A Simplified Solution with Cosmetic and Practical Benefits

So Invisalign is a way you can move patients' teeth instead of the traditional wire brackets that most people might think of when they think of orthodontics. Invisalign are clear aligners. On the patient's teeth we'll place small attachments or buttons, and that will help guide and hold on the aligner and get the tooth into the position that we want. To do Invisalign, we're sending records to Invisalign. So we send them all the patient's digital photos that show how the occlusion or the bite is. We send all the radiographs, and then we scan them with our CEREC machine. So that's really nice because the scan goes within 20 minutes to Invisalign, and then we upload all their information to Invisalign. We're able to bring the patient back and show them what's called a ClinCheck. So it's a movie of their teeth, and it kind of shows how the teeth are moving over a series of aligners. And then they're wearing the aligners for a period of time. Just depending on what type of treatment they need, it could be 6, 8 months, it could be 14 months. It just depends on the goal and how much work we need to do to help balance that patient's bite. They wear clear aligners 22 hours a day, and they change them weekly. We typically give patients about six aligners, so they're seeing us every six weeks. A lot of times patients don't know what they don't know. So once they have their teeth in a proper position, they're like, oh, my gosh, it's so much easier to keep my teeth clean, and they're very aware of their periodontal health because we're every time they come in for hygiene, we're always checking the pockets telling them how, you know, what the measurements are, how much bleeding they may have. Everybody's hygiene improves. They know what their pocket depths are. They see less bleeding. They get very conscious and very aware because they have to have aligners, you know, in and out, and they have to make sure their teeth are clean before they go in. So most oftentimes, better hygiene shows up, plus it's easier when you have straight teeth to keep them clean. Your toothbrush just hits everything better. It's life-changing. It's wonderful.