Finding A Great Dentist

Three Bad Habits To Avoid When Wearing Invisible Aligners

22 February 2016

Kenzi Thompson

Invisible aligners, sometimes known as clear dental aligners, are wonderful for straightening your teeth without the look of braces. However, they do require a bit more hands-on action from you during the treatment process. This gives you room to develop bad habits that can compromise how well invisible aligners work for you or cause you to have to wear your aligners for a longer period of time. Here's a look at the common bad habits you'll want to avoid:

Playing with the aligners with your tongue.

Some people find that they can slide the aligners in and out of place with their tongue. This is a bad idea, since whenever the aligner is not in place, it is not working to straighten your teeth. If you're a fidgeter, make sure you have another way to fidget so you can resist playing with your aligners. Playing with some modeling clay or squeezing a stress ball works well. You could also try doodling or twiddling your thumbs to keep yourself busy when you're bored.

Putting off changing the aligners.

When your dentist or orthodontist sends you home with a pack of aligners, he or she will tell you how often to change them. Far too many patients forget to change their aligners on time, doing so a day or two late. By this point, the aligner you're wearing has done all it can do. Forgetting to change it will stall your progress. Set a reminder in your phone so you don't forget to switch your aligners on the scheduled days.

Forgetting to put the aligners back in after eating.

You'll take your aligners out to eat, but you're meant to put them back in afterwards. Many patients forget to do this and end up walking around with their aligners in their pockets for a while before they remember to pop them back in. To avoid forgetting to put your aligners back in, ask those who you are eating with to remind you to do so after your meal. You can also set an alarm on your phone to ring a few minutes after you plan to finish a meal.

The more vigilant you are about keeping your aligner in place, putting  it back in promptly, and changing it on time, the better your results will be. Talk to your dentist if you have any questions about proper procedures when wearing invisible aligners. Contact a business, such as Smile 312: Harvey Jay Mahler DDS, for more information.   

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