ABSTRACT
Editor’s comments While orthodontists may differ in their diagnosis and treatment planning philosophies, there is little doubt that most clinicians will agree on the importance of the retention phase of treatment. However, as with other aspects of orthodontics, they differ in their choice of retainers and their protocol for retention. This is evident from the variation in views expressed by the contributors to this chapter. While we accept that their views are based on many years of clinical experience, we also note that the results of research studies indicate a wide range of views. The work of Little et al., showed that only 10% of the extraction cases examined 20 years postretention were judged to have clinically acceptable mandibular alignment at the last stage of diagnostic records.1 By contrast a recent study of 66 subjects examined 15.6 ± 5.9 years posttreatment by Myser et al. concluded that orthodontic treatment is not inherently unstable.2
