Invisalign is one of the best solutions for people who don’t want to wear “regular” braces and would like to have a clear smile for certain occasions. The system is based on a series of “aligners” made of clear plastic, that can be removed from the teeth and than placed back again. A very elegant solution, that’s for sure. (You can find out how they make Invisalign: click here!)

I’ve used Invisalign too, so I can really vouch for its qualities. Instead of having metal braces or anything on my teeth, I’d just wear “the plastics” and it wasn’t a huge deal. Here were some of the things that really made me enjoy my Invisalign treatment:

• no more metal braces
• less discomfort
• better hygiene. I just took the trays out, cleaned my teeth, put them back in.
• better looks – if I had to appear in a pic for instance, I’d take my trays off and then put them back on, when it was all done.
• better diction – as a radio DJ, having a lisp was not permitted. Invisalign gave me the freedom to be “normal” for 1 hour (my show was 1 hour) and then talk as I could.

The biggest problems I encountered were:

• it doesn’t work as fast as a metal braces system. What Damon did in 4 weeks, Invisalign took at least double the time
• it had to rely solely on my self-control and discipline.

And I think this is the most important aspect we need to discuss in this article: DISCIPLINE!

You asked me how many hours a day should you wear your trays. My orthodontist told me I need to wear the Invisalign AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. It should stay on my teeth at least 20-22 hours. This means I can take it out to eat and clean my teeth and then put it back on.

I have personally done stupid things too, since discipline is not my strong trait. I had days when I forgot to put my Invisalign or wore the trays for 5-6 hours only. This didn’t entirely ruin my treatment, but it put a brake on it. And, when I put the trays after HOURS of not wearing them, I’d feel pain.

So, the best solution is to have it on as much as possible. Keeping my Invisalign on for as much as I could (small 3-4 minute breaks to brush my teeth and few minutes to eat), made my treatment super-easy and pleasant. My teeth got so used to the “plastic” that, when changing the tray every 2 weeks with a new one, made me pass the moment with little to no discomfort at all. Instead of being sore for at least 2 hours, I’d just pop the new one and have a big smile on my face.

If you have enough discipline, you’ll be just fine with Invisalign. Don’t forget, IT DEPENDS ON YOU. The longest time you can wear the trays in a given day, the better.

Invisalign is made of a series of trays that go on your teeth. They are made of plastic and are created by using your initial moulds and a 3D computer system to create all the steps till your teeth will be perfectly aligned. Click on this link to find out how Invisalign is made.

Since there is some time between the moulds and the moment you get your Invisalign it is possible for the trays to be a bit “tight”. I think this would best describe the feeling you have when putting the first aligner on or when changing with the next set. They are “tight”.

The entire system relies on the fact your teeth need to move to a desired direction. In order to achieve this, each aligner should push or rotate the tooth and it needs to not be a perfect fit for the current situation, but to force the tooth some more.

After wearing your trays for some time, you’ll notice the current set fits nicely. At the end of the 2 weeks / set you’ll be able to take out the trays very fast. The next set will be a bit tricky to put and after few days it’s getting easier again. By doing this, each set gets your teeth moving to the desired situation.

Getting back to the question at hand. It’s normal for the first aligner to not fit perfectly or appear to not be able to be put on your teeth. Normally your orthodontist is the one to put it in place, so he/she’ll be able to see if there are any issues. There shouldn’t be anything serious, just the fact it’s gotta be “tight”, as I mentioned before.

So, I don’t think you need to worry too much. The guys at Align Technologies do a good job and if your ortho made good impressions for your teeth, it will be just fine. No matter what might arise, your doctor is there to help you with the first set and he/she’ll solve any issues that might arise.

After you get back home you’ll notice it’s hard to take your aligners out and put them on again, but it’s a matter of hours/days. After few take out / put back moves they’ll be easy to manage.

Coffee is pretty famous for having the “talent” to stain things. Your Invisalign trays are clear when you start wearing them (the first days in the 2 weeks normal wear time) and it would be nice to have them as clear as possible till the end of those 14 days.

Any stains on the Invisalign aligners will show since it would make them dark and your teeth would look yellowish. This is why (clearly for cosmetic uses, since less patients really think about health) it’s important to keep the aligners clean.

I drank coffee myself with the aligners, but most of the time I try to avoid this. I tend to be more lax in the 12th day for instance since I know the aligners will come off and I can abuse them some more. On the other hand I am not a regular coffee drinker, so it’s not that hard to keep from it.

When I know I have to drink something that would potentially stain my aligners I always think if it’s not possible to take the aligners off and then brush my teeth. Sure, when I am at home NOTHING gets into my mouth with the aligners on. When I meet someone for a talk I try to stick to clear mineral water. I don’t care that much about the stains as I care about the “yucky” taste I’d have in my mouth till I’d be able to clean. The liquid gets under the aligners too and will stay there “decaying” till you brush your teeth and clean the aligners.

So, even if you can drink coffee and wine and coca cola, it’s a good idea to steer away when you know you can’t take the Invisalign off. If you are at home, it’s easier, but when in the city, maybe you just don’t want to start cleaning in a public restroom just because you couldn’t keep off the coffee.

How do you handle this?

Three weeks ago I was brushing my teeth in the bathroom, after taking a shower. Even if I am pretty careful with the Invisalign aligners, this time I let them on the sink. And then one fell. My sink is very close to the wallk, creating a very narrow space, enough to have the tray go all the way down to the ground and still enough to not leave me any possibility to retrieve it.

Now what?

The first thing you should do is call your orthodontist to tell him about the problem. Sure, right that moment there’s nothing he can do since it will take some weeks for the Invisalign trays to be sent again from Align Technologies to you. It’s still a good idea to discuss this and have your doctor know about this.

Until you get your aligner(s) that are missing, you’ll keep on wearing the latest ones. NEVER THROW the latest aligners. Otherwise you’re indeed in deep doo-doo. If you’ll have the missing set sent to you, wear the aligners you aready wore for 2 weeks to keep the teeth in that position. In this case your trays will be a sort of a retainer, till it’s all back to normal.

This will slow down your treatment a bit, but it’s still all under control. Such things do happen, so it’s not quite the end of the world.

What have I done?

Sure, I didn’t practice what I preach entirely. I took a chance and it looks like it was still OK. I wore the latest aligner (I lost the lower arch tray) for the time I should have worn the new one. The upper teeth were having the prescribed aligner, the lower ones the last one, which I wore for 2 weeks already.

The chance I took was related to the possibility of the new aligner to fit properly, since I had one missing in the “list”. I misplaced no.6. So, for the upper jaw I had the no.6 aligner and in the lower one the no.5

The time came for the 7th set to be used and I tried to place the new aligners. The top arch was smooth, the lower one worked pretty well. I didn’t notice a huge difference in the teeth placement, so I was able to fit no.7 after no.5 with no issues at all.

This doesn’t mean it’s OK to misplace aligners or solve issues on your own. I was lucky. After over 3 months in the treatment my teeth are very mobile. They move easily and were able to adjust to the “steep” difference between the aligners. When I thought about “jumping” from no.5 to no.7 I also took into account the fact I have to wear 37 aligners on the lower jaw and most of the work is done (we have to rotate a bit some teeth and bring two molars in front to close some gaps). The biggest gap is closed with a power chain tied to a mini-mold and mini-implant so the “work” is done by this too, not just Invisalign. As you can guess I didn’t expect too much difference between the aligner sets and I wasn’t wrong in this.

The conclusion I’d like to present is that misplacing an aligner is NOT the end of the world. Sure, it’s important to try and pass the treatment time without such incidents, but if they happen keep your cool. Discuss with your orthodontist and you’ll be able to get to a common decision. NEVER throw the latest aligners, you’d be in trouble if you didn’t have any aligners to wear at all. And do wear that Invisalign as much as possible (over 20 hours if possible) because your treatment depends on you.

DON’T BE! It’s normal.

The entire orthodontics treatment is based on the ability of our teeth to move to a new position and to rotate. On a regular basis our teeth are strong and very well “welded” into their places. Their movement in this case would be impossible without them breaking or messing the jaw bone too.

This is why we should admire our body’s way to react to the small but constant forces the orthodontics devices place on the teeth: out teeth, when under such constant pressure, start being loose in their “sockets” and then they can be moved and rotated till the orthodontics treatment is getting the desired result.

Invisalign, such as any other system, has the ability to move these teeth. After some weeks in the treatment you’ll already notice your teeth seem to “fall off” from all their mobility. Don’t be scared, they are still well placed there, you won’t lose them, even if you feel 10 years old again.

With the metal braces the movement can be spotted even earlier, but Invisalign, such as all the other systems, also relies on the same thing: our teeth ability to be “mobile”.

So .. if you’re wearing Invisalign and the teeth are loose, be happy. It looks like the treatment is working nicely and your teeth will be OK. It’s NORMAL!

If you want more details about Invisalign, please read our presentation article. Now, we’ll try focus on “how it’s made”.

Any orthotontics treatment starts with the initial consultation and this doesn’t break the rule. Your orthodontist will check you with great care and, should you “qualify” for Invisalign, you’ll be ready to undergo the first step to the trays: your molds.

For the Invisalign specialists to really be able to create your UNIQUE trays, they will need perfect impressions. So, don’t be scared if your orthodontist is that determined to have them perfect. They are needed this way, since your entire treatment for all these months will depend on them. At Align Technologies your impressions, the information about the course of treatment and all other initial materials, will be taken by other specialists in orthodontics.

They will make a positive out of your dental impressions; the plaster molds helping them see your teeth in their normal form. Because your orthodontist was so careful with those impressions, now, the Align Technologies specialists almost have your “teeth” there, and you won’t have to travel thousands of miles just so they can also do your consultation.

The plaster models are checked again and “cleaned”. Any residue or imperfection is manually checked and solved, so that the plaster can enter the other stage: 3D processing. State of the art scanners are able to create a three dimensional version of these plasters, and these can now be processed on the computer.

A barrier coating is applied to protect it from the possible damage it can take on the next stage. Once sealed, the models get placed into a chase, then in a mixture of urethane resin and hardener. They spend some hours in a vacuum pressure chamber the resin hardens and makes them look as blocks.

Each tray gets into a destructive scanning machine. This removes paper thin slices 3000 of an inch, while a digital camera takes two dimensional images of each of these slices.

The computer gathers more than 300 such images to create the 3D model.

These materials get sent to the technicians, who check once again if all is correct, the teeth and also the bite as the patient has it. The graphic designers will use a proprietary 3D application to cut each tooth and save it as a separate geometrical unit. The teeth are now separated and re-grouped on each arch in the position they will have once the treatment is complete.

From the initial stage to the final result, there are many intermediate stages that make up the entire treatment. These are carefully considered since the treatment is different for each patient and the entire orthodontic process needs time. As in traditional braces case, we cannot have straight teeth over night, so all these stages are just the normal tooth movement created with each aligner till the teeth are straight and the bite corrected.

The quality check process is next, so that all the process, the teeth movement, prescribed treatment etc. are correct.

The orthodontist who takes care personally of the patient is the one to decide if the treatment is a “go-go”, together with the patient him/herself. This application form is called “clincheck”

After all the treatment was checked and approved the aligners will be created. A series of models are created of photo sensitive thermo plastic, each of them will then be turned into an aligner. The thermo plastic sheet is pressed over each model by the use of heat. Trimming comes next so that the aligners come half a millimeter under the gum line, reducing the chances of sores and making the removal easier for the patient.

The aligners are polished and disinfected in a series of cleaning tanks, each set being then packaged, labeled and shipped to the prescribing orthodontist.

And, if you want to see the film, here are all these words in action

If we were to think about the causes we can mention the plaque built up on the trays (as it builds up on the teeth), eating/drinking with the trays on, improper teeth brushing and tray cleaning.

The phenomenon can be kept under control with a STRICT hygiene routine. Invisalign requires a lot of discipline (here, I said it again) so do expect to have a proper cleaning schedule. Here are some of my tricks to minimize the Invisalign aligners small to almost zero smell. My trays, after I clean them and brush my teeth are sparkling clean and my mouth keeps a fresh “taste” for a lot of time:

• I NEVER EAT ANYTHING with the trays on. If I want to snack, I remove the Invisalign, eat at ease and then BRUSH teeth, CLEAN trays and I am set again.
• I don’t drink ANYTHING but mineral water with the trays on. If I want soda or coke, I remove them and maybe also snack a bit, since I made the “move” with them again
• I never wear the trays on dirty teeth. I have the toothpaste/toothbrush set with me all the time. I have more sets (at home, at my BF’s, in the bag, the laptop case). If I want to eat and don’t have the “set”, I purchase it and then eat/brush. If I don’t feel like brushing I don’t eat. Just drink some water and wait till I get somewhere I can eat and clean my teeth afterwards
• my Invisalign cleaning is pretty simple: I brush the trays with my toothbrush and rinse with clear water. Some use a lot of solutions, I found out that plain water is just OK as long as I clean them after each removal or better, before putting the trays on again.

With a good brushing schedule my trays are clean, they stay on clean teeth and there is no smell. In the first weeks I used mouth wash as a cleaning solution. The minty smell remained on the trays and made them smell pretty “funky”. For the second set I started using ONLY water with great care when it comes to brushing the aligners. It seemed to work perfectly. They are always clean and the smell is not there anymore.

How do you handle this?

I see 2 options in our case: 1. our reader is having Invisalign for a short time (just some weeks) or 2. maybe we are talking about a finished treatment that wasn’t that successful as we’d wish.

Let’s try to see both possibilities:

1. Invisalign doesn’t work overnight.

If we were to compare Invisalign with metal braces for instance, we’d have to admit that metal braces SHOW results faster. The braces are stronger (you also feel more discomfort) and the first moving teeth start showing after some weeks. I had a tooth moved 7 mm in just 3 months, was shocked

Invisalign on the other hand DOES work, but the results are not visible that fast. THIS DOESN’T MEAN YOU WILL NOT HAVE STRAIGHT TEETH. Just look at the presentation you get with your treatment: the result is what you are waiting for.

2. What can make the treatment go wrong?

There are some possible explanations: the treatment wasn’t well planned (a tad hard to believe since the Invisalign system is well thought and you’ll have your orthodontist follow your case through it. After you start wearing the Invisalign trays you’ll also be under your orthodontist control, so any problems should be spotted as fast as possible.

The Invisalign aligners HAVE to be worn as much as possible. Many patients try to “skip” some hours, but this will affect their treatment. The aligners have to be on the teeth for as much as you possibly can, nothing less than 20 hours a day (try even more). The treatment depends on you a lot, so you can ruin the results or have the treatment succeed.

From what I was able to see myself and also read from other Invisalign patients, the Invisalign orthodontic treatment has a HUGE success rate if:

• you have a good orthodontist and are under his/her observation so that any problems can be noticed soon
• you wear your aligners AS MUCH as you can
• you let some time pass. You won’t see results in Invisalign in just weeks, let few months pass and then you’ll see the change.

Just think that every 2 weeks you are putting a new aligner in your mouth, a new aligner that is DIFFERENT from the previous one. You feel this by the pressure in your teeth (sometimes a small pain) and the fact you have difficulties putting the aligner on. This means IT WORKS: you teeth changed position and the aligner forces them into a new one. Stick to the treatment and you’ll be just fine.

Dear visitor. I assume you are talking about: Invisalign – the invisible braces.

The fast answer is: YES. You can have Invisalign just like anyone else if you qualify for the treatment. I am almost 30 myself so it’s not such a huge deal. As I have explained some days ago, you can have excellent results with the orthodontic treatment as an adult too. Am I too old for braces? is one of the most searched for phrase on the web and the good thing is that the answer (as you can read in the article too) is NO. You are not too old for braces

Let’s get back to Invisalign and your age. As I already mentioned, the age is not the problem in here. First you have to “qualify”. Don’t think about winning a contest or anything like this. In some cases, Invisalign, even if it would eventually work, it does require such long time, that it’s better to use another system (for fast results in complex cases Damon is one of the best choices).

I used Damon at first since my personal case didn’t make me a good candidate for Invisalign. I had a canine “sticking out” almost over the near incisor, the 2 upper left bicuspids one in front of the other (don’t ask me how this was possible, I seem to be a “miracle”), missing molars and other “nice” problems. Damon worked for 7 months on the lateral teeth to reduce the gap created by the missing molars, to bring the incisor back to its place and pull it back on the arch, rotate the bicuspids etc.

Invisalign was my final choice for the treatment (with the front teeth too) since I am 30 too and can’t sport a metal mouth look especially with my web design clients. I would ruin my business, since some people are still reluctant to see people in braces.

I didn’t stand a chance to correct those huge problems directly with Invisalign, so we needed the metal braces and now we can fix the rest of the teeth. This is what “to qualify” for Invisalign means.

Only you and your orthodontist can see if Invisalign is a good idea. If you are 30 (or even over) and would like to have Invisalign please don’t forget:

• get an orthodontist who is accredited in Invisalign. Not all of them can use the system, make sure your doctor has the certification
• prepare with money. Invisalign is one of the most expensive treatments. The cost varies (depending on the number of trays, complexity of the case etc.), but it’s not cheap at all.
• your orthodontist will be able to tell you for sure if you can use the Invisalign system. If your case is way too tricky, you’ll be presented with another option that would work better.

When starting an orthodontic treatment, one has to understand that the time of careless oral hygiene is over. In order for the teeth to not start new cavities, the brushing/flossing/mouthwash ritual has to be taken care of.

In my previous treatment (Damon braces), I didn’t have to watch my brushing that closely since I could wait for some minutes to brush after a meal. In the end the braces were on. When it comes to Invisalign the most important aspect is WEARING THE ALIGNERS AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.

Some say over 22 hours a day, others claim than 20 are Ok too. The advice would be to have the trays in your mouth for as  much as humanly possible. Again, from my experience: I eat something and then I go straight to the bathroom to brush. I have several “sets” of tooth brushes and paste: in my laptop’s case (for when I take it to the radio station), in my bag, in my smaller purse .. and I am considering having this in my car too so that the set is complete. I know it sounds crazy, but I do want to eat between my home meals too.

In some cases I have to be away almost all day long. This would mean eating in the morning and in the evening. So I snack at work too. If I want to eat anything, I have to take my aligners off, eat, brush teeth, clean aligners and place them back. So that I can still wear them as much as possible.

This is pretty hard since most of the time I just feel like tasting something. I stopped driking coke or I drink it only in my small “lunch breaks”. I don’t eat anything with my aligners on, I don’t drink anything but mineral water with the “braces” on my teeth. Some say mineral water is not that good either, but at least it doesn’t stain them (as soda would or anything else) and it doesn’t leave my mouth filled with all kinds of sugar and other “goddies’ that would “rot” till I brush again.

Getting back to the question at hand: If you dont brush your teeth and wear your Invisalign … I think it would be “yuky”. Think about this: you ate something and you have some hours till you get back home to brush. You can’t leave your trays off for that long (remember you do have to wear the aligners as much as you can) so you’d have to put the plastic on the dirty teeth. Personally I would either not eat or go fast and get myself the toothbrush and toothpaste (most cases this happened to me too, this led to me having 4-5 sets in all possible locations).

When you go from home, just check again if you have these too. You do change an aligner after 2 weeks, so it’s not the end of the world, but still it would be a good idea to not get to placing Invisalign aligners over not brushed teeth. Have you ever done this? How was it?