How to Care For Your Teeth While You Wear Invisalign

Invisalign offers an easy yet effective way to straighten your teeth without the hassle of metal brackets and wires. The Invisalign retainers are low maintenance, but there are certain tips you have to stick to so you can remain hygienic and get the most out of your time using the retainers. 

What is Invisalign?

More and more people choose to forgo traditional metal braces these days. With school or work, athletics, and fun extracurricular activities, teens and adults alike don’t want anything to stop their fast-paced lives. With Invisalign, they don’t have to!

Invisalign’s invisible power and technology allows you to straighten your teeth and correct bite problems without having to have a mouth full of brackets and wires. These clear, smooth aligners are virtually hard to see with the naked eye – plus, they’re much more comfortable too. This means you’re able to continue doing everything you’re used to, but getting straight teeth in the process. 

Taking Care of Invisalign Retainers

Another perk of choosing Invisalign is how low maintenance they are. Caring for them is little-to-no hassle at all. All you need to do is clean the retainer each time you brush your teeth. Very Well Health gives a simple step-by-step for how to do this:

1. Rinse the Invisalign retainer under lukewarm water, being sure that it’s not too hot or cold.
2. Apply toothpaste to a soft-bristled toothbrush. Using small motions, gently brush both sides of each retainer.
3. Once you have completely brushed the entire Invisalign retainer, rinse it again under lukewarm water.
4. Carefully inspect the retainer for any calcium or tartar. Much like your teeth, retainers can also have tartar buildup. It will look like a cloudy, white film on the retainer. Sometimes, this build up is hard to remove with a toothbrush.
5. If you do notice calcium buildup, submerge the retainer in a denture or retainer cleaning solution and follow package instructions.
6. Once you are finished cleaning your Invisalign retainers, you can place it back into your mouth or have them air dry in their case.

How Does Life Change with Invisalign

Life doesn’t change much with Invisalign, in fact it fits right in without almost no hiccup at all.

Invisalign explains that you don’t have to quit living your life, you can:

• Keep eating your favorite foods: though you have to take out your retainers while you eat, there’s no limit to what your diet can look like! You can continue eating popcorn and more without hassle.
• Continue playing all the sports and athletics you love: you won’t experience extreme soreness or worry about a wire getting hit and cutting you.
• Brush and floss as normal, no tricky wires or brackets to clean in-between and around.
• Have less life-interruptions because of broken wires or brackets falling off.
• Take pictures as normal because no one will notice you’re even wearing them.

How to Wear Invisalign

It’s simple! You’ll wear them for 20-22 hours a day for optimal results. You can take them out to eat and drink. Just be sure to brush your teeth before you put them back in.

Every 1-2 weeks you’ll get a new set of aligners as your mouth begins to shift. You’ll have to come in for a checkup about every 6-8 weeks to make sure you’re progressing like you should. Since you don’t have to go get these tightened every month like metal braces, you’ll be able to enjoy life more.

Patients can experience a little tightness and pressure with each new set, but we find discomfort is usually minimal and only lasts the first couple of days.

Parents: another perk you’ll love is the blue compliance indicator. This indicator tells you if your teen is wearing them enough so you can make sure they’re getting the most of their time with the retainers.

Results

When you make an appointment with Stonebrook Family Dental for Invisalign, you’ll be able to see your results in advance thanks to our 3-D imaging software. This will show you a preview of what your teeth will look like at the end of your treatment, so you don’t have to wonder ‘what if.’

Every patient is different, but the average completion time is about a year. To get results as soon as possible, be sure to wear your aligners the entire time you are told to and don’t miss any of your checkups.

Make an Appointment

We’ll have the aligners custom-made for your own specific needs, so you’ll get that straight smile in the quickest way possible. Call today for an appointment: (303)-872-7907.