Invisible teeth straightening
Teeth Straightening and Invisalign® El Cajon
Dr. Anke Beyer-Jordan is our in-house orthodontist at Rancho San Diego Dental Group in El Cajon. Dr. Beyer-Jordan is trained to deal with complex cases, both through the use of clear aligners, or traditional braces. She has decades of experience, and has straightened the teeth of thousands of happy patients.
There is a common misperception that any dentist can use clear aligner technology to straighten teeth. While it is true that the technology is available to all dentists, not all dentists have the experience and expertise to properly create a treatment plan that will correctly straighten teeth without complications. Like with all things in life, practice and repetitions matter.
Do you or your teenager have crooked teeth? With Invisalign®, ClearCorrect™ and other clear aligning systems we can straighten your teeth and enhance your smile without metal braces. These teeth straightening systems use clear plastic aligners to straighten teeth. Best of all, they are almost undetectable.
How Invisalign® and ClearCorrect™ work
Both advanced systems use clear, virtually invisible aligners to straighten teeth. Aligners are comfortable custom-fit plastic trays that fit closely over your teeth. Taking care of your aligners is easy: you just take them out when you want to eat or brush and floss your teeth.
The aligners are designed to move your teeth gradually into their desired position by changing them on a scheduled basis. You’ll visit Dr. Nathan Christensen periodically to check on your progress and get a new set of aligners, until you eventually have the straight smile you desire.
Conditions Invisalign® and ClearCorrect™ treat
These alternatives to braces are for patients who have complete jaw growth and full adult dentition, and are effective on a broad range of cases. Even teenagers can benefit from these advanced teeth straightening systems.
- Overly crowded teeth
- Widely spaced teeth, gaps
- Crossbite—Some of your top teeth go under the bottom teeth
- Overbite—Your upper teeth bite over the lower teeth
- Underbite—Your lower teeth are protruding past the edge of your upper teeth
Advantages of Clear Aligners over other methods of teeth straightening
There are many advantages to using clear aligners as compared to standard braces. These include:
- Clear aligners are virtually invisible
- Easy to keep your teeth clean—just pop the aligners out
- Aligners are removable when needed
- As the aligners are removable, you can eat whatever you want
- Less mouth irritation as there are no wires!
- Fewer doctor visits
The Invisalign Process
Living with misaligned teeth can have a huge impact on your life. Not only can it cause other oral health concerns, but it can harm your self-esteem and cause you to hide behind your hand whenever you smile or laugh.
Traditional orthodontic braces can help to correct misalignment issues, but wearing them as an adult is understandably embarrassing. The good news is, Invisalign provides an attractive alternative that offers the same benefits as braces with none of the drawbacks.
The process begins with a consultation to find out if you’re a good candidate for Invisalign. If you are, impressions of your teeth will be taken in order to create a plan for care and craft your custom invisible aligner trays.
These BPA-free, removable aligner trays will fit perfectly over your teeth, so as not to cause irritation or cut the soft tissues of your mouth, as braces are prone to. You’ll have to wear them 22 hours each day to gain the full benefits, but unlike traditional braces, you can remove them to eat and clean your teeth.
Depending on your personalized plan, you will upgrade to a new set of aligners approximately every couple of weeks, but unlike braces, you won’t have to schedule an appointment with your orthodontist for adjustments every three weeks. Instead, you’ll have check-ups at approximately 6-week intervals just to make sure your alignment is progressing as planned.
Within as little as about six months, depending on your particular case, you could have the perfectly straight smile you’ve always dreamed of, thanks to custom Invisalign clear aligner trays. As with braces, you may have to wear a retainer afterward to ensure that your teeth don’t shift back to previous positioning, but these can typically be worn at night, while you sleep, to maintain your beautiful, straight smile for life.
Invisalign | Teeth Straightening | El Cajon, CA
Misalignment and other orthodontic issues can lead to problems with your oral health, and they can do a lot of damage to your self-esteem as well. It’s difficult to feel confident in yourself when you lack confidence in your smile.
Of course, you can always go with traditional braces if you’re looking for a teeth straightening treatment that can address all your orthodontic issues.
However, that solution is not for everyone, particularly if you’re older than the typical person who might have braces. A mouth full of metal can make you even more self-conscious about your smile than you were before you even had braces.
Fortunately, Dr. Anke Beyer-Jordan and the team at Rancho San Diego Dental Group offer an alternative option for anyone in El Cajon, CA, looking to straighten their teeth without traditional braces — Invisalign. Learn more about this comfortable, discreet, and highly effective teeth straightening treatment to decide whether it’s right for you.
What Is Invisalign?
Invisalign is the name of a popular brand of clear plastic aligners. Clear aligners are an orthodontic treatment that can straighten teeth and address other minor issues much like braces do, only they offer a few distinct advantages over the traditional method.
Clear aligners are removable, meaning they don’t interfere with eating or oral care the way metal braces can. They’re also designed to be as undetectable as possible, so just about the only people who will know about your orthodontic treatment will be you, your orthodontist, and anyone you choose to tell.
Another big advantage of clear aligners is that they’re more comfortable than metal braces, which have brackets and wires that interfere with your eating and speaking and can make your mouth sore.
While Invisalign may not be perfectly comfortable at all times, there’s always the option to remove your aligners for a little break, whereas braces cannot be removed until treatment is complete.
What Can Invisalign Fix?
While braces are actually the more versatile teeth straightening treatment, there are several orthodontic issues Invisalign is capable of addressing, and it can do so with greater comfort and discretion. Those orthodontic issues include the following:
- Tooth crowding
- Gaps in teeth
- Misalignment
- Crossbite
- Overbite
- Underbite
- Open bite
There are certain instances in which orthodontic issues are too complicated or severe to be treated with clear aligners. For this reason, you should speak with your dentist to determine whether you’re a good candidate for Invisalign. Schedule a consultation appointment today to get started.
How Invisalign Works
If you see your dentist for a consultation and they determine you’d be a good candidate for Invisalign treatment, you can expect the following steps over the course of your treatment:
Creating a Treatment Plan
Every teeth straightening treatment will be slightly different, which is why your dentist will need to create a personalized treatment plan for you when you receive clear aligners. To do this, they’ll use x-rays, impressions, and other imaging techniques to get a full 3-D picture of the state of your smile and then send it to Invisalign.
Invisalign techs will then use that 3-D model to determine what adjustments need to be made in order to give you the beautiful symmetrical smile you’re looking for. Once that’s done, they’ll get to work creating your clear aligners. This process can take a few weeks to a month.
Wearing the Aligners
Once the aligners are complete, you’ll return to our office to receive them. Invisalign works by providing you with a set of several clear aligner trays.
Each aligner is slightly different from the ones before and after it, and they’re designed to slowly shift your teeth into the proper position over the course of several months. You’ll wear each tray for about two weeks before switching to the next one.
Although they are removable and can be taken out at any given time, you need to wear your aligners as often as possible to speed up the straightening process and prevent any regression. Aligners should be worn for about 22 hours a day, generally only being removed to eat, drink, and do your daily oral hygiene.
The length of time required to straighten your teeth will depend on the specifics of your case, but typically, you can anticipate your treatment lasting somewhere between a year and 18 months. However, sometimes it can actually be significantly shorter than that, with some cases only requiring six months of treatment.
Checking in with Your Dentist
During the teeth straightening process, you’ll periodically check in with us to ensure everything is going according to plan. Should any issues arise, we can address them promptly to keep you on the right track.
When you’ve completed your last tray, you’ll come back into the office so we can see if your treatment is completed as anticipated. It’s not totally uncommon for your smile to be just a few small steps away from symmetrical perfection, in which case we’ll prescribe a few extra trays to get it where you’d hoped it would be.
Wearing a Retainer
After treatment, you’re not totally in the clear, as there’s still a chance your teeth can shift back toward their original place over time.
To prevent this, we’ll prescribe a retainer that you will wear for the next few months. The retainer will keep your teeth in place and give your jawbone some time to adjust and develop around the new area your teeth now occupy.
Enjoy Your Beautiful New Smile!
You’re now the proud owner of the smile you’ve always wanted. Your dentist will suggest that you continue to wear your retainer periodically to help your teeth maintain their new position, but other than that, all you need to do to protect your new smile is the usual — brush, floss, mind your diet, and see your dentist twice a year.
Invisalign in El Cajon, CA
If you’re interested in receiving Invisalign in El Cajon, CA, contact Rancho San Diego Dental Group today to schedule your consultation.
