Being Prepared for Your Invisalign Treatment
As you probably know, Invisalign is the revolutionary new way to have your teeth straightened without traditional braces. That means you not only don’t have to wear the wired contraption you avoided as a child, you would not need to follow the dietary restrictions to keep food from getting stuck in the wires and brackets or face the difficulties of cleaning your teeth after meals. The process of getting to your ideal smile would also be significantly quicker.
So how do you prepare to wear Invisalign’s clear plastic oral trays or aligners that make this possible?
Be committed to wearing the aligners 22 hours a day:
While most Invisalign treatments can be completed in 3-18 months (compared to 2-3 years for conventional braces), everyone is different and you will need to be prepared to not to remove the trays except to eat or clean. Like any habit, if you start making excuses (“maybe I’ll feel like going to the gym tomorrow,” “I won’t wear them when I sleep just tonight”) you will fail to reach your smile goals in the expected time. If your kids are wearing the trays, there is a dot that shows whether they are actually wearing them when they are not at home.
Plan to always clean your mouth and the trays after you take them out:
Of course, it’s also important to be vigorous about keeping your teeth and gums clean before you start treatment. Once the first set of aligners are in place, allow time to clean them with water and brush and floss your teeth after meals. At night, wash them with soap and water or brush them with toothpaste. Otherwise, the sticky bacterial film known as plaque will not only build up on your teeth, but also stick to the aligners. before you begin
Be prepared to take time to come into the office:
Each Invisalign patient will need to come in periodically so that Dr. Cluff can check the progress of the treatment and make any necessary adjustments to the teeth or the plans for the next set of aligners, to be sure the process continues to move forward.
Expect the need to adjust to each set of aligners when it comes to speaking:
Whenever there is a change in your bite, including wearing a new set of Invisalign trays, it often takes a few days to adjust so that you can always be understood when you talk. Some find that they start out with a bit of a lisp. You might want to start wearing a new set on a weekend if your work requires a lot of speaking.
Remember that after the aligners, you will need to wear retainers.
The tendency of teeth after straightening by any means is to start to move back to their original positions unless the primary orthodontic treatment is followed by wearing retainers for a period specified by Dr. Cluff (typically four months).
When you come in for a full exam to find out what your best options are for a straighter smile, bring in any questions about what to expect during treatment.
