I am at the tail end of my Invisalign treatment. My dentist knew I was moving out of state and gave me the last two sets of my aligners. I haven’t had any problems thus far. Do I need to find another Invisalign dentist when I move or can I just use the aligners at their scheduled times without seeing another dentist to finish?
Brooke
Dear Brooke,
In most cases, Invisalign is fairly simple. You put on the aligners, wear them for two weeks, then switch them out. There are some, more complicated cases, where teeth have to be shaved a bit on the sides to make room. With other cases “buttons” are needed to help grip and shift the teeth.
If you don’t have any of these special cases and haven’t had any issues come up during your treatment, you should be fine. Though, if you decide you’d feel better with a dentist or if something unusual happens, there would likely only be a very minimal fee. Plus, your original dentist will send him all the diagnostics so you wouldn’t have to repeat all of that.
If you go it alone, there is something to be aware of. Regardless of the type of orthodontics you have done, it is necessary to wear a retainer for a period of time after your treatment.
Invisalign as a Retainer
The super good news is your last pair of aligners can serve as a retainer for you, so there wouldn’t be a need to have anything else made if you take careful care of them. Here is a suggested pattern for how and how long to wear a retainer after your treatment is completed.
I’d start off wearing them all the time for a period of one month. Then, for the next month wear them just at night. Then try every other night. You’ll want to make sure that is working. If it gets a little harder to put your retainer (or aligner) in, this means your teeth are shifting and you’ll want to go back to every night for a bit. If they are staying in place just fine, you can try once a week, bearing in mind that it doesn’t get harder to wear the retainer.
By the time you’re only wearing them at night, you should have found another dentist for your normal checkups and cleanings. After you get that initial check-up from your dentist, you can ask him or her for some teeth whitening gel. This is another benefit of Invisalign. Your aligners can double as teeth whitening trays. This will allow you to whiten your teeth, at a lower cost, while straightening them.
Best of luck on your move.
This blog is brought to you by Libertyville Dentist Dr. David Potts.