What are Clear Aligners like Invisalign or SureSmile?
Clear aligners, like Invisalign or SureSmile have revolutionized the path to healthy, beautiful smiles. There is no need for brackets or wires and the aligners can be removed easily when eating and for daily oral hygiene care.
- No more limiting your food choices for fear that your brackets will break off.
- No more food endlessly trapped in braces.
- Best of all, you can barely see them!
What are Clear Aligners?
They are a series of seemingly invisible, thin, clear plastic shells that fit intimately over your teeth. They are designed and fabricated from precision impressions or digital scans of your gums and teeth.
How do they work?
Clear Aligners like Invisalign and SureSmile aren’t attached directly to your teeth, so we need to create small pressure points to help move your teeth.
These are called attachments and they are made by bonding small, tooth-colored bumps to your teeth. The size and shape will vary depending on the movement required and they may need to be added, removed or changed throughout your treatment.
Your treatment may also require small elastics to be used to help us to correct how your teeth fit together when you bite.
Lastly, your teeth may need minor reshaping or resizing called Interproximal Reduction or IPR to help make room for your teeth to move into the proper alignment.
Incremental tooth movements occur by wearing a set of aligners for 5 to 14 days, then switching to the next set, and so on until final tooth positions have been achieved. Aligners need to be worn 22 hours per day to be effective. This leaves time for eating, brushing, and flossing without your aligners in.
Total treatment time will depend on the type and severity of alignment and malocclusion problems.
How do you get started?
It all starts with a complimentary consultation appointment. Photos and digital scans are acquired, followed by a detailed analysis of aesthetics and function.
A follow-up consultation will give you the opportunity to see a digital simulation of treatment progression, and an estimate of total treatment time and cost.
At this point, the Invisalign or SureSmile clear aligners can be fabricated in approximately 1 week.
Trust Your Smile with us
Dr. Caouette prides himself on keeping up to date on the latest dental technology available.
Clear aligners and digital scans are one of the many services available at South Central Dentistry.
Call 780-757-3723 or email us to set up your free consultation today.