Does your smile look crooked or busy? Do your teeth overlap? Maybe you had braces as a child, but over time your teeth have become crowded again. If this sounds like you, Invisalign® clear braces can give you the smile you’ve always wanted.
Call our Boise, Idaho dental office at 208-853-2221 to learn more about Invisalign or set up an appointment with Dr. Russ Jensen.
An Alternative To Braces
In the past, the only way to straighten your teeth was with bracket-and-wire braces. They took 2 years or longer to correct your alignment, and came with several unpleasant limitations. Wearing braces meant you had to avoid certain foods, visit the orthodontist every month for painful wire tightening, and your appearance was constantly altered by “metal mouth.” Bracket-and-wire braces also had a habit of irritating your inner cheeks or lips, requiring you to use lumps of wax to protect your soft tissues from protruding sharp metal. What a mess!
Furthermore, braces are indelibly associated with early adolescence. No grown adult wants to draw attention to his or her smile with the orthodontics most commonly associated with childhood. Many people simply feel that a misaligned bite and crooked smile are preferable to looking (and feeling) like an eleven-year-old again!
But now there is a more convenient option in Invisalign. Unlike traditional braces, this system is discreet, convenient, fast, and easy to keep clean.
The clear acrylic aligners are nearly invisible during most professional and social interactions. Even when they are noticed, they do not detract from the uniformity of your smile the way conventional braces can. Invisalign is an excellent choice for any adults who want to straighten their teeth while maintaining a normal appearance and lifestyle.
Benefits Of Invisalign
- Discreet Appearance – Clear acrylic aligners are less visible and distracting than metal braces.
- Convenience – Aligners are easily removed for eating and cleaning, no monthly dental appointments are needed.
- Faster Results – Treatment takes only 12-18 months, compared to the 24 months needed for braces.
- Easy to Clean – No food will get stuck in the aligners, and no special tools are needed to brush and floss your teeth.
How Invisalign Works
All orthodontics are based on the fact that teeth can be manipulated to shift their placement when gentle, incremental pressure is applied. Our teeth may feel permanently rooted in place, but the truth is that they can easily be coaxed to move into a new alignment. With braces, the wires are tightened once a month, but with Invisalign, more frequent replacement of aligners means the shifting will be more gradual (and cause less sensitivity). You will only need to come back to the office once every six weeks to check that you are progressing according to plan
With Invisalign, a dental impression is taken from your mouth, and a digital model of your ideal smile is then drafted. From there, a series of customized aligner trays is crafted to get your teeth from point A to point B in miniscule increments. If the aligners are worn for the recommended period of time each day, you will be ready for a new aligner every two weeks. Many patients actually finish treatment within 12 months.
Who Is A Good Candidate For Invisalign?
Any adults or older teens who are presently in a good state of oral health can undertake Invisalign treatment. If a dental evaluation reveals that you need treatment for tooth decay or gum disease we can create a treatment plan that will restore you to good oral health before you start Invisalign.
Another requirement is that you must be motivated to correct your alignment and improve your smile. Invisalign requires devoted compliance. The aligners must be worn 20-22 hours per day in order for the treatment plan to work—so there can be no “cheating.” If the aligners are not worn enough, this can disrupt whole series of aligners and a new dental impression may need to be made and new aligners crafted.