Invisalign

Consistency is key! Please try and wear your aligners as often as possible. Only take them out when eating or drinking anything other than plain water. When you are done eating, do your best to clean your teeth before placing your aligners back in your mouth. If you do not, you are trapping any food or plaque against your teeth, which may lead to cavities and staining

When the aligners are not in your face, they should be in your case! Be careful with pets; they like to chew them up! Never put your aligners on a napkin, plate, or tissue while you eat, because they’re easy to accidentally throw away.

When you take your trays out, it is a good idea to rinse them off so saliva does not dry on the plastic and cause the trays to get dingy or smelly. You can rinse your aligners in cool or lukewarm water and gently clean them with mild hand soap or dish soap. If they need some serious freshening up, there are products out there, such as Retainer Brite and denture cleaners you can soak them in. Do not use toothpaste. Many toothpastes contain abrasives that will scratch the aligners.

Aligner fit is critical. If the aligners are not fitting well, the teeth are likely not moving as we have planned. Bite exercises are huge in making sure the trays fit properly. Do the exercises for ten minutes a day, preferably morning and night or when you know the trays will be in the mouth for an extended period of time.

It’s better to stay in a tray longer and get a good fit before moving forward to a new tray set. For example, if you’re in aligner #5 and on day six you notice some gapping, stay in that set a couple more days and add in some extra bite, squeeze, and hold exercises until the fit improves. Then, start aligner #6 when the issue has been resolved.

Avoid hard foods! Almonds, hard candies, etc. If one of the bumps comes off of your teeth, please let us know prior to your next appointment time. At that appointment we will need the pouch with the green sticker.

If possible, we would like you to bring all of your aligners to your appointments. Sometimes, we will have to alter the trays and having them present will save you a trip to bring them back to us another day.