How Long Do You Wear an Invisalign Retainer

It’s been a pleasure to work with you during your Invisalign treatment. Now that you’ve finished your Invisalign treatment and are enjoying your beautiful new smile, you may be thinking that your work is done. Think again! The most important part of your treatment is just getting started, making sure that smile lasts a lifetime. Together, we’ve worked hard to achieve your orthodontic goal, so Stormberg Orthodontics has developed an Invisalign protocol to protect the investment you’ve made in straightening your teeth. We want you to smile with confidence for the rest of your life, and we have worked hard to eliminate all possible excuses and barriers to help you achieve that goal. Please read and carefully follow these Invisalign retention instructions.

Next 8 to 12 Weeks

After you complete your treatment, you will receive a number of Invisalign retainers. During the next 8 to 12 weeks, you should wear your retainer FULLTIME as instructed by Dr. Stormberg. It is extremely important that you wear the retainer all the time to ensure that your teeth do not start moving, and it’s an easy thing to do! Most patients are done wearing them all of the time after only eight weeks.

Next 20 to 30 Years

You will be given a number of Invisalign Retainers at the completion of treatment. Each set of retainers that you were given will last from three to five years. Wear each retainer as long as possible! Dr. Stormberg will let you know when you can stop wearing the retainer full-time and switch to wearing it only at night while you sleep. The retainer needs to be worn for at least eight hours. You will need to wear nighttime-only retainer for the rest of your life. This may sound daunting, but it’s worth it to maintain that straight, beautiful smile.

Future Costs May Be Avoided

Hopefully, your retainers will not need to be replaced, but it may be unavoidable if you lose or damage your retainers, or if you have major dental work done. If this happens, you will need a new scan of your teeth to have new Invisalign retainers made. There will be a charge for the additional sets of retainers. If you have a fixed wire retainer and it breaks, we will recommend you switch to removable retainers. In this case, we will scan your teeth to have new Invisalign retainers made. There will be a charge for the additional sets of retainers.