STEPS OF GETTING INVISALIGN

Orthodontics is a dental specialty that addresses the diagnosis, prevention, and correction of mal-positioned teeth and jaws, and misaligned bite patterns, and helps in getting the desired smile.

Knowing what to expect when the patient chooses the option of having Invisalign will help to decide if it’s the right treatment option for getting desired results or not. . Invisalign can fix the issues like overcrowding, gapped teeth, overbites, underbites, crossbites, and open bites.

The majority of the patient are curious about the process of Invisalign, here’s a step-by-step explanation of what can be expected from the treatment:

Step 1: The Consultation

The first step in getting an Invisalign treatment is a dental consultation with an orthodontist. During this appointment, the orthodontist does a thorough examination of the patient to determine whether he/she is a good candidate for the Invisalign treatment procedure or not.

Step 2: Diagnostic Records

If after the initial consultation, someone is considered to get benefitted from clear aligner therapy, then the dental team proceeds to gather some additional information to get the trays fabricated for the treatment. The dentist then starts by taking a few photographs of the patient’s face and smile, along with a couple of dental x-rays.

Once the dental team gathered all of the information needed, they’ll upload the digital files to the Invisalign site and provide the lab technicians with instructions on how the aligners are fabricated.

When the trays are made in a laboratory, there will be several sets of them. Each pair will show that the teeth are a bit straighter than the last ones. Each tray typically moves the patient’s teeth by 1/10mm, so the number of trays that are needed will depend on the individual needs and may differ from other people.

Step 3: Getting Your Clear Aligners

It’ll take a couple of weeks or so for the patient to get their clear aligners to be delivered to the dental office.  When they arrive, they’ll come in for their first placement appointment.  Depending on the specifications of the outlined treatment, the dentist may have to make some adjustments to a few of the teeth.

Before the patient leave with their first set of trays in place, the dentist makes sure that the patient knows how to put them in and take them out. Each set of aligners is worn for about 1 week, for a minimum of 20 hours per day.

Step 4: Follow-Up Appointments

Throughout the whole procedure of wearing Invisalign, the patient must return to the dental office periodically for having check on the progress.  Typically if everything is going well, the dental team will send you with more aligners to take home.

Step 5: Final Refinements

Once the patient’s done with all the initial trays, he/she may need refinement.  This step of refinements means that there may still be a few tweaks that need to be completed in order to get optimal results.  The reason for refinement is often because during the Invisalign procedure the teeth need some additional corrective movements to get to the final position.

Step 6: Button Removal and Retainers

Once the teeth are finally aligned properly and the patient is done with the Invisalign procedure, make sure that your smile doesn’t revert back into the previous misalignment. For this reason, the patient needs to wear retainers.  Typically, the dentist uses some clear plastic trays that look similar to the Invisalign aligners themselves.