invisible braces attached to a dental modelPeople who are thinking about getting their teeth straightened often have a couple of really important requirements. They want their teeth to look as good as possible while they are being straightened, and they want to suffer as little pain as possible during the treatment process. Both of these requirements are easily met by one treatment device in Richmond: Invisalign.

In Richmond, Invisalign is different from traditional braces in that it does not do its straightening work by pulling at the teeth with wires strung through brackets. Invisalign, which is available from accredited dentists such as Sheen Dental, gently pushes the teeth using built-in pressure points in mouth guard-style aligners.

Aligners look like those things people wear at night or during sports to protect their teeth. The ones from Invisalign are much thinner, only 0.3mm, and made from transparent plastic. The plastic is smooth against the gums and inner cheek, so it does not rub or cause soresto develop.

Invisalign works really well on most mild to moderate misalignments and on average treatment takes 12 months.

The Invisalign process

The dentist takes hundreds of pictures of the gums and teeth using a hand-held scanner, and these appear on a nearby monitor as a 3D representation of the teeth. The dentist can then run those details through a programme that shows how the teeth will need to be moved to reach alignment. This means the patient gets to see how their teeth will look once they are all lined up, which can be very inspiring.

All that information goes to the Invisalign laboratory in the US, where an incremental series of aligners are 3D printed. How many each patient gets depends on their individual alignment issues, and also what Invisalign treatment they choose. Generally speaking, the patient wears each aligner for 7-10 days. On day one, the aligners will feel as if they don’t fit, and that’s the pressure points that will move the teeth. By about day 10, the pressure will have worn off and it will be time to move on to the next set of aligners in the series.