Invisalign® Clear Aligners – Weatherford, TX

Crowded Teeth

Few people have naturally straight teeth. Too often the teeth are too close together. When your teeth aren’t in their proper positions, it makes them more difficult to clean, especially in areas where they overlap. Even the best brushing and flossing habits can leave behind harmful food particles, plaque, and bacteria, significantly increasing your risk of tooth decay and gum disease. With Invisalign®, you can minimize these complications while straightening your pearly whites.

Gaps Between Teeth

If you have gaps in your smile, you may be all too familiar with the effects that missing teeth can have on your appearance. However, gapped teeth are also home to bacteria and plaque that can cause a whole new set of issues. Typically, gapped teeth can be the result of:

• Thumb-sucking or using a pacifier beyond the age of 3
• Having small teeth
• Missing teeth
• Experiencing tongue thrust
• Having a large frenulum

Regardless of why your teeth are gapped, Invisalign® will align your smile to eliminate gaps for a healthy set of teeth.

Overbite

Also known as “overjet,” an overbite is when your upper teeth stick out too far from your lower arch. This can negatively impact your bite, as your teeth won’t be able to meet properly or comfortably. Without treatment, you might experience issues like jaw pain, speech difficulties, and uneven wear and tear of your enamel. By wearing Invisalign® aligners and using elastic bands, you’ll be able to properly align your upper and lower arches.

Underbite

Similar to an overbite, an underbite is when your lower teeth protrude further out from your upper ones. This condition can lead to complications like trouble speaking, jaw discomfort, and even an increased chance of sleep apnea. With elastic bands and Invisalign® aligners, you can correct the position of your lower arch so that it rests properly against your upper teeth.

Crossbite

Sometimes the lower teeth can stick out in front of the upper ones and vice versa whenever you close your mouth. Even if there’s no discomfort, a crossbite can pose risks to your oral health, such as a higher chance of gum disease and tooth decay, especially since it’ll be more difficult to clean the services of every tooth. Invisalign® can gradually and effectively move both upper and lower pearly whites so that they’re uniform and comfortable.

Open Bite

Whenever you bite down, do your upper and lower teeth refuse to touch? This is what’s known as an open bite, which can raise the risk of multiple oral health problems, including halitosis, speech difficulties, and excessive wear and tear on the molars. For more mild situations, Invisalign® can reliably shift your arches to close the gap between your upper and lower teeth.

Maintain Your Appearance

The plastic used for clear aligners is incredibly transparent. In fact, it is so transparent, that no one around you will even notice that you’re wearing the aligners unless you tell them, or you remove your trays in front of them. As long as you clean them and brush your teeth after eating richly pigmented foods, you won’t leave stains on them, nor will they lose their transparency. If you’re someone who relies on their appearance for their job, you don’t have to sacrifice it just to achieve a straighter smile. And if you have an important occasion coming up, such as a wedding, your wedding photos don’t have to include a metal mouth.

Improved Comfort

Invisalign® clear aligners are made from smooth plastic, which fits snugly around each of your teeth. Since you’re going to wear them for about 20 to 22 hours per day for several months, it’s incredibly important that they feel comfortable. As a metal-free solution to orthodontics, clear aligners are truly ideal for long-term use. There’s no risk of metal components (i.e., brackets and wires) breaking or bending. Dental emergencies can easily happen if metal orthodontics get damaged, but clear aligners prevent this issue in the first place.

Freedom to Eat the Foods You Want

Clear aligners from Invisalign® are completely removable. This makes sense since you’ll have to remove them to eat meals and practice oral care, but it’s quite a major benefit when compared to traditional orthodontics. Braces force you to constrict your diet and avoid eating foods that could get caught in or even damage your hardware. With clear aligners, you simply remove them and place them in your protective case. You can even chew gum! Just make sure to never eat with the aligners still in, as they are not strong enough to withstand daily chewing forces.

Faster Results

Traditional braces require a minimum of two years of wear before any results can occur. With Invisalign® clear aligners, your treatment only takes between 10 and 18 months. It’s one of the fastest orthodontic treatments on the market that keeps aesthetics, comfort, and functionality in mind. On top of that, because you’re getting the entire series of aligners upfront, you don’t have to visit the dentist as often as you would if you had traditional braces.

Traditional Invisalign®

Traditional Invisalign® treatment is recommended for adult patients in their mid-20s or older. These treatment plans use a series of clear, plastic aligners to gently shift teeth into the ideal alignment over the course of about twelve months. Each set of alignment trays represents the smile as it moves one step closer to the ideal alignment. You’ll wear the aligners for about two weeks. Then, simply exchange the aligners for the next set in the series. Rather than frequent office visits to adjust brackets and wires, you will simply need to attend short checkup visits in our practice every six to eight weeks to ensure your smile is progressing according to plan.

Invisalign® Teen

For busy teens and those who want to keep their smiles looking great throughout treatment, Invisalign® Teen may offer an ideal solution. The system works the same way as traditional Invisalign®, but there are many features especially beneficial for teens, including:

• These systems offer as many as six complimentary replacement aligners because Invisalign® on cafeteria trays often ends up in the trash.
• There are indicators in place to allow parents and dentists to tell whether or not the teen is wearing their Invisalign® trays for the necessary amount of time to achieve the desired results.
• Unlike traditional braces that are often complicated by the teen’s growing smile, Invisalign® Teen allows the dentist to guide newly erupting teeth into alignment.

The Propel Accelerated Orthodontic Plan

Whether you choose to straighten your smile with Invisalign® or traditional bracket and wire braces, you may want to consider speeding up the process with Propel. This system of accelerated orthodontics offers patients quicker and more comfortable tooth movement throughout their orthodontic plan. In addition to the traditional Propel Excellerator treatment to speed the orthodontic process, we also utilize the innovative VPro5 tool to help patients make the most of their Invisalign® treatment plan. You’ll use the VPro5 tool at home. For about five minutes each day, the tool is placed to ensure the Invisalign® trays are properly seated to ensure maximum effect. We encourage patients to complete their VPro5 therapy immediately before going to sleep. For most patients, this is the longest consecutive wear time, so the VPro5 treatment can offer maximum efficacy.

Wearing Your Trays

As previously mentioned, you’ll need to wear your clear Invisalign® aligners for at least 20 hours every day. It may be tempting to “take a break,” because your teeth temporarily feel sore, you want to eat frequently, or another reason, but the longer you don’t have them in, the more uncomfortable the aligners will feel and the less progress you’ll make. On the other hand, keeping them in your mouth means your smile has more time to get used to the feeling of the aligners and direction where they should go.

Cleaning Your Aligners

Although your aligners are meant to be worn for about two weeks before being switched for the next set, these clear trays can become discolored if you don’t take care of them. They need to be cleaned on a daily basis, but the good news is this maintenance is pretty simple. Usually, all you need to do is rinse them off with clean water and gently brush them with a soft-bristled toothbrush.

To prevent your aligners from becoming yellow or cloudy, you also need to keep your teeth clean. In fact, you need to brush and floss any time you eat before putting the aligners back in to stop plaque buildup.

Eating & Drinking

The plastic in your aligners is strong enough to exert force on your teeth, but it cannot withstand the pressure of biting and chewing without breaking, scratching, or staining. That’s why you need to take them out whenever you eat or drink anything other than water. While you eat or drink, store your aligners in your case—you don’t want to lose them! Once you’re done, and you’ve cleaned your teeth, put your aligners back in.

Losing or Damaging a Tray

No one is perfect, and you may encounter an issue like losing or breaking an aligner. If this happens, reach out to us immediately. Depending on where you are in treatment, we may recommend wearing your last set of aligners until a replacement tray can be ordered and sent to you, or we may tell you to switch to your next set a little early.

Routine Check-Ins

With Invisalign®, you’ll have fewer check-in appointments than if you had traditional braces, but these appointments are important to keep. Most of the time, the treatment plan needs to be slightly adjusted at some point during the process. During these check-in visits, we make sure your teeth are moving as they should and adjust your treatment plan if necessary, keeping you on track.

What Factors Influence the Cost of Invisalign®?

When you arrive for your initial consultation, our team will start by examining your smile and determining if Invisalign® is right for you. Should you be given the green light to move forward with treatment, you can expect that you’ll not only receive personalized treatment during this visit but also a cost estimate of how much you can expect to spend for a straighter smile.

Some of the factors that are considered include:

• The number of aligners you will need throughout treatment
• The severity of your dental problem (i.e., overcrowding, spaces between teeth, bite alignment)
• If you require only a top or bottom aligner or both
• The retainer you’ll need to wear once you are finished with Invisalign®
• If you need any pre-orthodontic dental work (i.e., tooth extraction)

Is Invisalign® Worth the Investment?

If wearing a mouth full of metal doesn’t sound like a great time to you, the opportunity to receive treatment by wearing clear aligners might sound more appealing. Invisalign® offers a wide array of benefits that cannot be achieved with any other orthodontic treatment, such as:

• Improved confidence and appearance
• Better oral health
• Ability to eat whatever you like without restrictions
• Flexibility and convenience
• No chance of irritation
• Minor discomfort
• Shorter and fewer dental visits
• Faster treatment

What Can I Expect at the Invisalign® Consultation?

During your initial consultation, your dentist will want to look at your smile in its entirety to get a better understanding of how severe your particular problem may be. Whether you have overcrowding, spaces between your teeth, or a bite alignment issue, it’s important that one of our dentists evaluate your smile and determine if Invisalign® or traditional braces will help you reach your desired goals.

After a visual exam, digital impressions will be taken of your smile as a way for us to map out your smile sequence. This will not only allow us to determine how it will develop over the course of treatment, but these images will also help dental lab technicians create your customized aligners so that they fit your mouth comfortably.

You’ll also receive a breakdown of how much you can expect to pay for your Invisalign® treatment. After looking at all the factors your dentist is taking into consideration, you are more than welcome to speak with one of our team members about available financing as well as any other options that can help make the process to straighten teeth in Weatherford possible.