When people ask us how long they should wear their retainers at night we always answer, “For as long as you want straight teeth!” Dentists used to think that at some point your teeth would stop shifting and many of us in our 30′s and 40′s stopped wearing retainers a long time ago, but are now experiencing shifting or crowding in our smiles. In fact, Drs. Powell and Tiller frequently have patients chose to do Invisalign because they had braces as a youth, but now have relapse due to not wearing their retainers and now want straight teeth again. Given that, if you have had orthodontics, you need to be wearing retainers to keep your teeth in line.

There are two main types of removable retainers. A Hawley is probably what you remember from your youth. The pink acrylic on the roof of your mouth or behind your lower teeth and a wire around the front. A newer option is the clear Essix type retainer which covers your teeth with a thin clear plastic material.

They each have their advantages and disadvantages. The advantage of the Hawley type retainer is that it is very dimensionally stable, so that you do not need to replace them for years and years. They should work well for 8-10 years as long as you are careful not to bend the wire or somehow manage to break the acrylic. The advantages of the clear retainers are that they are clear, thin, and most people won’t even notice you are wearing them. This tends to make it easier to be compliant about wearing it, especially if you have just gotten out of braces and are still wearing the retainers day and night. We also like them because they completely cover the teeth allowing less rotation or tipping. Their main disadvantage is that because they are such a thin plastic, they give over time. Often patients don’t even notice that slowly, but surely, they are getting slight malalignment of their teeth as the retainers give in to the forces of your teeth. Because of this, the clear retainers need to be replaced anywhere from every 3 months to once a year depending on the amount of pressure your teeth are putting on the plastic, and also depending on how long you have been in retention.

To address this need for replacement, Align Technology, the makers of Invisalign, came out with Vivera Retainers. Vivera are the clear type retainer, but are produced on a subscription type service. Each set of Vivera is ordered as 4 sets. The first is tried in at our office and then Align sends you a new set to your home every 3 months. They also keep your digital file of your teeth, so that when you order future sets, you do not need additional impressions, they use the 3D scan from your first set to make the additional retainers.