Invisalign Aftercare Advice

Invisalign Aftercare Advice

Congratulations on having your Invisalign aligners fitted! Please read the following advice to improve your experience and the outcome of your orthodontic treatment:

What to expect when first wearing your aligners?

• It is not unusual for it to feel weird and it will take several days to get used to the sensation of wearing and talking with them.

• You may notice that you salivate more, or in some cases less at the beginning but this wears off after a few hours.

• You may notice a change in speech, often a lisp, during the first week whilst your tongue adapts to the aligners but the more you speak the sooner your tongue will adapt.

• You may notice that your teeth ache slightly, especially the first morning after you have worn them overnight. Your teeth may feel a bit tender when you bite down. This is normal and may recur each time you move onto a new aligner. If necessary, you can take a painkiller (just like you would for a headache). The painkiller of choice for orthodontic discomfort is Paracetamol. If you can’t take this for any reason but feel you need some pain relief please call our practice for advice.

• Although Invisalign aligners are smooth compared to fixed braces, sometimes patients notice the edge of the plastic being hard, especially around the lower front teeth. You should get used to this, but if the edge is rough or causing discomfort on your gum please contact the practice for advice.

Any tips to help me with my daily routine?

• Aim to wear your aligners 20-22 hours a day. If you are unable to do so e.g. feeling unwell or want to remove them for a special occasion, then please be aware that you may need to wear that particular aligner for more days to make up for this. Please ensure that you still try to wear your aligner for as many hours as you are able.

• Only remove your aligners when eating, drinking hot, sweet or acidic drinks, tooth brushing and during contact sport, where you would be wearing a mouthguard instead.

• There are less restrictions on what you can eat compared with fixed braces because you will be able to remove your aligners to eat. However:

1. Reduce the amount of sweet, sticky and acidic foods and drink – this is because your aligners will hold this next to your teeth and your saliva will not be able to wash it away, so your teeth will be more prone to decay and gums to gum disease during treatment.

2. Avoid hot drinks e.g. tea and coffee because the heat is likely to distort the material of the aligners.

3. Avoid food with strong colourings e.g. curries, strong tomato-based sauces, as this can cause discolouration of your aligners.

• Clean your teeth thoroughly at least 3 times per day: morning, lunch and dinner time. It is better to clean your teeth after you have eaten, but ideally need to leave it at least 20 minutes to allow the acid in your mouth to neutralise before your brush. If you do not get chance to clean them during the day, then please at least rinse your mouth with water to try to wash away as much of the food debris, before inserting your aligners.

• Floss your teeth daily which will also help “free up” the contact points between your teeth to aid tooth movement.

• Use a fluoride mouthrinse daily throughout treatment to reduce the risk of tooth decay.

• Ensure that you use your chewies at least 3 times per day to ensure that your aligners are fully seated. The most important time is before bedtime when your aligners will be in your mouth for a long period with less jaw movement.

• Do not bite your nails or chew on pens during treatment.

• Aim to change your aligners every two weeks, unless your orthodontist instructs you otherwise.

• Do not throw away your old aligners – keep them in their plastic sequenced bag incase you need to go back a stage.

• Do not expose your aligners to heat otherwise they will distort. Therefore, do not wash or soak them in hot water or leave them in direct sunlight (on a window sill or dashboard of a car) or above a radiator or near a fire. Be careful when putting clothes in the washing machine to check that you haven’t left them in a pocket!

• If you are out and need to remove your aligners, please make sure that you place them in your hard container immediately to reduce the risk of them being broken or thrown away by mistake.

• Keep them (even if in their container) away from dogs as they will chew them up!

What should I expect when I return for my Invisalign appointments?

• Please ensure that you are wearing your current aligner when you attend for your appointments so your orthodontist can check the fit of them.

• Please bring your hard container as you will need to place your old ones in them once your orthodontist fits you with your new ones.

• Your orthodontist will give you at least 2 sets of aligners depending on what stage you are at with your treatment.

• Your appointment intervals should already be determined once your orthodontic treatment has commenced and you will be advised to book ahead to ensure that you are seen regularly and at the optimum time intervals.

• There will be multiple appointments when your orthodontist will need to carry out Interproximal Reduction (IPR) which essentially consists of gentle filing and reshaping of certain teeth.

• You will, in most cases, need to have some optimised attachments (tooth-coloured differently shaped attachments) bonded onto certain teeth and this is carried out earlier on during your treatment.

• Later on in treatment your orthodontist may need to place other types of attachments onto your teeth and possibly the use of elastics to aid tooth movement to achieve a better result.

How do I clean my aligners?

• Use a manual toothbrush (not electric toothbrush) and a small amount of antibacterial washing up liquid or liquid soap and gently scrub your aligners twice a day.
• Rinse them afterwards in cold or luke warm but never hot water.
• Do not use toothpaste as it is abrasive and will scratch your aligners.

This daily routine should prevent plaque and calculus from building up on your aligners. Also, as you will be changing your aligners every 2 weeks, you should find that the aligners do not get too grubby or worn before they are due to be changed.

What happens if my aligners are lost or damaged?

• If you lose or damage your aligner and it was seating well, then what you do depends on how many days you have been wearing it and how well it fits. If you have worn that aligner for more than 7 days and it was seating well then you may be able to move onto the next aligner early. Your next aligner may feel tighter to begin with and it is important that you monitor how well it fits. If you have been wearing the lost or damaged aligner for less than 7 days, or you try your next aligner in and it is not fully seating well on every tooth (i.e. you can see a gap between the tooth and aligner on 1 or more teeth) then you will not be ready to move onto this next aligner and we will need to order you a replacement aligner. Please then go back to wearing the aligner prior to the one you have lost or damaged until you receive your replacement aligner.
• Either way please contact our practice as soon as possible to inform us of this and for further advice.
• Please be reassured that we will be able to request a replacement aligner from the Invisalign laboratory but it will take time for this to be manufactured and dispatched and hence prolong your orthodontic treatment and there will be a charge for this.

Can I move onto the next aligner if I feel my aligner is fitting well and not doing anything?

Unless instructed otherwise, please do not be tempted to skip aligners and race onto the next aligner. If each aligner has not expressed it’s full intended tooth movement, then racing ahead may result in the aligners eventually not fitting properly and losing control of the overall process. This will then require a reassessment and need to go back stages in treatment or even require taking new impressions for a mid-treatment correction and new aligners to be made, which will delay your treatment further.

How do I know that treatment is going well?

So long as each aligner is fully seating and fitting well then you are doing well and your orthodontic treatment is on track. Watch out for gaps between the top edges of the teeth and the aligner.

What happens at the end of wearing my aligners?

• Please be aware that your orthodontist will need to reassess the alignment and fit of your teeth at the end of your final aligner to decide whether all the objectives of your treatment have been achieved or whether you would benefit from some refinement.

• If you are happy with your result and do not want or need any further refinement aligners, then it is our understanding that you are happy to accept the result achieved with the option of Invisalign treatment you chose. Your orthodontist would then make arrangements to polish off your optimised attachments and fit you with fixed and removable retainers.

• If however, you and your orthodontist feel that you would benefit from some refinement, then you would need to be prepared to wear more aligners. The number of further aligners would depend on what Invisalign option your chose and what further improvement could realistically be achieved with Invisalign. Your orthodontist would polish off your optimised attachments and take further impressions which would be sent to the Invisalign laboratory for a further clincheck. Your orthodontist will not be able to tell you in advance how many more aligners you would require until the clincheck process is complete.

• There are occasions when due to the constant wearing of aligners your bite needs to settle back down again towards the end of your Invisalign treatment. Your orthodontist will reassess this and may advise you to change your regime of wearing your aligners just at night time. In some cases, you may be required to have some buttons placed on your teeth temporarily to aid you wearing some elastics to help improve the fit of your teeth.

If you have any concerns or are unsure about the advice above please do not hesitate to contact our practice.

Best of Luck!