3 Things to Be Aware of When Getting Clear Aligners

Clear aligners are a highly popular orthodontic solution available today, that seems set to almost completely overshadow and supplant traditional braces as time goes on.

For anyone who’s after straight teeth and a dazzling smile, there are plenty of great benefits to using clear aligners instead of traditional braces — ranging from the fact that they can be better for your teeth, to the fact that they are often “invisible” when you’re out and about.

Here are a few things to be aware of if you’re considering getting clear aligners in the near future. 

You’ll need to carefully time how long you have them out for each day

One area — and perhaps the only area — where clear aligners are more work than traditional braces, is with regards to carefully timing how long you have them out for each day.

Depending on the degree of alignment you need, you may be asked to wear your clear aligners for up to 23 hours a day — and if you decide to completely disregard the time you’ve been told to keep them in for, your teeth are susceptible to drift and the entire process may go nowhere.

For more minor alignment jobs, you may only need to wear your clear aligners for a handful of hours a day, or to only sleep with them in. But either way, it’s important to be aware that this key wellness-boosting benefit of clear aligners — that you can take them out to eat and drink and brush your teeth — also comes with an added need for diligence.

They can be a lot better for your teeth than traditional braces

While traditional braces work well for many people, they also end up causing significant problems for many other people.

One of the ways in which clear aligners are much better than traditional braces is that they are easily removable. This means that you can clean your teeth as usual when having your teeth aligned with these devices, therefore reducing the serious risk of staining and tooth decay that accompanies conventional braces in many cases.

Clear aligners, due to how they move teeth, can also offer great alignment in many cases without the need for tooth extraction. Traditional braces often require teeth to be removed to create sufficient space.

You can eat and drink what you like — but you can’t eat or drink anything but water while the aligners are in

With traditional braces, you have to be very careful about what you eat, as a rule — because certain foods can damage your braces or become stuck and cause tooth decay.

With clear aligners, you can eat and drink whatever you like — because you take out the aligners to eat and drink.

The caveat here is that you must not eat or drink anything except water when you have your clear aligners in, as trying to do so can cause a lot of problems.

But with clear aligners being so easy to remove when it’s time to eat or drink, this is just a matter of adjusting your habits.