Role of retention in orthodontics: A narrative review

This narrative review summarizes the current understanding of the crucial role that orthodontic retention plays in maintaining the treatment outcome and preventing relapse. This summary gives background, purpose, key findings, and conclusions regarding the evolution, types, influencing factors, and duration of retention protocols. Further, recent advances in materials and digital technologies are discussed, together with their clinical implications for optimal long-term stability in orthodontic patients. However, long-term stability in orthodontics remains one of the biggest challenges, notwithstanding the fact that considerable advances have been achieved, and relapse is often reported. Individualized patient characteristics, including persistent periodontal tissue remodeling and changes in craniofacial growth, are critical determinants in this regard. The disorganization of periodontal fibers and newly laid bone subsequent to orthodontic tooth movement has not, so far, fully adapted to the altered configuration; thus, there is a tendency of teeth to move back to the pretreatment position. Therefore, posttreatment relapse is a persistent problem encountered by comprehensive orthodontic treatment, which raises the necessity of effective retention strategies. This review aims to fill the gap between scientific evidence and clinical practice by reviewing the current evidence and emerging trends in retention management. Specifically, it analyzes how different types, materials, and protocols of retainers influence treatment stability and compliance of the patient for the purpose of giving evidence-based clinical decisions. A deep understanding of the nature of retention, being multifactorial, is very important for both the orthodontist and the general dentist in designing an individualized retention protocol which takes into consideration the needs of each patient and biomechanical considerations.