Clear aligners are a type of brace we use now.
We use a brand—our favourite brand here called Invisalign, which is the market leader,
having completed over 4 million smiles worldwide.
It’s a series of sequential liners that you wear.
Usually weekly, change them and each one is a little bit in a slightly different position so that it guides your
teeth into better or final determined goal that you decide on with your dentist.
They are very comfortable to wear. As I said, they’re tailor-made to fit over your teeth.
So they’re pretty flushed, you don't have any bits sticking out like the old brackets
or wires that might poke into the lips or the tongue or the cheeks.
You remove them when you eat things, so you can eat what you want. There are no restrictions on diets such
as nuts, sticky foods, stringy foods, those kinds of things because they’re out of the
mouth, so you don't need to worry about the little bits getting caught.
What we do, the process is we scan you now. We don't like to do those goo impressions.
We now stick a digital scan, that’s a 3D imaging using almost like a video camera.
That then goes up to Invisalign where the treatment plan, your end goal.
We then have all the aligners delivered. We fit them and we work through the process with you,
see you every eight to ten weeks or so, where we set up a new aligner, and gradually move
you into that final position. They’re probably the most comfortable brace
on the market because each movement is very incremental. There’s not a lot of pressure on the teeth.
They’re pretty much invisible, so unless you are in someone’s personal space,
you’re not going to see them, and they’re very comfortable to wear.
The treatment time depends on where the teeth have got to move to. For some people, it can
be as short as eight to ten weeks; for some people, it can be a year and a half.
We really need to see you and assess where we need to go to.
Cost-wise, Invisalign starts from about £86 per month, based on a sort of £3,000-4,000 investment.
Tooth-coloured braces are fixed braces, so bits stuck on to teeth known as brackets and
usually a tooth-coloured or white wire that connects them, so, like the old "train tracks",
as people know them, they’re fixed braces on the outside of the teeth. They work very, very well.
They’re less visible, obviously, than the metal braces that we’re used to,
but you still can see them. Invisalign is a series of aligners that are
removable so you can take them in and out. They are almost flush to the teeth; they are
made of plastic, a high grade plastic material, so not quite invisible but almost invisible.
They’re very comfortable to wear. You don't have the brackets which are the white braces
or tooth-coloured ones that can be slightly prominent onto the lips or the cheeks or the tongue.
You change these Invisalign aligners, as they’re known as, every week so instead
of a wire is changed every 8-10 weeks, say, you have aligners that you change weekly.
It doesn't mean we need to see you as clinicians every week; we tend to give you a batch of,
say, six to eight aligners and we see you every six to eight weeks to monitor the progress.
Invisalign is more comfortable, I’d suggest, than fixed or tooth-coloured braces because
it’s tailor-made to fit to you, it’s flushed almost to the teeth, and is plastic.
Tooth-coloured braces are—although they are better materials and more comfortable now – it still has
bits that stick out that can irritate the lips and tongue initially.
In tooth-coloured braces, you need to be careful with what you eat because they are stuck to
the tooth, so you have to avoid certain hard food such as nuts, muesli bars, those kinds
of things, the very sticky food which I say try to avoid, because you don't want to dislodge
or unstick a bracket. Invisalign—you’re removing them when you
eat things so this is no problem. You can eat what you want because they’re outside
the mouth which you then place back in after you’ve eaten something or had something
hot or sugary to drink.
So the process with Invisalign is you come for a consultation.
We need to check your teeth, gums, bite, and general dental health is healthy.
Assuming it is, we would take a series of photographs so we can see where the teeth are.
We need to discuss your goals, what you’re trying to achieve with the braces,
and where you would like the teeth to finish up, and we also take a 3D scan or a digital scan of your teeth.
No longer do we do these gooey impressions that a lot of people don't like.
We use a mini video camera that allows us to map the teeth so that we can see the 3D view where they are.
With this scan, we can then propose where we want to take the teeth to,
so we can show you how the teeth will align and into a better position.
This is great and really powerful because you can see the end result before embarking on treatment.
When we’re both happy with that plan, we’ll order the aligners.
On the first day, we fit the aligners. We’ll then talk you through
the process of maintaining them, how to keep them clean, what to do when you’re not wearing them.
We discuss the wearing of them. You need to wear them 21-22 hours a day.
It’s the optimal time to wear. You must wear them during the day and when you’re asleep,
only removing them when you have something hot or sugary to drink, when you eat things, and,
obviously, when you’re brushing to clean your teeth.
You change to a new one then every week. I don't need to see you every week.
I tend to give you a batch of six to eight aligners that you change weekly, and then I see you
after six to eight weeks, review, check everything is on track with the simulation that I’ve
shown you, and then give you another batch. We work through the treatment process and
we get to the end of this batch of aligners. The number of aligners depends on how complex
your case is or where we’re trying to move your teeth to. Some people I do in seven to
eight weeks. Some people take a little bit longer – up to about a year and a half.
Compliance is a big thing though.
As long as you’re wearing aligners, the treatment works fantastically.
When we get to that end stage, I’m very critical.
I tend to look and see whether I’m happy with the final tooth position.
And also get to your feedback. If we will do fine-tuning, we often do something called refinement.
This means another batch of aligners at no extra cost to you, but allows us to fine-tune and
get the teeth to that perfect final finished position.
When we’re both happy with the final result, we need to move onto something called a retainer.
Now, retainers are as essential as the Invisalign or orthodontic treatment.
It doesn't matter what type of brace you have. You always need retainers.
Now, the treatment of orthodontics may only take a few weeks to a few months but retainers
are long-term, almost for life, to make sure nothing relapses.
And they’re important to hold the teeth in their final position. They may be of two sorts.
One is like a fixed wire usually on the back of the front six teeth.
I glue it on to the back, tailor-made, that fits all the nooks and crannies of the teeth and glued on there.
That’s when they’re long term. Alternatively, and I tend to find most of my Invisalign clients prefer this,
is we do the Invisalign branded retainer known as a Vivera retainer.
This is a set of three aligners per jaw, or retainers, and they’re clear, they sit over the teeth,
and you only need to wear them at night, not during the day.
But they are long term, as I said, almost for life to make sure there’s no relapse.