Top Tips on Cleaning your Invisalign Aligners
When it comes to clear braces, cleaning your Invisalign aligners is just as important as cleaning your teeth. Picture them going hand in hand, with Invisalign helping you get those perfectly aligned teeth, ensuring you treat it to some good cleanliness can limit the chances of any tray braking, cracking or discolouring.
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How to clean your Invisalign braces
Keeping your Invisalign well-maintained is key. The best method is to soak them in a denture cleaner or an Invisalign cleaning product. It’s essential to set aside a toothbrush for scrubbing your aligner trays with precision and once a day soak them in your preferred cleaner and brush them. This will remove the dried saliva that is one of the common causes of cracking, food particles that can heighten your chances of decay and any dried material that might cause any discolouration or make your aligners smell bad. Be sure to rinse with water to avoid any unwanted aftertaste.
You may think that using toothpaste can be an easy and quick fix to cloudy aligners, however, using toothpaste can discolour the aligner even more as the ingredients in the toothpaste are too abrasive on the material of the aligner. To clean cloudy aligners, soak them in the Invisalign cleaning solution to remove the built-up saliva.
Clean your Invisalign when you wake up
You should be wearing your Invisalign aligners for the recommended 22 hours per day, which means you’ll be wearing them at night during your sleep. The best time to give your Invisalign the relevant attention it needs is when you wake up in the morning.
Remove your Invisalign braces and clean both trays thoroughly and as detailed as possible. Ensuring that you do this before having breakfast is essential otherwise you risk incubating bacteria in warm and wet areas where they love to breed which will eventually cause problems.
Remove your aligners to eat
You must always remove your Invisalign braces for meals and snacks. The trays are not designed to withstand the pressures of chewing or biting and can crack when put under that type of pressure. Food and drink particles that can stain your teeth, like coffee and curries, will also stain your Invisalign braces, so it’s always wise to remove them before drinking them. Drinking water with your Invisalign trays in is fine, but we recommend no other liquids.
Cleaning your teeth is a must
If you have just finished your meal and are about to pop your Invisalign aligners back in – stop. Cleaning your teeth before reinserting your Invisalign trays is very important because allowing food debris and sugars to remain trapped between your teeth, gums and aligners provides the perfect environment for spreading bacteria. This will not only cause visible deposits in your trays but will also increase the risk of cavities. There could be a possibility of producing bad breath as a result of all of this because of the bacteria’s respiration and breaking down of the food debris.
For advice on all things Invisalign including aftercare, maintenance or general advice please do not hesitate to get in touch with the team here at Loughborough Orthodontics today.
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