09/16/2026
You finished your orthodontic treatment and love your results. But do you reallllllly need to wear your retainers for-ever-ever? Unfortunately, YES. And here’s WHY!
Immediately after treatment, the fibers that surround our teeth have a “memory” and want to go back to where they started. Stabilization takes time, and often the longer our teeth have been crowded, the faster they want to shift back. This is why we ask you to wear your retainer full time at first in the early retention period.
Over time, teeth are subjected to daily forces that apply pressure to our teeth and can influence stability after treatment.
As we age, our bodies change. The soft and hard tissues that house teeth are not static. We even see adults who report having straight teeth as children or teens present with crowding or changes to their bite.
So what does “relapse” look like? While it is different for everyone in terms of timing and severity, we can generally expect shifting of lower teeth, loss of fullness of smile, and/or return of an overbite.
Eventually, the retainers will not fit onto the teeth fully.
At this point, options are to have new retainers made to hold their teeth in their current position to prevent further relapse, or re-enter active treatment.
The good news is that while retainers need to be worn forever, the frequency of wear can usually be decreased over time. Ideally retainers are worn every night, but as the teeth stabilize over years of nightly retainer wear, risk of shifting is likely if you miss a night here or there.
The bottom line: no matter if it’s your first day without braces or years after treatment, if your retainers feel tight or resistant to fully seating onto the teeth - your teeth are trying to move and you probably need to wear your retainers more.
