It is time to check in with Casey’s Invisalign treatment and her progress. It is hard to believe that Casey is now just 2 months away from complete her active phase of treatment. Casey has had some exciting progress over the past month, with treatment for the lower arch complete! Casey herself was surprised at the difference straightening the lower arch has made, making a comment that she didn’t release the lower front teeth were as crowded as they were. As you can see from the before and after photo below, you can see clearly just how much movement she has had over the past 8 months of treatment.
Now that the teeth in the lower arch are straight and well aligned, Casey was able to have the attachments- the white ‘anchors’ that are attached to the front of certain teeth to help guide movement through invisalign treatment- removed and has now moved into her retention phase. For Casey this means that she now wears retainers- very similar to her aligners, every night to hold the teeth position. However, if some cases, full time wear, similar to the aligners can be recommended for the first 6 months depending on your individual case. Retention is vital to the success of Invisalign treatment, without it teeth can relapse, meaning they move towards their position prior to Invisalign, undoing all the hard work to move them. If retainers are lost, it is important to come in to have them replaced. With all Invisalign treatment, two sets of retainers are given. 
So where does Casey go from here? Casey has just 4 aligners remaining to focus on making the final movements in the upper teeth. In particularly her front tooth which inspired her Invisalign journey. Casey has been very compliant with her aligner wear and is on track to complete her active treatment in February.
With Casey being in a unique position, going through Invisalign treatment herself, as well as being treatment coordinator at Dentalspa Geelong, she often speaks to clients who are interested in Invisalign treatment. She wanted to share with you the most common questions she gets asked and from a personal perspective, what she has found during her Invisalign Journey.
- Casey often gets asked if you can eat and drink with the aligners in. While she admits is can often be an inconvenience, aligners should be removed when eating and drinking anything other than water. It means aligners won’t stain as much and won’t break due to forces used to chew. Casey found after a while it didn’t bother her to do this and became part of her routine.
- The length of wear is often asked and this is a very important point to emphasis. Aligners must be worn 22 hours a day in order to have most effect. If worn less than this, treatment time will increase and treatment results will be compromised. If this bothers you, you may be best suited to more fixed alternatives, which are available at Dentalspa Geelong.
- Lastly, clients often ask about comfort during Invisalign treatment. Casey did find the first couple of days a challenge getting use to the aligners and speaking but throughout the months that have followed has been very comfortable. She finds if there is some discomfort with the aligners she can use a nail file board to remove any extra material.
Our next blog will be looking at Casey’s final results. Once treatment is completed, Casey will be looking at improving the aesthetics of her front tooth with a crown. Stay tuned blog readers, we are so excited to share with you the final steps in Casey’s journey soon.
Return to blog