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.

Get Your Invisalign Here!

Everyone in this world loves to look smart and better than others. For this purpose, people do not even bother to spend money. There is no doubt that your presentation is actually the base of your personality. In every part of life, you have to present yourself in the best way. For best presentation, you cannot give a room to natural problems even if they are preborn. Some people have teeth that are not arranged in perfect order and they have to use braces to fix them at perfect place. These braces sometimes add a negative look to their personality. This problem has forced the dental surgeons to adopt a technique that will work perfectly for the treatment of teeth but also do not disturb your look. The result is in front of us. We have got Invisalign that is a treatment for the teeth to mold them in prefect orientation.

Invisalign is very common in the developed countries like America, England, France and so on. However, United States of America is offering best Invisalign. Among different states of this country, California is one of the best states for getting this treatment. In San Diego Invisalign is performed by experienced consultants and surgeons. If you want to get rid of the pain that you have to suffer form the application of braces then Invisalign is the best alternative for you. It is of course more efficient type of treatment. In this type of treatment, patient can also get rid of the hesitation that he feels due to braces as Invisalign is an invisible type of braces with same function and enhanced effectiveness.

Another positive trait of Invisalign is that you can carry on brushing your teeth in the common manner as if you do not have any layer on your teeth. This enable you to eat whatever you want without the tension that you have got braces on your teeth that will be damaged by some kind of food. In Invisalign, advanced imaging software is used. This software makes the surgeons capable of recognizing the area that requires treatment and also prescribes the type of treatment. Special kinds of solutions are applied to stick these invisible braces on the teeth. There are no maintenance issues with Invisalign. You do not need to take a regular care of them. Once, Invisalign is applied then you will not have to worry about the alignment of your teeth as Invisalign will do it in a perfect manner.

Invisible Braces

Like many of today's parents, I grew up in the 80's. The 80's was a good time for poor taste - shoulder pads, spandex, hair bands, acid washed jeans and...metal braces. Every teenager dreaded them, food got stuck in them at the oddest moments and kissing was acqward to say the least. So, I feel a little irritated when I hear that today's teenagers have another option - Invisalign - a system using clear plastic trays to straighten teeth. I mean, braces are a necessary right of passage, right?

So, today's teenagers have a far more attractive option. Here's what one reviewer from Realself.com has to say about invisalign:

“All the Invisalign Info You'll Ever Need”


Spent: $5,380 in Kenosha, WI
After having slightly crooked teeth for most of my life, I decided I was ready at age 25 to confront my inner demons and fix my self-esteem crushing mouth for good. As a pre-teen, my folks didn't have the money for braces so I did without. My most notable dental flaw is my left upper canine tooth is crooked and sticks out, and over the years I've compensated for this by adjusting my smile accordingly in an attempt to hide it. I've noticed my forced/half smile in pictures, and decided to finally do something about it.

I knew some colleagues at work who were using Invisalign and they seemed relatively happy with their progress, so I took the plunge and made an appointment with a Premier Invisalign Provider in my area. The orthodontist was very thorough and quite personable initially, and I felt comfortable in their office. Then they mentioned the price of my treatment: $5,000. My associates had said that their treatment had only cost $4,000 so I wasn't sure if I was getting a fair quote. I was referred to another provider by a co-worker and their price was roughly the same, but I was creeped out by the orthodontist and just got a bad vibe from the whole experience. A few months later and after much deliberation, I went back to my initial Invisalign orthodontist and gave them the go-ahead to order the molds and start the process.

Part of my treatment plan was to have a tooth extracted to make room for the crooked upper canine to shift into place. Apparently when all four of my wisdom teeth surfaced (non-impacted, luckily), they shifted everything forward which only exacerbated the degree of my smile's crookedness.

Onto the process: The molds weren't that cumbersome to take, especially compared to some horror stories I've heard. It took a few weeks for the aligners to be sent from the Invisalign headquarters in California. Once they arrived, we had an appointment and went over the ClinCheck, a 3D animated program that shows the progression of tooth movement over time, from tray to tray. I started the trays on Tuesday, 10/6/09 after eating a delicious Cuban dinner in honor of my brother’s birthday. Those first few hours were the most orally painful of my life. The first tray is certainly the worst, but gradually you get used to them.

First, there is pain and pressure. You take the trays out and your teeth feel somewhat loose in their sockets; this is perfectly normal since they are in the shifting process. A good tip is to take an Advil PM about an hour before bedtime and then put them in right before you go to sleep. This gives the trays ample time while you are sleeping to do their magic so it’s not as difficult to remove them in the morning when you brush your teeth.

During the Invisalign process, patients are supposed to visit their orthodontist’s office roughly every 4 weeks to check their progress and make any adjustments. After the first tray or so, my orthodontist had me come back to have attachments put on my teeth. They are small, tooth-colored nubs that fit into what can best be described as pockets on the aligners themselves. It makes them fit tighter and harder to remove, and I believe it helps with tooth rotation. The process of putting on the attachments is less than desirable. They first prep your teeth with a bonding agent and then apply the attachments using a UV/heat gun. After they have set, they use a drill to remove any excess material from the teeth. The drill is scary and loud; if it deviates in the slightest, you smell enamel burning (scary!).

After the attachments were applied, I was told to have a soft diet (soups and pastas) for the next day or so. Despite my adherence to this policy, some of the attachments wore off. My orthodontist seemed slightly concerned by this, but went on with treatment, stating that if they were to try to reapply the attachments they would only be more likely to come off because they would be applied on the attachment polymer rather than pure, porous enamel.

The next step in my orthodontist’s bag of tricks was “elastics” – their fancy way of saying rubber bands. These elastics are strung between my upper and lower arches, making the fact that I am wearing braces QUITE noticeable. I didn’t know this would be part of my treatment program, and honestly if I had I doubt I would have proceeded. The elastics hook on to small tabs that the orthodontist cuts into the aligners. The purpose of the elastics is to put more pressure on the teeth to move, and also to ensure that my bite lines up properly now and later on when treatment is completed.

Of course, nothing is ever easy. In addition to the attachments popping off (making my aligners less than snug), I had trouble with the elastics staying on the makeshift hooks. This is a recipe for disaster! I had rubber bands snapping in my mouth constantly, popping off of one hook or another; it’s painful and annoying. I remember one lower tray in particular that was quite loose to begin with, and the torque from the elastic actually made the tray pop off of my teeth entirely whenever I would open my mouth (yawning, speaking, etc.) which was quite embarrassing. I made an emergency orthodontist appointment that day and went in after-hours for them to pinch the aligner with some pliers to make them grip my teeth better. It was a temporary fix until I put in my next, tighter aligner.

As I write this now, I’m on the last week of my 10th aligner out of 16. I’ve seen some encouraging progress in the shifting of my teeth; my mother even noticed and said that they look a lot straighter. I’m about halfway there and am excited for the final result. Once I’ve completed treatment, I am supposed to wear a retainer at night for the first year, and then one night a week for the rest of my life (or as long as I want straight teeth).

My suggestion for people considering Invisalign is to discuss in detail EVERYTHING in your treatment program. My "invisible braces" are anything but invisible with these God-awful rubber bands in sight. I have developed a lisp that hasn't gone away (even after 5 months). I honestly feel like a teenager - and not in a good way - but if you don't have the elastics as part of your program or if it's only for a limited time, this shouldn't be an issue.

Beyond the obvious obstacles I've had with Invisalign thus far, I feel it's a great way to improve your smile in an unobtrusive way. I wear my aligners religiously and if I am ever EXTREMELY self-conscious about the elastics, I just unhook them from the top arch and let the band fall to rest on my lower gums (making them unnoticeable). When I am free from the embarassing situation, I hook them back on and I'm on my way. The movement I've seen of the crooked canine tooth is very impressive - I would gladly pay $5K merely for the results I've had thus far.

Words can't describe how excited I am for the ultimate end result, when I can finally smile with full confidence! I, of course, will update this review once I'm finished with the program. Best wishes and good luck to all! :)