Retention: Looking back over a 50-year practice career

Clinical evidence plays an important role in the successful outcome of orthodontic treatment. Meticulous orthodontic records representing pre-treatment, post-treatment, and long-term follow-up recordings of the orthodontic result over a span of 50 years provide enormously useful data as to the management of the post-treatment period when retainer compliance is imperative. The Guest Editor of this Edition of Seminars in Orthodontics, Dr. P. Emile Rossouw, posed a number of questions relevant to retention to Dr. Wick Alexander and invited him to provide the readership with an overview of his many years in practice managing retention.