It depends on whether the retainers are well treated as well. So with time, there are some changes, there are wisdom teeth growing out, there are some bite forces that tend to drive the teeth in the forward direction, there is something we call the "delayed incisor crowding" we tend to see the lower front teeth getting crowded with time, even if there are patients who never done braces before, as they age, their teeth may become crowded so we have a lot of ladies coming in and saying"somehow my teeth become crowded" all these have a little bit to do with ageing and teeth movement due to the biting force and things like that. If you have a more excessive jaw growth that can cause growth to your teeth alignment, whether I would recommend ortho treatment at a later age, it really depends on your concerns
For a patient with reverse jaw placement and you want to do a bit of jaw modification, we want to treat them earlier because once the jaw sutures close, we can't really do much unless you go for jaw surgery. Patients with small jaws, we want to utilize treatment earlier. We have patients with mouth crowding we want to treat earlier to avoid extractions but there is also a risk of excessive jaw growth, there can still be a bit of change, whether you need another round of orthodontic treatment, it will depend on whether you are bothered about it, if you are and the alignment issues are not major, sometimes we can use a removable appliance even with some sort of removable retainer with mild adjustment to the teeth, we can actually correct the alignment if the changes are not severe. But of course, if there are major changes, then you might need to do another round of orthodontic treatment and delaying it does not mean there will be any changes with the alignment, with time, even if you do at 20 plus it can still happen, so I think close monitoring after that is important.
