Bonding a Mandibular Lingual Retainer

There are many ways to hold a mandibular lin­gual retainer in place for bonding, including dental floss, ligature wires, and impression mate­rial. The following method is simple and fast.

1. Adapt the retainer wire to the patient's mandibular cast.
2. Prepare the lingual surfaces of the teeth for bonding.
3. Wet the tooth surfaces with unfilled light-­cured resin.
4. Coat the retainer wire with the same unfilled resin (Fig. A) and place it on the teeth. The surface tension of the adhesive will hold the wire in place.
5. Light-cure the resin briefly to tack the retain­er more securely.
6. Add filled light-cured resin to each tooth sur­face, adapting it with a cotton pellet that has been soaked in unfilled resin.
7. Light-cure the retainer for a final set of the filled adhesive (Fig. B).

Tacking the wire with unfilled resin permits easy placement of the filled resin without any movement of the retainer.