Invisalign

Invisalign is a great product to correct someone's smile, whether it's their bite or straightening teeth. They are clear, thin plastic trays that fit over your teeth. They are to be worn the majority of the day.Take them out to eat. From a distance, they are really not noticeable. You have to be pretty close for someone to notice it, and a lot of patients ask, will this affect my speech? I will say the first couple days, you've got to get used to it, but every patient gets used to it.I haven't had anybody say that they felt they couldn't wear them, so they really do get used to it, and they are able to straighten or move the teeth by using little tooth-colored buttons on some of the teeth. The buttons just kind of act like those metal brackets would on traditional braces. It's able to give the tray something to kind of hold on to so it can make those proper movements and get those teeth into place.We really can do a lot with Invisalign. We can rotate teeth more than we thought we could. We're able to move teeth into a better biting position with Invisalign.It's really kind of down to the compliance of the patient. The better wear time they get out of it, the better results we get. Invisalign can typically be used on most adult cases.There are some times we are still referring to an orthodontist, but that also doesn't mean you can't get Invisalign. It might just be a more difficult bite. Most adults can get Invisalign.Most teenagers, honestly, can get Invisalign. That comes down to the compliance part, and so we kind of bring the parents in on those conversations to make sure, you know, we don't want anything to be a waste of anyone's time. So if they feel that their teenager will wear those trays, even teenagers can do Invisalign.Invisalign is really great at correcting the crowding of teeth, which in a lot of patients' complaints, they start to see those lower front teeth start to twist, start to crowd a little bit, and Invisalign is phenomenal at correcting that. It can also help with some bite discrepancies. If patients feel like their bite is uneven, we are able to help bring teeth into position so that that biting surface is more even.The results of Invisalign and traditional braces tend to be very similar. They do both require retainers at the end of treatment, and we do make sure patients are well aware of that. We don't want any surprises, so both traditional braces, Invisalign, if you don't want those teeth to move back, retainers are required.I would say big differences would be, of course, just the visibility. Traditional braces are much more visible on your teeth. Invisalign, you're able to be more discreet that you are wearing the trays.I think also just appointment times can be a lot shorter with Invisalign. Typically, you have one longer appointment at the beginning, but then beyond that, you're coming in, checking the trays, getting new trays, and we see you again in a couple of months. With Invisalign, there are different case levels.So we have some patients that are just trying to move one tooth that, you know, maybe they had Invisalign before and they weren't compliant wearing the retainers, and they're just trying to get that one tooth back into position. They could need as few as five or seven trays, and so we're really only looking at a few months of treatment. Other times we have a lot more movement to make, more teeth to move, and so we could see patients that are in Invisalign for a year or two years.It's really a variety just depending on the treatment. With our Invisalign cases, we like to give one comprehensive price, and so even though maybe your treatment has started and you have 20 trays, we may get halfway through and something's not moving the way we want, or maybe we get all the way through and there's just one little tooth that's being stubborn and we want to get it moved a little bit more. You will get another round of trays, and that's all included.You're not paying visit by visit. You're not paying tray by tray. We go over the pricing at the beginning, and you don't need to worry about it every time you come into the office.We have patients come in as new patients looking to have an Invisalign consult. We also talk to patients maybe in their hygiene visits or after a restorative appointment, and we can just discuss Invisalign. We can go over the steps, what's involved.We also really encourage just let's jump ahead. Let's take a scan. Let's take the photos.There's no commitment at that point at all. You're not out a penny, so we love just saying let's see what it would look like. Let's see how long your case would be, so that's really the first step is the scan, the photographs.After that, the doctor is spending time working with Invisalign. We're creating that treatment plan. I then like to bring the patient back in or at least have a phone call with them so we can go over what does your plan look like, how many trays, how many months, what is this looking like for you.Once the patient's ready to jump ahead, we have them come back in. That's typically the longest appointment. If there are attachments required, that's when we're placing those, and then we give the patient about five trays, and we're not seeing them again for a couple of months unless they need us in between, and then each time they come in another five trays, so we just kind of get into a rhythm of the patient knows what they're doing, they kind of know the drill, and then we see them at the end to decide do we need more trays or are we happy with the result.Once we get to the end of the treatment, we're happy where everything is. We are able to get all the buttons off your teeth, and sometimes patients are just wanting that extra little bump. How can we make this look a little bit better? We do provide complimentary whitening gel that can even be worn in your Invisalign trays.