INVISALIGN
What is Invisalign?
Want to get your teeth straightened but don’t want traditional metal braces? Invisalign is a modern solution to that. Invisalign is a service that provides clear plastic braces that snap neatly over your teeth. Every 7-14 days, you’ll switch to a tighter set of braces that gradually straightens your teeth into its desired position.
What is the process of getting Invisalign like?
Firstly, you have to determine whether or not Invisalign is suitable for you. For more severe cases, Invisalign may not be suitable and our dentist will recommend that you go for traditional metal orthodontic braces instead.
If you are a good candidate for Invisalign, our dentist will first require you to do an x-ray.
After that, our dentist will use a 3D imaging software and specialized imaging equipment that will render your entire dental structure in 3D. This will be sent over to the Invisalign labs where they will plan and manufacture your aligners for you.
A course of Invisalign will take anywhere from 6 months to 3 years to complete. You will meet with our dentist every couple of months in order to receive more aligners as well as for our dentist to make any corrections to your bite as well as monitor your progress.
What is the day to day use of Invisalign like?
Unlike metal braces, most of the time Invisalign is, yes, invisible to the public! This can be very useful especially in professional and social settings on an aesthetic level.
You will need to wear Invisalign at least 22 hours a day in order for them to be fully effective. This essentially means that you only take your invisible braces out when you are either eating or brushing your teeth.
When you are about to change aligners, you are encouraged to do so at night before going to bed. This will prevent you from feeling much discomfort as by the next morning when you wake up, your aligners will feel less tight and you can go about your daily activities without much discomfort.
For hygiene reasons, you are encouraged to brush your Invisalign at least twice a day with a normal toothbrush.
Are there any lifestyle changes that I will need to observe when using Invisalign?
Patients that smoke and/or drink coffee regularly will notice that the aligners will start to yellow and stain over time. This makes the plastic more visible and might give your teeth a yellow hue. In order to combat this, always remove your aligners before smoking or drinking coffee.
Is Invisalign painful? What other side effects are there?
Invisalign is generally regarded to be less painful and more tolerable than traditional metal braces. Discomfort is generally mild and quite tolerable after the first few weeks.
Patients report a slight lisp for the first two weeks of wearing Invisalign, but after a few weeks your tongue will get used to the aligners being in your mouth and your lips will gradually disappear.