I live way out in the boonies and, while I love country living, I have to drive over two hours one way to get to a dentist who does Invisalign. I’m very excited about the prospect of getting my teeth straight after all these years, I’m just wondering how often I have to go to the dentist for the aligners. I read that you switch them out every two weeks. That will be a bit of a hardship for me. If that is the case, would it hurt my treatment to go longer between aligners?
Melody
Dear Melody,
As long as you kept your Invisalign aligners in for the prescribed amount of time and kept it that way until you received your new aligners, it would not mess up your treatment per se. However, it would drastically slow down the results. The good news is I don’t believe that will be necessary for you. While you do change your aligners every two weeks. You generally only have to see your dentist once a month. They’ll check on your case and make sure everything is on track, then provide you with two sets of aligners. One you will wear starting then. The other you will start two weeks later.
Additionally, as long as your case doesn’t have any extenuating complications, you may even be able to go longer between visits. I would talk to the dentist who is providing your Invisalign for you and ask what his or her recommendation will be.
A Bonus Benefit with Invisalign
I don’t know if you have ever even wanted to do teeth whitening, but if you have you can save a lot of money doing it during your Invisalign treatment. The aligners can double as teeth whitening trays. Then, all the dentist would need to provide for you is the whitening gel. You would wear the gel in your aligners anywhere from 20 minutes a day up to overnight. It’s completely up to you.
Obviously, the more you wear the gel, the faster your teeth will whiten, but some people have more sensitive teeth than others. Don’t go beyond your tolerance. Your teeth will continue to whiten.
By the end of your Invisalign treatment, you will not only have a straight smile, but a bright, younger-looking, white one as well.
This blog is brought to you by La Jolla Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Stephen Doan.