
Caring for Permanent Retainers
If you had braces or other work done, you might have what is called a permanent retainer. These are the devices that are implanted in the back of your teeth, usually with a wire that wraps around your smile, and helps to keep those teeth in place. They are the devices that make sure your teeth don’t move back to the place they were before they were properly placed by your orthodontist. They are placed under your tongue, and on the roof of your mouth, depending on what work you had done. They are foreign objects in your mouth, so it is unnatural for them to be there, and they are devices that will hold onto bacteria and old food if you let them. You must take a couple of extra steps to properly clean those retainers so you can keep a healthy mouth. No one wants the great work done by your dentist to be for nothing when your retainer isn’t being cleaned properly, and it is ruining your teeth and your smile.