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Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Keep Your Invisalign Clean

If spending a significant amount of cash on teeth straightening aligners from Invisalign, you'll want to keep them in good and working order. Maintaining them by cleaning them is one of the ways you'll have to look after your braces - you don't' want dirty and smelly aligners after all! So here's a few ways you can keep your smile fresh, clean and bright!

(1) Use the exclusive Invisalign cleaning system - crystals which when added to water produce a soaking solution, which gets rid of dental plaque upon your aligners. Although, it does the job, it is very pricey, costing about one dollar or just under one pound per day, and after the expense of the aligners you may not want to fork out for the solution.

(2) Cheaper options include dental fixture cleaning solutions. Dental fixture tablets will clean the Invisalign aligners completely, however, they may cause scratches or blurring, making the aligners more visible. This may not necessarily happen, but just in case test the dental fixture solution on an old pair of aligners before you use them. It cannot cause anything but aesthetic damage, so your Invisalign braces will always work. To use, it is recommended that you soak them in dental fixture fluid twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, for at least an hour.

(3) Another alternative is soaking them in a small amount of baking soda (1tbsp to ½ cup of water) for an hour per day, twice per day. Bicarbonate of soda is a great cleaner and will always get you're aligners squeaky clean.

After cleaning your aligners, brush off any excess chemicals with a toothbrush and rinse thoroughly. Never place your Invisalign braces around hot temperatures, such as hot water as these could cause damage to them. Lastly, if you do use the more cost effective methods and start to notice a difference in appearance, swap over immediately to the Invisalign cleaning system, which is designed not to cause any damage to your braces.

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