Chapel Hill Invisalign Braces

Invisalign is a series of clear, removable teeth aligners that both orthodontists and dentists use as an alternative to traditional metal dental braces. As of April 2008, more than 730,000 patients have completed or are currently in treatment.
Invisalign is designed, manufactured, and marketed by Santa Clara-based medical-device company Align Technology, Inc. As of January 29, 2008, Align Technology has manufactured more than 32 million aligners. The company has 133 patents. You can visit their website to learn more about Invisalign teeth aligners.

Reasons to use Invisalign

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The most obvious advantage of the treatment is cosmetic: the aligners are completely transparent, therefore far more difficult to detect than traditional wire and bracket braces.  In addition, the aligners are marketed as being more comfortable than braces.  A few members of our staff that have been in both traditional braces and Invisalign concur with this claim made by Align technologies. 
 
Clinically, aligners avoid many of the side effects of traditional fixed appliances.  Demineralisation or tooth decay occurs in many traditional wire and bracket braces because they cannot be removed for eating and cleaning, and because they prevent accurate x-rays from being taken. Patients “graduate” to a new set of aligners in their treatment series approximately every two weeks. The aligners give less force per week and less pain than do fixed appliances (traditional metal braces). Fixed appliances are adjusted approximately every six weeks and apply greater forces.
 
Aligners should be removed to eat, drink, to clean the teeth, or to have them checked by the clinician. Because you remove the aligners, you are not limited to what you eat. (It is acceptable to wear aligners while drinking water.) Computerized treatment planning is compulsory as part of the Invisalign protocol. As with other forms of orthodontic treatments that incorporate a computerized plan, this allows the prospective patient to review the projected smile design, learn how long the treatment is likely to take, compare different plans, and make a more educated decision about whether or not to use Invisalign.

Invisalign Treatment

We begin by taking dental impressions, x-rays and photographs of the patient’s teeth and sending them to Align Technology. The impressions are put through a CT scan from which a computer creates a three-dimensional model. Technicians then individualize the teeth in the computer model and move them to their final position as prescribed by the dentist. Custom software then simulates the movement of the teeth in stages. The dentist reviews the simulation online using Align Technology’s ClinCheck via a web browser and approves or modifies the treatment. Once approved, a plastic resin aligner is manufactured for each stage of the computer simulation and shipped to the dentist.
 
Average treatment time is about one year, again depending on the complexity of the treatment. Simple treatments (minor crowding, minor spacing) may be as short as twenty weeks—this is known as the “Invisalign Express” program. Although the aligners are removable, they must be worn at least 20 to 22 hours per day to avoid delaying the treatment process. If they are not worn consistently, treatment time will increase.

After the regular aligner or braces treatment is complete, retainers composed of a similar plastic material are required to be worn normally only at night. Like other orthodontic systems, the patient has some flexibility. The final position of the teeth is not completely determined by the last aligner. If the patient wants to change the end position because the actual position is not optimal, new aligners are ordered, which are usually included in the originally quoted cost, called a ‘Refinement.’