Use & Care of Invisalign Aligners

Wear your Invisalign aligners at all times, except when eating in public, brushing and flossing. Wear them at least 22 hours per day. When you are at home and whenever possible eat with your aligners on because it helps them work better. The chewing action helps exercise the teeth as a group. Avoid foods with sugar and drinking soft drinks with you aligners on, your teeth will develop cavities. Do not chew gum – it will ruin your aligners. Every time you eat or drink anything except water, remove and clean your aligners and your teeth. Dr. Crawford tells everyone to enjoy your first morning cup of coffee or tea without your aligners. The rest of the day, drink through a straw.

Brush your teeth once daily, preferably at night, with the prescription toothpaste given to you at Dr. Crawford’s office. This toothpaste has extra fluoride. The other times you brush, use the toothpaste of your choice. You can purchase additional tubes of prescription toothpaste when you need it at our office.

Never leave your aligners anyplace that is warmer than your mouth. They will be permanently damaged.

Clean your aligners gently with a toothbrush and soap in cool water whenever they are removed. If you are someplace that this is not possible, please rinse the trays and your mouth with water after eating and drinking. Keep your aligners away from boiling water and other extreme cleansers. If you are having trouble keeping stains, such as coffee stains, off the aligners and the ‘Retainer Brite’ isn’t doing the job, you can soak the aligners occasionally in ½ cup of room temp water with 10 drops of Clorox bleach for approximately 20 minutes. YOU MUST RINSE THE ALIGNERS THOROUGHLY BEFORE REPLACING THEM IN YOUR MOUTH!

Store your aligners in the retainer cases you have been provided with when they are not being worn. Never wrap them in a paper towel or tissue – they tend to get thrown out. The replacement fee for a lost set of aligners is at least $200.00 per set & a set of temporary aligners must be fabricated to hold the teeth in position until the replacement aligners arrive.

Invisalign Appointments with Dr. Crawford:

• Try to schedule your appointments near the time that you will finish the wear cycle of your last set of aligners. Ex. If you are given three sets of aligners to take home, you will need to see Dr. Crawford again in approximately 6 weeks to pick up your new aligners (3 sets of aligners X 2 weeks of wear each = 6 weeks).
• If you have recently changed aligners, please bring your previous set of aligners to your appointment with you.
• If for any reason you need to come in before you have finished wearing the last set of aligners you were given, please bring both the aligners you are currently wearing as well as the aligners you have not yet worn.

Wearing Aligner Instructions:

• Clench into the aligners frequently to assure seating pressure and tooth moving pressure.
• After a period of 2 weeks, provided there are no air gaps between the aligner and the biting edges of your teeth, remove and clean your aligners and put them into their original packing case to be saved in a cool, dry place. You can now change into the next stage of aligners.
• Aligners can be worn longer than 2 weeks if they are not comfortably loose and seating completely onto your teeth. If there appears to be an air gap between the aligner and the biting edge of any tooth, clench into the aligner more and wear it longer.
• Never wear your aligners for less than 2 weeks but you can wear them longer if Dr. Crawford asks you to or if you feel you need to.

When traveling, place any extra aligners in your carry-on luggage to assure they won’t be lost or damaged.

Important Notes: Sometimes Dr. Crawford will have placed tooth colored attachments on your teeth to hold the aligners in position during some difficult tooth movements. Your general dentist should not remove the composite attachments. If a composite attachment is lost please contact Dr. Crawford's office to have it replaced. In addition, you should consult Dr. Crawford prior to having any dental restorations changed or added during your Invisalign treatment. This may affect the fit of your aligners. If restorations are done that cause the aligners not to fit properly, a reimpress and refabrication fee of at least $650.00 will be charged because the entire set of treatment aligners will need to be remade.