The invisible way to straighter teeth

The invisible way to straighter teeth

05/02/2019

Having straighter teeth not only makes you look great, it is also better for your oral health. Even only mildly misaligned teeth are harder to keep clean because they have crevices between them and their neighbouring teeth that can be hard to really get at with a toothbrush or floss.

Your teeth stand a much better chance of lasting a lifetime if they are well aligned. Not only will they stand less chance of decay and gum disease, but they will also be less likely to crumble away, as can happen when a few teeth are bearing the brunt of all that chewing.

The question is, how to get straighter teeth as an adult without having to go through months of looking like an awkward adolescent? The answer is Invisalign, available from us at The Dental Surgery Burnham.

In Burnham, you may not have noticed anyone using Invisalign, but rest assured, our patients are out there, going about their daily business, talking to you as you go about yours. You just haven’t noticed their aligners because they are so thin and transparent as to become as good as invisible when they are on the teeth.

This is good news for professionals, who can continue to operate without compromising their responsible image.

How Invisalign works

Invisalign treatment is comprised of a series of very thin, transparent aligners that look like mouth guards. Inside each aligner are carefully positioned pressure points that press on the teeth at particular angles in order to get them to move into the right position in your mouth.

When you put in an aligner, it feels like it doesn’t quite fit. But over the course of the next 7-10 days, as the bone is dissolved and rebuilt in your jaw to allow the teeth to move out of the way of the pressure, the aligner will become increasingly comfortable. Once it fits perfectly, it’s time to discard it and put in the next in the series.

The aligners come out for meals and drinks, and then go back in again. On average, treatment with Invisalign takes a year.