Braces Vs Invisalign

Crooked, unaligned, unevenly spaced teeth can put a damper on someone’s life. Self esteem and confidence can go right out of the window and much of your day can be spent feeling like a giant blinking sign is ordering people to stare at your teeth. Often this isn’t this case but wouldn’t it be great if you could just smile with confidence and not have to worry about it? Braces and Invisalign are a great solution.

Aside from personal hangups, if crooked teeth are left untreated can lead to oral health problems. The misalignment of teeth places stress on the teeth and jaws that the mouth wasn’t designed for.

Common types of misalignments include:

• crowding
• spacing
• deep bite
• open bite
• cross bite
• edge to edge bite
• excessive overbite

Unnatural stress and pressure leads to premature wear, causing chipping and notching of the gum line. Incorrectly biting down to over correct can lead to painful jaw pain that turn into earaches and headaches. Crooked teeth can also affect periodontal health because it is difficult to perform plaque removal from crowded area in the oral cavity. Bacteria that is not properly removed will multiply and trigger periodontal disease.

Braces or Invisalign?

Both braces and Invisalign were designed to straighten teeth while improving your smile and oral health. Customers first began using Invisalign in 2000, so this treatment does not yet have the same history as braces.

Braces consist of metal brackets being glued to your teeth, and tied together by wires and tiny rubber bands. Nowadays, you can get brackets to more closely match your enamel color (making them more discrete), or you can get them in color to make a fashion statement with your mouth!

Invisalign, on the other hand, is designed to be invisible. Aligner trays made of smooth, comfortable, BPA-free clear plastic are worn over your teeth to subtly and gently move your teeth. Your specialist will use X-rays, pictures, and impressions to create a precise 3-D image of your teeth and to configure your aligner trays accordingly.

What will work best for you?

Braces (irremovable)	vs	Invisalign (removable)
Metal-typically silver; can pay extra for color or enamel color	Color	Clear/invisible
24/7 for an average of 2 years, depending on patient needs	Treatment time	22-24 hrs/day for 6 to 18 months, depending on patient needs
$1,800-$5,500	Cost	Average of $5,000
Brush brackets and wires regularly while brushing teeth; water pick may be helpful.	Maintenance	Invisalign Cleaning system, or brushing and rinsing trays in luke warm water
About every month	Follow up visits	Change aligner trays every 2 weeks; visits every 4 to 6 weeks
Positioner or retainer likely needed ongoing, maybe only at night	Follow up to treatment	Positioner or retainer likely needed ongoing, maybe only at night
More effective for more complex issues No temptation to leave them out, so less self discipline is needed for success No extra cleaning steps required besides regular brushing and flossing	Pros	Invisible Removable No issues with food getting caught No difficulty eating No discomfort from wires
May have some pain, sores or discomfort from wires, brackets or tooth movement May have some tooth discoloration or breakage May have difficulty eating sticky, hard foods	Cons	May have discomfort from tooth movement Must remove before eating or drinking anything but water Must brush after each meal to avoid staining
Patients playing rough contact sports regularly	NOT ideal for	Patients with: bridgework back tooth bite issues the need to rotate canines or premolars the need to move teeth vertically lack of discipline to keep trays in for at least 22 hours daily

If you have any other questions or want to see what your options are come in to Dr. Chauvin’s office today!