Can I Drink With A Retainer On?

By: Your One and Only, Online Dental Expert - Writer, Mr. Efrain E. Silva!

You ever drink really cold water in a really fast way and then regret it later that very same minute? Brain freeze, as they call it? Or how about doing the same with ice cream? How about drinking such icy cold water, for instance, with a retainer on? Is it any different? All this and more, I can get your thinking wheels turning on…. so stay with me today….. let’s go there and have a chat on this….

So, they say ( and by they, I mean dental medical pros, of course, ha hah ) that cold, plain water is okay, even if you gulp it down really, really fast on a hot, summer day after a full game of soccer…. he heh heh. Now, while you may not damage the retainer in any way through doing this, you will still more than likely sense that brain freeze coming on. So try not to do that and just be smarter.

Fizzy drinks and sports drinks, on another note — are they okay to drink when you have your retainer placed inside? Well, the answer is that they are generally not recommended. Neither are any diluting juices, or heck, even plain fruit juices. And why is this, that you can do ice – cold water but not juices, for instances? Well, there are a number of viable reasons here, to add, and I would have to say that the first one is that the liquid does tend to stick around in the retainer for a bit after you have drank it…. even water tends to splash around in there, having entered in very small portions, through the cracks or apertures of the front or back of the retainer, all in all…. mainly the point in which it connects with the teeth. There is always that slight little air hole of an opening, and when you drink and swallow, some liquid amounts, albeit very small, will still tend to get in there and remain ( until whenever it is that it’s your next time to remove the retainers and clean them, whether to eat or to sleep, etc ) .

But with water, it’s okay for it to linger around for a bit. It’s not acidic and holds no chemical compounds in the way that many juices do. And it won’t ‘rot’ or smell as such either…. at the very least, not to the same extent. And when such ascorbic acid, and other ingredients in sports drinks, fizz drinks, sodas, fruit juices and other kinds of things of this nature, gets in there and swivels around in your retainers, it eventually not only de – composes and rots right on your teeth but also wears down both the enamel of your teeth and the plastic material of the retainer. Both can stink, smell, diminish and much more…. over time…. even in a few hours.