What to Do When Your Invisalign Retainer Wont Fit Right
Have you been neglecting to wear your retainer, and now it doesn’t fit? Learn what to do.
Following orthodontic treatment with Invisalign, you will have wonderfully straight teeth and a brand new smile. However, the process isn’t quite over. Ongoing changes in your mouth, such as the eruption of wisdom teeth, as well as daily stresses of biting and chewing, can cause teeth to shift over time. To prevent movement that could alter the position of your nice straight teeth, you will need to use a retainer.
Invisalign patients will be given a Vivera retainer to wear around the clock for the first six months after treatment and every night after that. This retainer is made by Invisalign and looks almost exactly the same as an Invisalign tray, except it is made of a slightly more durable plastic.
Unfortunately, sometimes people don’t wear their retainers as often as they should. If you’ve gone awhile without wearing yours, you may find it is difficult to snap the retainer into place when you do go back to trying to wear it. Here are 3 steps you can take if your Invisalign retainer doesn’t fit right anymore.
Get Helpful Tools
If your Invisalign retainer is just a little too tight, you can try using special tools to get it on and off. Invisalign “Chewies” can be used to push that tight-fitting retainer into place. These chewies look like small rolls of gauze or cotton but are actually made from a spongy styrene copolymer material. To use them, simply place between your teeth and bite down. Move the chewie around so that all teeth get a chance to bite on it. This should help gently push your tight-fitting retainer into place. Now, when it’s time to remove your tight retainer, you can use a special Invisalign retainer remover tool. This is basically a little plastic tool with a hook on the end that you can insert under the edge of the retainer and use to pop the tray off your teeth.
Wear Your Retainer More
If you’ve noticed your retainer getting more difficult to put on and take off, this indicates your teeth are shifting. To help control this, you may want to start wearing your retainer for longer periods to help train teeth to stay in position. Rather than wearing your retainer only at night, try going back to wearing it all day.
Get a New Retainer Made
If your teeth have already shifted too much, it may actually be impossible to get your retainer back on. In this case, your best move is to visit your orthodontist right away to order a new retainer. This will at least ensure you teeth do not move any further out of position.
Whether you got your initial Invisalign treatment from us or from another orthodontist, you can come to California Dental Group to have your teeth scanned and a new retainer produced. We use the high-tech iTero scanner for this process so it is simple, quick, and a whole lot more comfortable than continuing to use an ill-fitting retainer.
