One of the great joys of using Invisalign is the ability to remove your clear aligners when eating and drinking. However, that doesn’t mean you should neglect the cleaning and care of your aligners. Here’s some pointers that can help you keep your Invisalign in tip-top shape, so your treatment is as effective as possible.
While it’s definitely great to be able to remove your aligners when eating, you have to be careful about leftover food particles on your aligners or teeth. Leftover food particles can cause your Invisalign to develop an unpleasant smell, or worse, lead to tooth decay.
Fortunately, cleaning your Invisalign only takes a few minutes and is quite easy. We recommend our patients get into the habit of cleaning their aligner trays whenever they brush their teeth. Building on existing oral hygiene routines can be a little easier than forming a whole new habit.
To get started, you’ll need a toothbrush, toothpaste, and either retainer or denture cleaner. Then just follow these simple steps:
While it’s super important, cleaning is only one aspect of caring for your Invisalign aligners. They can be easily lost or broken whenever they’re out of your mouth, so we recommend placing them in their case anytime they’re not in your mouth. A little bit of vigilance will go a long way toward protecting your investment in your smile!
You’ll also want to be careful about exposing your Invisalign to certain substances. Drinking coffee or tea can stain and distort the plastic, just as hot water can. Mouthwash is another item that can potentially stain your retainers.
Finally, it’s important to think about your treatment schedule when traveling. In most cases, you should be fine if you bring 3 sets of aligners – your previous set, the current one, and then your next set. For longer trips, you should consider bringing more sets. And while we recommend brushing your Invisalign every time you take them out to eat, that may not be practical during travel. Just do your best to rinse out your mouth and aligners, then brush as soon as possible.
Don’t fret! You can still enjoy coffee, soda and tea with Invisalign, we just suggest taking your aligners out while you enjoy your beverage then brushing your teeth before you putting your aligners back in.
Invisalign offers a convenient and discreet way to get the smile of your dreams, but the aligners do require a little bit of responsible caretaking to get the job done. In addition to routine, careful cleaning, you’ll want to avoid substances that can distort or stain your retainer.