It takes months and years to achieve a beautiful, vibrant smile by enforcing proper alignment of your teeth using aligners or braces. Teeth straightening options that you wear for an extended period often forces your teeth to align with the jawbone. However, once you remove your Invisalign or braces, your teeth may return to their previous incorrect positions. That is the reason why orthodontists recommend Brooklyn retainers. Your dental specialist may recommend wearing aligners for a few weeks, months, or forever to prevent your teeth from drifting out of position and preserving satisfactory occlusion.
So that your retainers can last longer and deliver maximum stabilization of the new teeth position, you need to take care of them properly. Consequently, below are a few tips you may find helpful.
- Consider your food
Carefully consider the food you eat when you have retainers. Although you can remove temporary retainers before eating, when you have permanent orthodontic devices, exposure to damage is possible depending on the food you are consuming.
Foods and drinks that are crunchy, sticky, or acidic may gradually damage your retainers. Therefore, you should avoid eating apples, carrots, and acidic beverages such as Coca-Cola and grape juice.
- Clean retainers
Regularly clean your teeth and retainers, especially after eating, to remove the food debris inside the mouth that can encourage the buildup of plaque and dangerous bacteria.
Ideally, clean retainers using water and a toothbrush, and avoid using toothpaste that may rub and erode them.
If you notice that regular cleaning of retainers does not remove stubborn discolorations and food particles, refer the matter to your orthodontist for expert cleaning.
Always thoroughly brush your teeth before wearing your retainers.
- Store your orthodontic appliances
After removing your retainers from the teeth, always store them in place to prevent their misplacement or disappearance. Without safekeeping your retainers, you may also trash them without knowing, your kid may take and lose them while playing, or your pet may chew them.
Without storing your retainers in a protective case, you expose them to heat, leading to their deformation, melting, or wrapping. In your mouth, retainers can maintain their shape because the environment is wet. Thus when you take the orthodontic devices out of your mouth, ensure you keep them moisturized. You can use cool water for soaking retainers.
- Wear according to the requirement
You should always wear your retainers according to the directions of your orthodontist or dentist.
For instance, your dentist may guide you on the type of foods you should eat while wearing retainers or advice on the approach to cleaning and maintenance. Moreover, you are often discouraged from biting retainers and leaving space between your orthodontic appliances and teeth. Biting the orthodontic appliances may cause damage.
- Replace retainers
Even if you take care of your retainers in the best possible manner, you may still need to replace them at some point. Replacement of the orthodontic devices may be required when they are loosely fitting, causing discomfort, or damaging your mouth’s soft tissue. Fortunately, many options are available for affordable retainers. This dentist in San Antonio TX recommends changing your retainers every year.
Regularly visit your dentist’s office as recommended, which is essential for checking the functioning of retainers and making necessary corrections.
Contact Brooklyn Heights Orthodontics today for specialist fitting of retainers for maintaining the new adjustments of your teeth.
