Innovations for your Invisalign® Treatment: 3D Images

More and more patients are choosing an Invisalign® treatment over conventional orthodontic appliances for several reasons. The team here at Reopelle Orthodontics is proud to offer a wide range of options for orthodontic corrective treatments to our neighbors.

The field of dental health continues to innovate and present patients with various options that better suit their lifestyles. Using clear aligners is an excellent choice for many patients because it ensures that adults and teens receive the corrective treatment they need while maintaining a discrete profile.

Many patients also prefer Invisalign clear aligners to help with their overcrowding, overbites, and other orthodontic conditions because they are removable. Having removable trays, even if you should be using them anywhere between 20 to 22 hours per day, has some perks. You can take off your aligners to eat, brush your teeth, and floss.

You will also have fewer dietary restrictions because you won’t have bonded appliances that can break when you eat hard or crunchy foods.

But innovations in orthodontic treatment like Invisalign aligners aren’t just about these advantages. The entire experience of coming to the Roanoke orthodontist is quite different now. We would like to focus today on the beginning of your journey toward a healthy and well-aligned smile. We want to focus on your initial visit to start the treatment.

How Is the Experience Different With Invisalign Treatment?

It all began with that first appointment with your orthodontist. Dental health professionals need a model of your teeth to develop a strategy that can efficiently fix your orthodontic problems. Yes, you know where we are going with this. Patients would patiently sit and wait for the orthodontist or their dental assistants to come with a mixture they had just prepared.

Do you remember that? It was a mixture that could look blue, purple, or pink. It tasted like rubber, and it was very uncomfortable. The impressions were necessary because the laboratory used them to personalize the appliances you needed. The models were instrumental in our work, and we had to be careful about the technique used during the impression.

So the staff mixed the ingredients, filled the trays, and in they went. They stretched your mouth open and pressed the trays against your teeth. Then, it was a matter of waiting for the mixture to harden. And then came the annoying part. The orthodontist had to pull the trays away from your teeth. Depending on how long they waited for the mixture to harden, they would need to use more or less force to take out the trays.

Keep in mind that all this was necessary. The models were a crucial part of the process, and many perfect smiles we have today wouldn’t have been possible without this initial step. Thankfully, things can get better over time, and this part of the journey is one such thing.

What Is It Like to Undergo Invisalign Treatment?

The future is now! Fortunately, advancements in technology have allowed for more comfortable procedures to become mainstream in the field of orthodontics. Digital intraoral scanners allow accurate and proficient impressions of a patient’s dental structures. If that sounds like a lot, just know this: digital scanners are more efficient and less uncomfortable.

We don’t need to bother the patient with these trays and difficult-to-handle materials. We just need to take a small device called Intraoral Wand and move it around the inside of our mouth. These devices take images with a laser and feed them to a processing unit that digitally constructs a representation of your mouth.

The process is relatively quick, and your orthodontist will get all the information they need about your teeth, arch, jaws, gums, and bite. We send this model to the laboratory at Invisalign, where they design the trays you need to correct your orthodontic problem. Invisalign sends us the product, and you can begin treatment in a short time.

So Scanners Are Better, Right?

Yes. Next question.

No, really, scanners make the entire process much more comfortable. The idea is to innovate constantly. Devices like these digital scanners make orthodontic solutions more efficient. We can shorten visits by up to 20 minutes, which means a lot for patients with busy schedules.

Scanning is also significantly better than traditional impressions of your teeth made with polyvinyl siloxane (PVS) materials. There were occasions when the models would break in transit, translating into much frustration for both the orthodontist and the patient.

Laser accuracy provides a much more reliable result when creating models of the patient’s mouth. Some systems even allow us to preview the movements planned for the patient’s case, which never ceases to amaze us. The patient can finally see what type of changes to expect during this journey.

When Do We Start?

Get in contact with our office to set up your initial evaluation. We know you won’t feel uncomfortable because we aim to leverage all safe-to-use innovations to give you a better overall experience.

We hope to see you soon and help you to find that perfect and healthy smile you want and deserve.