You may have decided as a child not to have your teeth straightened because friends who wore traditional orthodontic braces hated them because they were uncomfortable when tightened and painful due to the wires and brackets that poked the soft tissues of the mouth. And it was embarrassing for a teen to wear this contraption for 2-3 years. You also heard them complain about the restrictions on any foods or snacks that were sticky and the difficulty of flossing and brushing, which could result in cavities or gum infection (not to mention yellowing teeth).
The good news for adults and kids is that in the past couple of decades, Invisalign transparent trays have become very popular, with 11 million having gone through its treatment to emerge with the smiles they always wanted, without braces. There are a number of advantages:
- They are, as the name implies, virtually invisible. Unless you tell someone, they probably won’t even know that you are wearing the soft plastic trays, known as aligners. Over time, people may notice that you are proud to fully smile and your teeth look better, but they may think you are just brushing, flossing and whitening them occasionally.
- They take a lot less time to straighten your teeth: depending on the complexity of the case, this can take as little as three months and no more than a year. They can correct not only the usual misalignments when permanent teeth come in and crowd an arch, but gaps between teeth, overbites, underbites, overjets (upper teeth protruding out over the lower ones), and crossbites (one or more teeth that cause a mismatch between the arches, causing difficulty chewing and damage to the teeth).
- There are fewer trips to the dentist: you are given a set of trays to start and then new ones are sent regularly, only needing to make a quick visit to our office to check the fit and progress every couple of months. Braces require frequent tightening, sometimes emergency visits when a wire breaks or harms soft tissue, and result in periodontal disease (gum inflammation, which can end up with lost teeth) because they are hard to clean.
- Invisalign has no dietary restrictions because when you eat or drink, you can remove the aligners, which just fit comfortably over your upper and lower arch. Those wearing braces have a long list of foods to avoid and teeth become stained around and underneath the brackets from coffee, tea, red wine, and other colored beverages.
°Since the aligners can be taken out, there is no need to wear a mouthguard when playing contact sports, while braces need protection.
Call today to have a full dental exam by Dr. Cluff, a specialist in Invisalign, to find out how you might benefit.
