Help! My Child Keeps Losing Their Retainer

When your child got their braces taken off, it was probably a huge relief for you as a parent. You no longer have to remind them to be careful about the food they eat to prevent braces from damaging or to clean between the metal hardware to avoid oral health issues. 

Even though your child’s teeth and jaw are now straight and aligned, you may be facing a whole new set of challenges with retainer care. Retainers are removable and easy to clean and care for, but they can be easily broken or lost. 

Because the retainer phase of orthodontic treatment is vitally important to preserve their newly straightened smile and oral health, it’s essential to know how to help your child care for their retainer. 

At Beaches Dentistry in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, our team, led by Nodesh Shyamsunder, BDS, and Jasleen Raina, DDS, understands that it can be frustrating when your child continually loses their retainer and puts themselves at risk for reversing the results their braces provided. 

So, in this month’s blog, we provide some helpful tips for how you can partner with your child in caring for their retainer. 

Practical tips for retainer care

Helping your child practice a routine of proper retainer care mitigates the risk of their retainer becoming lost or damaged. 

Here are some things to have your child do to protect their retainer (and oral health):

Use a retainer case

When your child first gets their retainer, we provide them with a retainer case. Every time your child removes their retainer to eat or brush their teeth, it should go inside the case for safekeeping. This step ensures the retainer won’t get lost, broken, or thrown away. 

Make sure your child has their retainer case with them when they leave the house, so their retainer can go inside it if they’re eating or brushing their teeth away from home.

Frequently clean the retainer

When your child brushes their teeth in the morning and at night, they need to clean their retainer. Using a separate toothbrush, they can use equal parts baking soda and warm water to gently scrub away residue on the retainer. 

Be careful with certain foods and drinks

If your child is eating or drinking something besides water, they should remove their retainer and place it in its case to reduce the risk of tooth staining and decay; it also prevents retainer damage. 

Why caring for their retainer is so important

Though it may seem like orthodontic treatment is over once the braces come off, wearing a retainer is a part of it. If your child doesn’t wear their retainer at all times, except when eating or brushing their teeth, their teeth could shift back, and it can happen quickly.

Even if your child’s retainer becomes lost or damaged, the time spent not wearing the retainer while waiting for a new one could allow their teeth to shift back. 

Contact us as soon as possible to fit a new retainer if your child breaks or loses theirs. You can schedule an appointment by calling our office or using our online booking feature today.