The retention phase

Patient with Positioners

The most important phase of treatment – tooth retention.

After the fixed appliance treatment with brackets, bands and arches, the most important phase of the treatment starts – stabilising the teeth in the position we moved them in to with such great effort. To do this, we use so-called positioners.

Positioners are specially moulded aligners inserted shortly after removing the fixed appliance. Initially (often for the first three months), they have to be worn for 23 hours a day. Overtime, and if they have been worn regularly, this is reduced to wearing them at night only. We differentiate between soft (”bio”), medium (”copy”) and hard aligners (”duran”).

fixed retention wire

In some cases, it is also advisable to affix a wire – preferably behind the front teeth in the lower jaw, in which case positioners need not to be worn.