What Is Invisalign?

Invisalign is a clear removable aligner used to straighten teeth instead of the traditional fixed metal braces. It is made from a BPA free plastic and is custom made to fit your teeth.

When we make the Invisalign we have to:

• Take a digital scan of your teeth, take some photos and send this over to the Invisalign lab
• Take x-rays to check the angulation of the roots and health of teeth and gums
• Get the aligners custom made to fit your teeth only, with a plan personalised to you to get your teeth lovely and straight!

Invisalign is a clear, removable orthodontic appliance used to straighten the teeth. It does this by gradually moving the teeth into the position we want them by applying gentle pressure in order to get them to move. It works just as well as the fixed appliances but with the added bonus of them not being as visible! It’s perfect for you if you are wanting to transform your smile without the visibility of braces. The only thing we need you to do is to wear them ALL the time! If you don’t wear them, they aren’t going to work. We do 20% of the work, you do 80%!

As you can see from this picture, the metal fixed braces are a lot bulkier than the Invisalign meaning they take a bit more getting used to. The fixed braces can rub on your cheeks and cause ulcers for the first few weeks whereas with the Invisalign, the plastic is nice and smooth making them comfortable to wear and no ulcers will appear. With Invisalign it’s a lot less restrictive with what you can and can’t eat where as with fixed braces, you can’t eat anything too chewy, hard or crunchy. For example, no biting into apples, corn on the cob or carrots, no chewy sweets, pizza crust or hard crusty bread. Everything has to be cut into small pieces and eaten on your back teeth, but with Invisalign you can eat everything as normal!

One of the biggest benefits to having aligners over the fixed braces is it is a lot easier to clean your teeth. With the Invisalign you brush your teeth as you normally would, you just remove your aligners and brush and floss as normal. Make sure to clean your aligners before putting them back in. To do this, you clean them with a soft tooth brush under cold water (don’t use hot water, they are made from plastic so will melt!) and don’t use toothpaste as this can make them brittle. You generally change them usually once a week so will be putting fresh ones in weekly so you are never too far from a fresh set.

As well as straightening the teeth Invisalign is also amazing at expanding the arch, to get that nice broad smile. It is perfect for young children as well, it can expand their arches and create the room they might be lacking for their adult teeth to come through in better positions. This means they are less likely to need any adult teeth extractions when they are in their teens. It’s also really good for patients who play sports as you can keep them in for most sports and don’t need a gum shield like you would with the fixed braces. In some cases, we can add features to the aligners to help correct your bite and get you to wear some elastics whilst wearing the aligners. For example, we can add habit breakers on the aligners to stop children sucking their thumbs!

To everybody’s surprise, Invisalign doesn’t alter the way you speak. The aligners are extremely thin and so when you speak you sound the same. You might feel like you sound different, but that is only because you can feel them in your mouth and against your tongue. It usually takes around a week to be fully used to them and then it will feel strange without them. Celebrities who have worn Invisalign include, Zendaya, Zac Efron, Billie Eilish and Justin Bieber. If these people can wear them whilst acting and singing then that means that anyone can!