Types of Retainers | Retainer Wear Part 2

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Another common question I get is about retainers, and types of retainers that we make. Our most popular retainer that we use is called the Essix Retainer, and that's a clear, almost like an Invisalign type of retainer. The reason it is so popular is that it works in a couple of good ways.
Once we take the braces off, we often see that patients may not be as compliant about wearing their retainers as we would like for them to do, so if teeth do shift or move a little bit, the Essix retainer, if worn more often, can actually move teeth back to that perfect alignment that you had the day the braces came off.
The older, traditional retainer that we had with the acrylic and a wire that went across the front is called a Hawley Retainer. We really don't use those a lot today, just depending on the result of the case; if we need settling in the vertical dimension, we can often do that. And even with an Essix retainer, we get some vertical settling, but sometimes we have to use a Hawley retainer in order to settle things. The problem with a Hawley retainer is that, if patients aren't as compliant with that retainer and teeth start to move, often once those rotations occur, we can't really gain them back without putting braces back on.
A common request that I get from patients, is the discussion about a fixed retainer, where we glue a piece of wire on the back of the upper or lower teeth. We do some in our practice, we always make a removable retainer that fits over the top.
But, one thing I see with a lot of our adults coming in today, that's very important to talk about with these fixed retainers. I tell patients, in order for a fixed retainer to be effective, we have to use a lot of glue and glue it on the back of each tooth that that retainer attaches to. So, what happens when we do that is it's very hard for patients to properly clean. And, eventually over time, plaque will start to build up. Because the composite is somewhat porous, it can absorb food and liquid particles, and often patients breath starts to smell. And often times, we look in there and it is the retainer. It's stained, it has a lot of bacteria built up around it.
The other downfall to the fixed retainer, is you can never bite into anything hard with your teeth. So if you ever want to bite into an apple, you can't do it with a fixed retainer. You have to cut it up and chew it on your back teeth.
That's why I tend to lean more towards the removable retainers, just because you can brush, you can floss properly, a lot easier to keep clean, you don't have to worry about your breath smelling, and you can eat whatever you want to; there is no maintenance factor associated with worrying about breaking the bond of the retainer. That's probably why it's the most popular retainer. Like I said, if you wear it properly, and teeth shift a little bit, you can shift the teeth back to where they're supposed to be.
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