922 Waltham St #202 Lexington, MA 02421
It used to be that aligning your smile meant a long treatment with wire and bracket braces that were both attention-grabbing and hard to clean, but today there’s another way. Invisalign clear aligners are the more discreet, comfortable, easier-to-clean way to straighten your teeth. Better still, most treatments with Invisalign complete faster than traditional braces, too, so you’ll be ready to showcase your beautiful new smile sooner than you may have ever thought possible!
Though Invisalign can give you the same beautiful, long-lasting results as traditional braces, how it achieves the end result is very different. With Invisalign, instead of wearing wires and brackets round the clock, you wear a series of custom-made clear aligners for 7 to 14 days, each one picking up where the previous one left off. Though they are completely removable, you’ll need to wear your trays for 22 hours each day, as they’ll only work while you’re wearing them. They can come off for meals and to clean your teeth and gums, but with consistent use in an average of just 12 to 18 months you can have the gorgeous smile you’ve been dreaming of!
Invisalign is ideal for smiles with mild to moderate cases of malocclusion. Most often, these discreet, comfortable trays are used to treat the following alignment issues:
Overcrowded arches can negatively impact the look, function and health of your smile, but Invisalign trays can gently guide your teeth into a more evenly spaced alignment, addressing crooked and overlapped teeth in the process.
Teeth that are spaced too far apart can negatively impact the appearance, function, and health of your smile, but Invisalign can gently guide them into a more appropriately spaced alignment.
Bite issues can not only negatively impact the look, function and oral health of your smile, but they can also make everyday activities like chewing and properly pronouncing words and sounds difficult. Invisalign trays can address many bite issues, including overbites, underbites, crossbites, and more.
There are many amazing benefits to Invisalign treatment when you compare it to traditional braces, including:
Invisalign is not a “one-size-fits-all” treatment, it’s customized to each individual patient, and therefore there is no flat rate for your care. To determine your exact cost, your dentist will need to take multiple factors into account, including the severity of your bite’s misalignment.
If you are interested in learning more about your exact cost, please contact Lexington Smile Studio and schedule a consultation, and we’ll happily go over all the details with you. Determining the price won’t be difficult for our team. We can not only get you an accurate estimate, but we can also help you review all of your financial options and make the whole process as stress free as possible!
The timeline for Invisalign in Lexington varies from patient to patient. This is why a consultation with our team is the first step. After examining your teeth and bite to determine the severity of your orthodontic problems, we will decide if you are a good candidate and how long we can expect treatment to take. This is based on your commitment to wearing your trays 20-22 hours a day, as well as your age and other similar factors.
The average timeframe for Invisalign is 12-18 months, but some individuals have achieved results in as little as six months.
Once you finish wearing traditional Invisalign aligners to shift your teeth into their proper place, your dentist will recommend the next phase, which is retention. This will require you to wear a custom-made retainer that looks similar to an Invisalign tray. Its purpose is to keep your pearly whites in their new place, so they do not begin to move back to their previous location.
Based on your case and needs, you will likely need to wear your retainer all the time in the beginning. However, as time passes, and your teeth become integrated with the surrounding bone and tissues, you may only need to wear it at night while you’re asleep.
It’s possible that you might develop a slight lisp when you first begin wearing Invisalign aligners; however, this is only temporary. As your tongue adjusts to pressing against the clear plastic, you will start to sound normal again, so do not worry that you will experience a speech impediment for long.
When comparing Invisalign to traditional braces, the level of discomfort seems to be far greater with metal brackets and wires. The reason is that every few weeks, the archwire must be tightened so that teeth will continue to move under forced pressure. However, Invisalign aligners require no adjustments or tightening. Instead, teeth will move with the help of continuous, gentle pressure, allowing them to form to each aligner’s design throughout treatment.
Minimal discomfort is expected because of tooth movement; however, this can be managed with an over-the-counter pain reliever and should subside within a few days.
Most patients can receive Invisalign even if they previously wore braces. However, a consultation with a member of our team is still required, as this is the only way to determine if the severity of your case can be treated with clear aligners. While some teeth only shift slightly over time, others may create new problems or need more advanced orthodontics to fix.
