Retainers After Invisalign?
Posted by writeradmin
I had Invisalign and was transferred for work. My dentist has provided me with the remainder of my aligners. I will only miss one checkup with him. My question is do I need to immediately find another Invisalign provider or can I just finish the ones he provided for me and move on with my life? The treatment has gone flawlessly thus far. I’ve got a lot going on with the transfer. It’s a promotion with a high learning curve and I’ve still got to get all my children set up with schools, summer activities, new pediatricians, etc. I’m trying to save room any where I can.
Sandy
Dear Sandy,
I don’t think you are going to need to find another Invisalign dentist. However, you will need a retainer for a period of time. You can either go to any old general dentist and get a traditional one, go to an Invisalign dentist and use one of their invisible one. There is also the option of using your final pair of aligners as a retainer and monitoring on your own. I would only recommend this if your aligner is still in good condition by the time you are done with your treatment.
Then, you want to wean yourself off of the aligner slowly. I’d wear it every day for a month, then just at night for several weeks. Then, try every other night for a few weeks and wean back from there.
However, and this is important, if at any point it goes back to feeling tighter than normal, that means your teeth have shifted. You’ll need to go back to wearing it all the time again for a while and then you can try again after a few weeks.
So you know, if you keep your final pair of aligners, they can double as teeth whitening trays. This way in order to whiten your teeth, you’ll just need to get some professional whitening gel and use that in your Invisalign aligners. This gives you the benefit of whitening your teeth at a fraction of the cost.
This blog is brought to you by Arnold, MD Dentist Dr. Meredith Esposito.