Invisalign® Therapy
Invisalign® Therapy
How happy are you with your smile? Do you have teeth out of alignment? Many adults look back to their younger years wishing that they would have said yes to braces. At the time, they may have declined the opportunity because they would have felt embarrassed around their peers. Years later, though, the idea of getting metal braces as a professional could still be uncomfortable. Don’t you wish you could achieve the same results without the metallic grin? Now, with Invisalign®, you can do just that.
Changing the Way We Think About Braces
Braces effectively use pressure, along with our body’s natural ability to respond to it, to slowly move teeth into their ideal alignment. While remarkably effective, braces still present a number of challenges. These include pain and inflammation with abrupt adjustments, irritation of the soft tissues of the mouth, difficulty cleaning and many restrictions where it comes to enjoying your favourite foods – not to mention the esthetic.
Invisalign® allows us to use the same effective means of moving our teeth using pressure but does away with these challenges. This system uses a series of clear, custom aligners to hug the teeth and coax them gently into alignment. While it must be said that severe and complex cases of poor alignment must still be handled by metal braces, mild to moderate cases enjoy great success with Invisalign® aligners.
Whether you visit the Dentist every six month as recommended, or if you haven’t been to the Dentist in years, we want to help you gain and maintain good oral health.
How Do They Work?
With Invisalign® therapy, your dentist uses a 3D digital photo of your current alignment to demonstrate the potential for your smile. Once you’ve agreed to go ahead with treatment, your dentist will send your digital photos to an Invisalign® certified lab where your aligners will be custom made.
You will receive between 20 and 30 aligners for your full course of treatment. You will wear your aligners in succession and progress to the next set of aligners every few weeks, at the direction of your dentist.
The aligners are nearly invisible, owing to their thin and transparent design, and can be removed as needed. That means that enjoying your favourite foods while straightening your teeth has never been easier. There are several things to keep in mind, however, to make your Invisalign® treatment a success.
Your aligners should be worn a minimum of 22 hours per day. That is because the teeth must be under near constant pressure in order to successfully move them. This way, you avoid the discomfort felt with traditional adjustments, as adjustments are small and only occur when moving on to the next set of aligners in your treatment. Aligners should be worn at all times and should be removed only for eating. For this reason, we recommend keeping your aligner case with you at all times, since the transparency makes them easily lost when placed on napkins or tables.
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D&D Dental Clinic Mill Woods Edmonton prides ourselves in offering gentle and compassionate dentistry with the same care and comfort we want for ourselves.
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Providing you with maximum level of comfort & professionalism in every visit! All services performed by a general dentist.
Taking Care of Your Invisalign
Before reinserting your aligners, your teeth must be clean. Since the aligners fit so snugly around the teeth, inserting them over plaque and food debris means that decay-causing matter will not be swept away with saliva. Instead, the plaque and debris will be held against the teeth which can lead to cavities and gum disease.
Hot beverages can warp your delicate aligners and change their fit, so it is important to drink hot beverages only when the aligners have been removed. Sugary drinks, too, must be consumed with aligners removed.
Your dentist will provide instructions to clean your aligners properly. It is important to follow their direction, since these aligners can become cloudy and lose their transparency if improperly cleaned, and can even develop an odor if food matter gets stuck in their grooves.
Invisalign® has the potential to leave your teeth and gums in better shape than they were when you started, provided that you follow the hygiene protocols as required. Many Invisalign® patients find that habitual snacking and drinking decreases since cleaning the teeth becomes a hassle if snacking throughout the day. Drinking more water and snacking less improves the health of the teeth and body overall.
Ensuring a Proper Fit
Your dentist may place small amounts of bonding material on some of your teeth to ensure that the aligners are properly anchored for the best fit. Bonding material (called buttons) will match the colour of your natural teeth and will be removed once your course of treatment is complete.
If you find your aligners fitting too snugly when you first insert them (look for a gap at the top of the aligners indicating that they are not sitting low enough) your dentist may recommend using chewies to help with fit. Chewies are made of spongy material and can be bitten down on to coax tight aligners into place.
If you have questions about this and other services offered by our general dentist, contact our clinic today.
