survey ---eating with retainers in or out

[BARRYMILLER]

I am wearing Hawley retainers 24/7 for the next year. I have read that some orthos told their patients to wear their Hawley retainers while eating and others were told to take them out. What do you do. If you wear them while eating, do you have any tricks to make it easier. My ortho told me if I wanted to wear them while eating it was fine, it was my choice.

[Nozzelnut]

I'll be taking mine out when it comes to that. Easier to keep clean and I'm not going to bend anything.

[Matilda]

Out, definitely.

[sirwired]

With the retainer I wore after braces as a kid (until it wore out in my mid 20's) I wore it while eating. (When I had an expander under that same ortho, I wore it while eating.) His theory was that chewing forces are quite great; if movement's going to occur, that's when it'll be. I got pretty good at popping it out with my tongue, giving it a wipe to get the really chunky bits off, and popping it back in place, all without taking it out. (NOTE: NOT RECOMMENDED... all that scraping put rust stains on my teeth, and it can chip important bits off the acrylic.)

The retainers I'm now wearing after round #2, I take out.