YES!!! Changing the permalinks would mean that all pages would essentially be starting over as brand new. Any backlinks pointing to the old permalinks would reach a 404 error page. .... UNLESS you install a wordpress plugin called Link Juice Keeper.

Link Juice Keep redirects all "404 error" backlinks to your homepage. So if a link points to a page on your domain that no longer exists, it will send the juice to your homepage instead of ceasing to exist.

However, I highly recommend that you do not change your permalinks. Unless you want to set up a 301 redirect for each page individually. If you have a small site, that's not to big a deal. If you have a big site.... forget about it.

Thanks, I guess I just keep it the way it is.