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Let us illuminate why your orthodontist said you have to wear a retainer, and how long you will have to wear it.

At the end of orthodontic treatment, you may get a retainer that you have to wear to make sure your teeth stay in their new position.

Retainers are a very important part of the orthodontic process, and they need to be cleaned regularly, or they can cause infections and tooth decay.

Wearing your retainer is not an optional thing. If the orthodontist has prescribed a retainer after braces, you need to fill that prescription and wear your retainer in the manner and for the allotted time prescribed by your orthodontist. Failure to wear your retainer after braces will cause all of the hard work that the orthodontist put into your treatment to slowly reverse, which means you will have gone through the entire treatment for nothing!

Often, after a patient has finally finished with orthodontic treatment, they are happy to be done with it, are happy with the results, and just want things to go back to normal. This is why retainers are so often neglected at the end of treatment. Let me be absolutely clear about this - retainers are just as mandatory for the success of the alignment as wearing the braces themselves.