After you remove your braces we know you want to focus on making sure you keep your new beautiful smile is nice and clean, but don’t forget about your appliance that keep that beautiful smile, your retainers.
When we remove your braces, we will begin the retention stage of your treatment. The retention phase lasts for a minimum of 24 months. Your retainers should be worn at all times with the exception of eating and brushing your teeth. Also, just like you are keeping up the oral hygiene you must make sure your retainer is clean as well. Here are a few tips for keeping your retainer clean.
- Use your toothbrush to brush your retainers regularly. Since they spend a lot of time in your mouth, tartar and plaque can still develop on these appliances. Brushing keeps tartar buildup away.
- Soak your retainers in distilled water with a little baking soda to keep them clean and eliminate odor. Baking soda is a natural means of cleaning and deodorizing them
- Use a denture cleaning solution, such as Efferdent, will aid in the removal of plaque and tartar. Be sure to rinse the retainers thoroughly after cleaning to remove any cleanser residue.
- Retainers are made of a thermoplastic material that is sensitive to excessive heat, so they should be kept away from dishwashers (and basically any place where the temperatures exceed 115 degrees(F)).
Your final orthodontic result depends on your retainers, so follow through with the hard work you’ve put in so far. If you have any questions about the retention process or your retainer, contact us today!
Oh, so you would need a toothbrush to clean a retainer. That would be a helpful fact for me to share with my wife. Would cleaning them out with Listerine also be helpful in keeping the retainers smelling fresh? http://www.mooneevalleydental.com
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