Many adults are unhappy with the appearance of crooked, gapped, or crowded teeth. They want orthodontic treatment, but don’t like the thought of spending a year or more in braces.

If you are among this group: never fear: there’s a way to get your teeth straightened without wires and brackets. Invisalign clear plastic aligners are a much better fit for adults who are looking to get their teeth straightened.

How Invisalign Works

Our bodies have an ingenious method for moving our teeth. When the tooth experiences consistent force, the body will reshape bone around the tooth. This allows the tooth to move, and it’s the same principle behind both Invisalign and traditional braces.

But where traditional braces use brackets and wires to provide consistent force, Invisalign applies force with clear plastic aligners.

 

We start your treatment by taking a 3D scan of your teeth in their current positions. Then we will plan the final position for your teeth. You get the opportunity to provide feedback into what you think is the ideal final position for your teeth.

Once we’ve got a scan of your starting position and a design for your final position, this data is sent to the Invisalign lab, where the movement of your teeth is divided into small discrete movements, each of which is then transformed into an aligner that will provide the force to direct the movement.

When we get the aligners back, you will try the first one on in our office. You should feel the pressure from the aligner on your teeth, but otherwise it should be snug and comfortable.

As you wear your aligner, you may experience soreness from pressure, but this is normally controllable by over-the-counter medications, and only lasts for a day or two.

After wearing the same aligner for two weeks, you will switch to the next aligner. After you’ve worn all the aligners, your teeth should have reached their desired positions.

Invisalign Fits a Busy Schedule

Unlike traditional braces, Invisalign doesn’t require a complex cleaning technique to get around brackets and wires. All you have to do is remove the aligner and brush and floss normally. Although you have to do this after every meal, the same is commonly recommended for braces.

Invisalign doesn’t require as many visits to the office as braces. While monthly tightening visits are common for braces, people with Invisalign may be able to go six or 8 weeks between visits to the office. We will give you several aligners at once, and you wear each for two weeks before coming back to our office for a checkup.

And the visits are shorter. Professional cleanings with braces take longer, too, and then the tightening has to be performed. With Invisalign, we will do a brief checkup, a quick cleaning, give you your trays, and send you on your way.

Keep Looking Like an Adult

Another fear many people have about wearing braces as an adult is that it will make them look too young and may make it more likely that people won’t take them seriously. That’s because we associate braces with teenagers. But with Invisalign, you can keep looking like an adult. No one will likely suspect that you have Invisalign, unless you tell them.

Braces carry a high risk that they’ll catch and retain food debris, which can make for some very embarrassing meetings. Making sure your dentures are clean after every lunch doesn’t just take time, it can cause significant anxiety. But Invisalign makes your teeth easy to clean and easy to check for food stuck in the aligner or teeth.

Some people find it harder to speak clearly with braces, but they just have to accept it. Braces are affixed to your teeth, and there’s nothing to be done about it. Although some people do find it hard to talk with Invisalign, it’s not a big deal. That’s because you can remove your aligners for times when you absolutely need to be understood, such as on conference calls or during major presentations.

A Mature Approach to Straightening Teeth

If you’re looking to straighten your teeth, but don’t want to look like a kid, Invisalign may be the right orthodontic treatment for you. Please call (907) 349-0022 today for an appointment with an Anchorage cosmetic dentist at Excellence in Dentistry.