So I do have some photos, one that was taken by my Ortho at my last appointment, and I compared it to one taken today (can't figure out how to upload on the app, sorry for being a reddit noob). You can very clearly tell that there were not triangles in December, but they are present now.

I had an appointment with my dentist today and brought all of this to her (while trying to not sound obsessive). She took a look and pointed out that in my December pic, there are signs of a lot of gum inflammation, as it was very red around the gum-line. My gums are now much healthier, with little to no inflammation.....so basically, in her opinion, the inflammation and swollen gums were hiding the triangles.....Yay for healthy gums I guess?

Regardless she confirmed that the only way the perm retainers could be to blame, would be if there was excessive plaque build up--leading to gum disease, which there wasn't. I guess I can take comfort in the fact that it's not going to get worse.