the maximum time, including during sleep.

Removable retainers are made up of either plastic shells or melded clear plastic. Clear plastic retainers are more popular because they are virtually invisible.

Pros of Removable Retainers

1. Convenient
It’s easy to wear and take off removable retainers.
2. Short Process
It takes only 2 minutes of your time to provide an impression of your teeth to make your customized retainers.
3. Good for Upper Teeth
The lower teeth may harm the fixed retainer on upper teeth. Thus orthodontists prefer removable retainers after braces.
4. Minimum Restrictions
You can eat whatever you want and clean your teeth thoroughly after removing your retainers.

Cons of Removable Retainers

1. Not Long-lasting
Removable retainers need to be changed more often during the ongoing treatment.
2. Visible to Others
If you don’t go for transparent plastic material, the removable retainers can be visible to others.
3. Need Maintenance
If you are not careful regarding your belongings, these retainers are not for you. As you need to remove them while eating and brushing, there are chances you can forget them if you are outside.
4. Demand Self-Discipline
It is up to you to make the last stage of your treatment successful with removable retainers after braces. If you don’t wear them for long enough, they may not be able to retain your teeth in the corrected position.

Takeaway

As you can see, both types of retainers come with their advantages and disadvantages. Consult with your orthodontist about which type of retainer will be suitable in your case.

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