What You Should Know About Life With Invisalign®: Tips from an Invisalign® Dentist

As an Invisalign® dentist, we help our patients to transform their smile without needing to wear metal braces.  This is the clear way to straighten your teeth, and the results are just as effective. The process works because a series of clear aligners are made that look like retainers.  In the beginning, they fit your teeth as is.  Each aligner moves one or several of your teeth so that as you put on a new aligner your teeth move that much closer to being straight.

The process itself is fairly straightforward.  The aligners are created in a dental lab in order to move your teeth into place.  You wear them every day and after two weeks switch them out for a new one. The process is complete once you have worn all of your aligners, and your teeth look beautiful.

Many of our patients ask how they will be able to tell if it’s time to replace their aligner.  This is a normal question and while this is done, on average, every two weeks there is no guarantee that when the two weeks are up you are done with that aligner.  The easiest way to tell is if the aligner is loose.  It is designed to fit snuggly around your teeth when first put on.  Over the course of the two weeks, your teeth will move so the aligner will no longer fit securely.  As an Invisalign dentist, we want to know if your aligner isn’t feeling loose after two weeks or so.

You are supposed to wear it for 22 hours a day.  This leaves enough time to eat and brush your teeth.  It is important that you wear it for as long as possible because this will help your teeth to move faster.  We understand that in the real world, this isn’t always possible.  There may be a wedding, a special presentation at work, anniversary dinner, etc. that prevents you from wearing an aligner for the entire day.  If that happens, don’t worry about it, you may just need to wear the aligner a little longer than two weeks.  Just try to prevent this from happening on a regular basis because it will make your total treatment time longer.

When you have an aligner in, we recommend that you only drink water.  If you have to drink something else, make sure that it isn’t hot so no coffee or tea.  The heat can warp your aligner which will mess up your treatment.  You should also avoid eating with them in and if you must, make sure that it is something incredibly soft.

In order to take care of your aligners simply remove them and brush with a soft toothbrush and water.  You can use toothpaste but if you do, it may scratch your aligner and make it easier to see when you’re wearing it.  If you want to conduct a deeper clean, you can also try a denture cleaner instead.

The entire process is easy to live with.  To learn more, call an Invisalign dentist to discuss your options.