If you’re considering straightening your teeth with orthodontic treatment, you’re probably deciding between traditional metal braces and Invisalign. You know that Invisalign aligners are more attractive than metal braces as they are practically invisible, but do they work as well? Are these clear plastic aligners as effective as people say? Here, we will share our thoughts on the most significant benefits of using Invisalign instead of regular braces.
Invisalign is a great choice for adults seeking discrete orthodontic treatment. They offer clear, comfortable solutions that allow patients to achieve beautiful smiles while receiving orthodontic treatment. For many people, however, the thought of having braces makes them cringe, especially since they think about how unattractive they might look while wearing traditional metal brackets and wires. Luckily, there are options for those who don’t want to go down that path.
If you’re considering Invisalign, ask yourself why you’d like to straighten your smile. Is it because you feel self-conscious around others with braces or you want straighter teeth? If you think you could benefit from straightening your teeth discretely, you’ll likely find that Invisalign is a perfect fit for you. While they aren’t quite invisible, most people will generally not notice unless you are inches away from them.
Braces aren’t just uncomfortable; they can actually cause harm to your teeth and gums. Brackets and wires often trap tiny bits of food or debris, causing plaque buildup and tooth decay.
However, with Invisalign, there’s no risk of trapping food particles in your mouth. That’s because Invisalign allows you to eat whatever you want—including your favorite foods or messy or sticky foods. In fact, one of the great things about Invisalign is that you can treat yourself to all sorts of fun foods while wearing your aligners! You can even snack on popcorn while watching movies or TV. You just have to take extra care to clean your mouth out well after eating, and then make sure that you clean your aligners as well.
The benefits of Invisalign include easy removal, no wires, less chance of damage to tooth enamel, and they are much more comfortable . Invisalign uses clear plastic trays that fit over the upper and lower sets of teeth. In the event you need to take them off to eat, or for something else, you’ll pop them out, and when you’re ready to continue treatment, you’ll put them back.
One of the many challenges of traditional braces is that it’s often hard to tell when a bracket or wire come undone. You can reduce the chances of this happening by following your orthodontist’s guidelines for food avoidance, but most patients still experience at least one broken bracket during treatment. Finding time in your schedule to get it replaced is inconvenient, but trying to get away with not replacing it until your next appointment may prolong your overall orthodontic treatment time and may cause injury within your mouth.
With Invisalign, you get the same great results as traditional braces without the pain, inconvenience or price tag of getting an emergency appointme
If you have crooked teeth, missing teeth, gum disease (as long as it’s under control), fillings, TMJ problems, or dental crowns and are looking for an alternative to traditional metal braces, Invisalign might be a good choice for you. Since the aligners are removable, you’ll be able to more easily maintain excellent oral hygiene to prevent any issues from progressing, or receive treatment without having to work around metal braces
Unlike traditional braces, which can be difficult to maintain and care for and often require you to alter your normal oral routine, Invisalign trays are easy to clean and store, so you can get back to living your life without having to worry about whether or not your orthodontic treatment is interfering with your daily routine. To care for your aligners, just wash them in the morning when you wake up and just before you sleep, and you’re done!
If you’re looking for a way to straighten your teeth, you’ve got options. You can get traditional braces, which require you to wear the metal brackets for up to two years—that’s a long time to be wearing something on your teeth. Or you could try Invisalign aligners, which are made of clear plastic and don’t require any metal brackets or wires. With Invisalign aligners, you’ll notice results in as little as 12 months.* Your orthodontist or dentist will discuss the average treatment time with you based on the type of treatment required.
If your teeth are improperly spaced or overcrowded, you are that much more likely to end up with gum disease at some point in the future. Alternatively, if the teeth are positioned exactly where they should be, the gums will fit nice and firm around the teeth, creating a robust barrier against infections.
With straight teeth and healthy gums, you not only look better but also preserve your natural teeth for life. Invisalign helps you resolve orthodontic issues, such as bad breath and tooth sensitivity. And by preventing more serious problems from developing by improving your overall dental health, it can also save you from tooth loss.
Invisalign treatment is often covered by dental insurance plans the same way braces are covered. Your insurance may pay for a certain percentage of your Invisalign treatment, or it may pay for a certain dollar amount. Some plans also have lifetime caps on orthodontic coverage. If you’re unsure how much your dental insurance covers, contact your insurance provider to find out how much they will cover.
One of the many benefits of Invisalign is it can treat a wide variety of orthodontic issues. This includes everything from crooked teeth, overbite, underbite, crossbite, crowding, spacing, and misalignment to even problems like bite issues or jaw problems.
To clean your Invisalign aligner, we suggest using a soft-bristled toothbrush to brush your aligner. Gently brush the outside edges of your aligners after each meal; this ensures that your aligners are free of tiny particles that can cause odor. In addition to brushing your aligners, you can also soak your aligners in the tray using a solution called Steraligner. To clean your aligners with this method, you will place them in the tray and soak them in lukewarm water for 3-5 minutes. After 3-5 minutes, rinse the cleaning solution off and brush the trays with room temperature water. For detailed steps on how to clean your aligner, click this link.
As your local dentist near the Allen and Fairview areas, we are here to help you with any questions or concerns that you might have about achieving the perfect smile. If you want to learn more about the Invisalign process, other orthodontic treatment options, or have questions about treating misaligned teeth, feel free to contact us for a consultation appointment, and we’ll be happy to help with your smile goals. To schedule your initial consultation, contact Sloan Creek Dental, and our friendly staff will be happy to assist you. You can reach us at our Fairview, TX dental office to schedule an in-person consultation with us today – 972-468-1440.
Our dental office is located in Fairview, Texas, and our patients visit us from across the surrounding areas, including Allen, Plano, McKinney, and Lucas.
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside of it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to