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Home » Blog » How Long Will I Have to Wear a Retainer?

How Long Will I Have to Wear a Retainer?

You’ve worn your braces or aligners, kept your checkup appointments, and followed treatment instructions from Michael Colleran DDS. You love your new smile, but it’s not over yet—how long will you have to wear a retainer? There are two types of retainers: removable and fixed.

Removable retainers are taken out of your mouth during your oral hygiene routine or while eating. Removable retainers should be worn full-time for at least 12 months following removal of your braces. If your teeth have stopped moving, you may get the go-ahead for night wear only. However, some people may wear them at night indefinitely. Removable aligners include those used for clear aligner orthodontics systems.
Fixed retainers are held in place after being cemented to the backs of your teeth. They are typically worn for several years.

This may not be the news you had hoped to hear, but you’ve put a lot of time and money into your beautiful new smile. If you want that gorgeous grin to be a permanent part of your life, you have to do all you can protect it.

Michael Colleran DDS can answer questions about retainer use and any other dental concerns you may have. We’d here to help, so get in touch with us anytime!

The content of this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

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We will use your information to respond to you, regarding the reason you contacted us. Unless you ask us not to, we may contact you via email in the future to tell you about specials, new products or services, or changes to this privacy policy.

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See what data we have about you, if any.
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While we use encryption to protect sensitive information transmitted online, we also protect your information offline. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, billing or customer service) are granted access to personally identifiable information. The computers/servers in which we store personally identifiable information are kept in a secure environment.

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What personally identifiable information is collected from you through the website, how it is used and with whom it may be shared.
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The security procedures in place to protect the misuse of your information.
How you can correct any inaccuracies in the information.

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When Personal Health Information (PHI) is requested, we abide by all Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) rules and regulations to protect your information and privacy. We are required by applicable federal and state law to maintain the privacy of your health information. We are also required to give you this Notice about our privacy practices, our legal duties, and our rights concerning your health information. We must follow the privacy practices that are described in this Notice while it is in effect. This notice takes effect January 1, 2019, and will remain in effect until we replace it. We reserve the right to change our privacy practices and the terms of this Notice at any time, provided such changes are permitted by applicable law. We reserve the right to make the changes in our privacy practices and the new terms of our Notice effective for all health information that we maintain, including health information we created or received before we made the changes. Before we make a significant change in our privacy practices, we will change this Notice and make the new Notice available upon request. You may request a copy of our Notice at any time. For more information about our privacy practices, or for additional copies of this Notice, please contact us using the information listed at the end of this Notice.

Wherever we request sensitive information (such as personal health information (PHI)), that information is encrypted and transmitted to us in a secure way. You can verify this by looking for a lock icon in the address bar and looking for “https” at the beginning of the address of the Web page.

We are the sole owners of the information collected on this site. We only have access to/collect information that you voluntarily give us via email or other direct contact from you. We will not sell or rent this information to anyone.

We will use your information to respond to you, regarding the reason you contacted us. We will not share your information with any third party outside of our organization, other than to perform quality of service analysis and as necessary to fulfill your request, e.g. to respond to your queries. We may use your information to review our interactions with you and to help us improve and provide you with the best experience possible.

Unless you ask us not to, we may contact you via email in the future to tell you about specials, new products or services, or changes to this privacy policy.

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You may opt out of any future contacts from us at any time. You can do the following at any time by contacting us via the email address or phone number given on our website:

See what data we have about you, if any.
Change/correct any data we have about you.
Have us delete any data we have about you.
Express any concern you have about our use of your data.
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You have additional rights, please contact the office for the latest copy of our Notice of Privacy Practices and to ask any questions.

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We take precautions to protect your information. When you submit sensitive information via the website, your information is protected both online and offline.

Wherever we collect sensitive information (such as personal health information or credit card data), that information is encrypted and transmitted to us in a secure way. You can verify this by looking for a lock icon in the address bar and looking for “https” at the beginning of the address of the Web page.

While we use encryption to protect sensitive information transmitted online, we also protect your information offline. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example: billing or customer service) are granted access to personally identifiable information. The computers/servers in which we store personally identifiable information are kept in a secure environment.

If you feel that we are not complying with your rights, you should contact us immediately via telephone or email. You also have the right to contact Health and Human Services (HHS) (https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/filing-a-complaint/). We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.

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