{"id":905,"date":"2019-02-28T14:01:26","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T14:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/?p=905"},"modified":"2019-02-28T14:01:26","modified_gmt":"2019-02-28T14:01:26","slug":"keeping-teeth-straight-after-braces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/keeping-teeth-straight-after-braces\/","title":{"rendered":"KEEPING TEETH STRAIGHT AFTER BRACES"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-1 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"369\" height=\"137\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/45999683625_1ce7871ce6.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"910\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=910\" class=\"wp-image-910\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/45999683625_1ce7871ce6.jpg 369w, https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/45999683625_1ce7871ce6-300x111.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 369px) 100vw, 369px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>You have spent\nthousands of dollars to straighten your son\u2019s or daughter\u2019s teeth with an\northodontist, and then a year or two down the road when you ask them where\ntheir retainers are, they answer, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d Sound familiar? Long-term\ncompliance use of retainers is an issue. Here is the latest research and my\nthoughts on keeping your kid\u2019s teeth straight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Studies show\nand should not be surprising that the average patient compliance decreases\ndramatically the longer a patient is out of treatment, and is abysmal at five\nyears following treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are\nbasically three methods used to retain teeth after braces: a clear,\nvacuum-formed retainer (typically referred to as an Essix retainer), a hard,\npink, plastic retainer with a wire in the front (typically referred to as a\nHawley-type retainer), and a bonded wire, which is splinted to the back of the\nteeth. Obviously, the bonded wire has the best compliance because nothing has to\nbe \u201cworn\u201d but it has its own issues \u2013 namely, it only keeps the front teeth\nstraight and flossing compliance is poor because it is a pain-in-the-neck to\ndo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most\nrecent studies I have seen suggest using the clear, vacuum-formed retainers for\na year or two, and then moving into the Hawley-type retainer. The reasoning is\nthat it is has been shown that kids are more compliant initially with the clear\nretainers because it is a relief to get rid of all the wires. However, after a\nwhile, those types of retainers lose their \u201cmemory\u201d and they get pretty nasty\nlooking and stained, which decrease their compliance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Personally,\nafter I got my braces off about 10 years ago, I had a lower \u201cfixed\u201d wire bonded\nto the inside of my lower front teeth and a hard \u201cnight guard\u201d type of\nappliance made to retain my upper teeth. This provides very good long-term\nretention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another great\nsystem for long-term retention after orthodontics is a system developed by\nInvisalign called Vivera. Here\u2019s how it works. You have impressions taken after\northodontics with your teeth in their ideal position. Invisalign creates a\ndigital model of the teeth that stays on file. They send you (4) sets of\nretainers, which look like the Essix-type retainers, although they are made\nfrom the harder type Invisalign material. At the end of the first year you\nthrow out the retainers you have been using and use the second set for another\nyear. This provides excellent retention for four years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every year you\nchange the retainers the new retainers feel really tight because the teeth have\nmoved slightly over that time because of some memory loss. However, the \u201cnew\u201d\nset of retainers was made from the original model, therefore the teeth are\nmoved back to their starting position. After the four years you order another\n(4) sets of retainers made from that stored digital impression. Guaranteed\nretention provided there is good compliance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The cost of\nthe (4) sets of Vivera retainers is about $600. That\u2019s $150 per year to\nguarantee the teeth stay straight. Worth it? I think so after spending\nthousands to straighten the teeth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. St. Clair\nmaintains a private dental practice in Rowley and Newburyport dedicated to\nhealth-centered family dentistry. If there are certain topics you would like to\nsee written about or questions you have please email them to him at <a href=\"mailto:jpstclair@stclairdmd.com\">jpstclair@stclairdmd.com<\/a>.\nYou can view all previously written columns at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\">www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You have spent thousands of dollars to straighten your son\u2019s or daughter\u2019s teeth with an orthodontist, and then a year or two down the road when you ask them where their retainers are, they answer, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d Sound familiar? Long-term compliance use of retainers is an issue. Here is the latest research and my thoughts on keeping your kid\u2019s teeth straight. Studies show and should not be surprising that the average patient compliance decreases [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=905"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":911,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905\/revisions\/911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}