Invisalign – Forest Park, OH

How Invisalign Clear Aligners for Adults Work

Clear Invisalign aligners, like traditional braces, are made for moving teeth gradually. Prior to treatment, we’ll examine your mouth and take diagnostic records of your teeth, such as:

• Photographs
• X-rays
• Digital scans with our Itero scanner

From the information we obtain, we’ll make a diagnosis and determine if Invisalign is right for you. If so, we’ll work with the aligner software, designing your new smile and planning your treatment process. The goal is to provide you with a healthy bite, so Invisalign doesn’t just straighten your visible teeth; it straightens all of them — top, bottom, and back.

Keeping the end result in mind, we create a series of plastic aligners using the initial digital scans or impressions we take of your teeth as the starting point. These aligners are actually plastic replicas of your teeth. You wear them, and they add gentle pressure on your teeth, repositioning them slightly and gradually.

You should wear your aligners 22 hours a day. You’ll wear each set of aligners for two weeks and then move on to the next set. As you keep switching to a new set, your teeth will reach their ideal position over time according to our plan. The total number of clear aligners you’ll need will depend on your personal case. Like with traditional braces, you’ll have to wear a retainer after your teeth reach their new position.

Are Invisalign Clear Aligners Recommended for Children? 

Since the clear aligners are custom-built to fit tightly, they’re best for teens and adults. Trying to straighten your child’s teeth can be complicated since their mouths are still developing and growing. Therefore, therefore, we’d need to carefully examine your child’s mouth and see if Invisalign clear aligners for children are appropriate.

Length of Treatment with Invisalign for Adults

Invisible teeth aligners treatment time is based on the number of teeth you need moved. The more crooked your teeth are or off your bite is, the longer the treatment will take. Treatment generally takes between 10 to 24 months, however, if you had braces as a child and over the years, your teeth have slightly shifted, you might require Invisalign clear aligners for as little as 10 weeks.

Since the aligners aren’t as exact as traditional braces, you might need a “refinement” of your teeth using braces for several months for making other, smaller adjustments after you’ve completed treatment.

Benefits of Invisalign

Some benefits of clear aligners are:

• Quicker treatment: With bi-weekly aligner changes, you’re well on your way to achieving the smile you desire quicker. Depending on how you respond to treatment, we might consider a longer period of time between each aligner change.
• Better fit: The material used for clear aligners fits well, is comfortable, and is simple to put on and take off.
• Proven results: The material and features are clinically proven to enhance tooth movement control with aligners
• Effective: Invisalign aligners can treat a large range of teeth-straightening issues like crowding, crossbites, gapped teeth, open bites, underbites, and overbites
• Convenient: Clear Invisalign aligners treatment is perfect if you have a busy schedule since you only have to visit our dental office every six weeks.
• Comfortable: Clear aligner trays aren’t only comfortable and smooth to wear; they’re also removable, meaning you can keep doing things you normally would from eating to brushing and flossing your teeth.
• A discreet look: If you’re considering orthodontic treatment and believe it’s a private matter or if you just don’t think metal braces will help with your self-image, Invisalign clear aligners may be exactly what you need
• Teeth-grinding protection: If you’re struggling with a teeth-grinding habit, aligners work a lot like nightguards where they’ll provide protection from excessive wear
• More dietary choices: You need to make some modifications to your diet with traditional braces to protect the brackets and wires. With aligners, however, you can still bite into a crispy pizza crust or an apple with no issues
• Improved oral hygiene: With a removable orthodontic appliance, you can get your teeth a lot cleaner and it’s much easier to do so than if you were wearing traditional metal braces

Caring for Your Invisalign Clear Aligners

A key advantage of the aligners is you can remove the tray for easy cleaning. So, be sure you don’t neglect to do this. You’ll have to brush your teeth each time you eat so plaque and food won’t become trapped in your aligners, promoting gum disease and tooth decay. You’ll need to regularly clean your aligners as well. You simply brush them and rinse them with water.

You need to take care in regard to drinks when you’re wearing your aligners. If anything but water seeps into your aligners, it comes in contact with your teeth and until you remove the aligners, it remains there. This can cause staining of your aligners and your teeth. Also, the sugar from drinks like energy drinks, soda, and fruit juices can cause you to develop cavities.

While wearing Invisalign aligners is much different than wearing braces, retaining your post-treatment results is just as important with aligners as it is with braces. Like with braces, you’ll need to wear a retainer precisely how we prescribe it after you complete your treatment to protect your new beautiful smile.

Keep in mind, Invisalign clear aligners are usually worn for people with mild minor spacing issues or who have moderately crowded teeth. If you have severe spacing problems or crowding or a severe overbite, underbite or crossbite, you might require a more complex treatment.

Understanding the Cost of Invisalign

Although prospective patients are all different ages and have varying dental needs, they almost always have the same question, “How much does Invisalign cost?” It’s a fair question. After all, how can you commit to treatment without knowing what the investment is? That’s why we encourage dental patients in Forest Park, Greenhills, Pleasant Run, and the surrounding areas to schedule a consultation with us – it’s the only way we can give you an accurate answer! If you simply want to learn more general information, then you can also read on.

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Invisalign – Frequently Asked Questions & Myths

Orthodontic treatment with Invisalign clear aligners has become extremely popular over the past 10 years. As with any new treatment that offers such outstanding results, people have a lot of questions and misconceptions about Invisalign. As a long-time Invisalign provider in Forest Park, Ohio, Kemper Meadow Family Dentistry hopes this blog helps to clear up some of the confusion.