What If I Wear My Retainer Only At Night?

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

This has been a question that has been posed by thousands of young and old men and women everywhere, and it is one that stems from annoyance with having worn the darn thing for so long, and for so many tireless hours, non – stop. Yes, you at some point will find yourself there, where they are, in thought. I am not going to lie. Maybe you have already. And that’s all right. I’m going to talk on this…

So first of all, those who have worn their retainer for at least a few years and have seen very positive results may be instructed by their dental care experts to be allowed to only wear the retainer at night. This is very good news and a true sigh of relief, for many, that they have headed in a very positive direction…. and that now, only a few hours of extra support, every night or other night, is what’s needed, just to kind of make sure that things don’t shift back to before, over time. If this is your case, then congrats, feel free to wear the retainer only at night. And sweet dreams.

Heck, in some cases, like I briefly noted, you can feel free to skip a night…. by “accident”, he he he heh. “Oops, I just forgot to wear them last night, Dr. Peter. He heh”. No biggie. You will not wake up the next morning to find that everything has shifted out of place. No, no, no. It takes time to fall back into an old habit, just as it takes time to create a new one…. hence the same with your teeth and the way they like to shift or not shift. It’s all a matter of common sense, here, of course. This all makes sense, right?

Now, also, I’d like to say that, it’s been said that the more you use retainers, seeing positive, lasting changes, the less you’ll have to consistently use them, over the years. It’s a true fact, in most cases. And most of the time, people use them religiously, until less and less needed… and then feel free to use them less often. That’s just the way it goes here, unless your case is an extremely severe one, in which you would need to constantly retain the retainers in place. But that is very rare to see. Yet can happen, with some.

Usually, before you can wear the retainers only at night, and reward yourself with that kind of progress, he he heh, you will need to wear them all day and night for at least anywhere from 2 – 10 years. It depends on how bad your teeth have been messed up. And that is why I say not to smoke, drink, do drugs or any of that, as well…. this can all make it worse. Dentists would agree.