Keep your teeth where you put them

If you have spent a whole lot of time and money on getting your teeth straightened with invisible braces in Luton, you want them to stay where you put them, don’t you?

But did you realise that treatment with invisible braces in Luton is only the first part of the treatment? Nearly every patient, then needs to be very diligent about step two, which is to wear a retainer.

When you come to us at Vogue Dental Care for invisible braces in Luton, we will carefully explain about retainers to you, but this forgotten part of the braces process is something we’d like to talk about here too.

What does a retainer do and why do I need one?

When teeth arrive at their final destination and are beautifully aligned in your mouth, there’s a good chance they could wander about. They are not used to being where they are and have not really settled into place yet, so they need to be held in position while the newly created bone around them becomes strong enough to hold them still. This takes about a year.

It would be awful to have gone through all that work, only to end up with crooked teeth again.

What do retainers look like?

There are different kinds of retainers: fixed, vacuum-formed and Hawley.

If you have a vacuum-formed retainer, which fits over your teeth, you only wear it some of the time. You can take it out for eating and cleaning. The retainer is transparent, so no one can see it. It may feel tight to start with.

A fixed retainer is bonded to the insides of your teeth and is not removable. This may be the sort for you if you are likely to forget to put the removable kind back in. You will need to keep it clean and make sure food doesn’t get trapped in it and cause decay.

The Hawley retainer is removable. A plastic section fits into the back of the teeth and a thin metal wire runs across the front. You may find it hard to speak with a Hawley retainer, to start.