Although it’s easier to maintain your oral hygiene with clear aligners than braces, clear aligner treatment still introduces some challenges in your oral care routine. But don’t worry: it’s nothing you can’t handle. With a little extra time and effort, you can maintain excellent oral hygiene while working toward the smile you’ve always wanted.
In this guide, we’ll explain how clear aligners can complicate your oral hygiene, and offer some tips for keeping your mouth in tip-top shape throughout your clear aligner journey.
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How Do Clear Aligners Complicate Oral Hygiene?
Clear aligners add a few complications to maintaining great oral hygiene. For one thing, aligners create a barrier between your teeth and your biological housekeeper, saliva. Saliva helps wash away plaque and bacteria from your teeth. Aligner treatments typically require 22 hours of aligner wear a day, which is a considerable amount of time to be without such an important ally.
If you have poor oral hygiene, 22 hours a day of aligner wear gives plaque a chance to wear through your tooth’s enamel and irritate your gums without intervention. Depending on your aligner provider and the severity of your condition, treatments typically range from 6 months to 18 months — which is plenty of time for a small problem to become more serious.
The good news is that 6-18 months is also plenty of time to develop excellent oral hygiene habits that keep your mouth healthy and give you a smile you’re proud of. Poor oral hygiene is not inevitable with clear aligner treatment. Let’s take a look at the ways in which you can rise to the occasion and keep your teeth clean from start to finish during your clear aligner treatment.
Tips For Keeping Your Teeth Clean With Clear Aligners
Though clear aligner treatment does add certain challenges to maintaining great oral hygiene, that doesn’t mean a healthy smile is impossible. Try out these tips to keep your smile clean during your treatment.
1. Follow Your Provider’s Advice
Every clear aligner provider makes their clear aligners slightly differently. So each provider has somewhat different advice when it comes to which products are best suited for their aligners. Be sure to follow their guidance and recommendations so that you can find the best possible match for your particular clear aligners.
2. Clean Your Aligners Daily
Your aligners will need to be cleaned every day. Use a gentle soap to softly brush your aligners with a separate toothbrush that the one you use on your teeth. Don’t use toothpaste on your aligners, as this is usually too harsh for the aligner material. You may also use a gentle denture cleaner to ensure your aligners are clean and healthy for your mouth.
3. Soak Your Aligners
Soak your aligners in a solution to rid them of bacteria and ensure they don’t get cloudy from plaque. Talk to your provider about which soaking method is best for your particular brand of aligners. Invisalign sells cleaning crystals for this purpose, but there are plenty of other options, and even simple home recipes you can try (with your provider’s approval).
Typically your aligners should soak for about 15-20 minutes. Talk to your provider about how often you should soak your aligners, whether daily, weekly, or somewhere in between.
4. Brush After Every Meal
Brushing after every meal may not have been a part of your typical oral care routine prior to braces treatment. It can take some time to get used to this added layer of oral care.
Be sure to factor in this extra time when you’re planning your day. Set yourself up for success by setting aside a few extra minutes on your lunch break to brush your teeth. If you accept in advance that you will have these added daily time commitments, it’s much easier to incorporate them into your lifestyle.
5. Bring Your Toothbrush to Work
It can be difficult to remember to pack your toothbrush anytime you leave the house. Our recommendation? Buy a second toothbrush and tube of toothpaste, and stash these in your tote, backpack, or purse, so that you’re always prepared without having to spend too much time thinking about it.
6. Floss Daily
Flossing is always an important aspect of any oral care routine, but especially during clear aligner treatment. If you miss a flossing, plaque has the chance to stay in between your teeth without saliva’s intervention.
If you struggle to permanently incorporate flossing into your schedule, try to find ways to simplify the process as much as possible. You can purchase flossers at any drug store, which are small plastic devices loaded with floss. These devices allow you to floss with only one hand, and do so more quickly.
7. Use Mouthwash
Mouthwash is no replacement for brushing and flossing, but is considered a good addition to your oral care routine. Daily use of mouthwash can wash away plaque and dislodge food particles trapped in your braces. It can also freshen your breath which is certainly a nice perk. Just be sure not to use a mouthwash with a colored dye, as this could stain your aligners.
8. Clean Your Tongue
You know that plaque can live on your teeth, but did you know it can also live on your tongue? Your tongue’s surface is filled with crevices and grooves that are perfect hiding places for plaque and bacteria. For this reason, it’s essential to add tongue brushing to your normal tooth brushing routine.
With toothpaste, brush your tongue from back to front a few times, and rinse with water when complete. You can also purchase a tongue scraper, which is an inexpensive device sold at most drug stores. Just gently scrape your tongue from back to front a few times to get rid of the plaque.
9. Embrace Fluoride
Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral that protects your tooth’s enamel. There are a few different ways you can include fluoride in your oral hygiene routine. For one thing, drinking more tap water. Most tap water in the U.S. has fluoride in it, so you may be getting a healthy amount of fluoride and its protective benefits already.
For even more enamel protection, you can choose toothpastes and mouthwashes that include fluoride. You can also talk to your dentist about fluoride treatments. These treatments are applied directly to your teeth and contain a higher concentration of fluoride than your tap water or toothpaste, and must be applied by your dentist.
10. Regular Dentist Appointments
A dentist appointment every 6 months is a crucial aspect of your overall oral health. These cleanings can help remove any plaque you may be missing with your own brushing and flossing. This adds an element of oversight to your overall treatment, so if an oral hygiene issue arises, your dentist can catch it before it becomes more serious. This level of oversight can help you avoid invasive procedures and expensive dental bills later on.
11. Choose Nutritious Foods
You probably already know that sugar is bad for your teeth, but do you know why? When we eat foods with high sugar content (particularly foods with added sugar) these sugars turn into acids in our plaque that wear through our tooth’s protective enamel.
Sugars aren’t the only culprit. When we eat starchy, processed foods like potato chips, our bodies convert these foods into sugars — which are then converted into acids that attack our enamel.
The good news is there are many foods that you can include in your diet that actually help you maintain great oral hygiene. Whole, plant foods are high in fiber and water content and a great addition to any diet. Foods with a high fiber content require more chewing, which increases saliva production. Saliva helps wash plaque off your teeth — so the more, the better.
Similarly, the high water content of whole plant foods helps contribute to your overall hydration, which also helps saliva production.
12. Quit Smoking
Smoking can cause many serious health issues, and your oral health is no exception. Smoking makes plaque and tartar build up more likely, which makes maintaining oral hygiene even more challenging. Smoking also makes tooth decay and gum disease more likely, which in extreme cases can result in tooth loss.
If you do choose to smoke during your aligner treatment, just know that if you smoke while wearing your aligners, your aligners will become yellowed and stained.
Risks of Poor Oral Hygiene During Clear Aligner Treatment
We all know that striving for excellent oral hygiene is important. But sometimes it can be hard to remember what is at stake with our oral health. Here are some reminders of what you can help prevent by maintaining great oral hygiene during your clear aligner treatment.
Tooth Decay
Tooth decay is a process in which your enamel is worn through by plaque and bacteria. Once acids have worn through your enamel, they start to create holes in your teeth — called cavities. You can get your cavities treated at the dentist with filings to prevent the cavity from going deeper.
If a cavity is left untreated, it can continue to dig into deeper layers of your tooth, causing further problems. Once a cavity has made its way into the deepest layer of your tooth (the pulp) it can cause a bacterial infection and create a pus filled sac called an abscess. In this case, you may end up needing a root canal or tooth extraction.
Gum Issues
Poor oral hygiene also affects your gums. Plaque that stays up at your gumline can cause irritation and swelling — also known as gingivitis Gingivitis is common and reversible, but it’s also the beginning stage of gum disease — which can become much more serious if left untreated.
Gum (or “periodontal”) disease can be the result of poor oral hygiene. During gum disease, your gums gradually recede away from your tooth, creating pockets which can house bacteria and plaque. Without intervention, gum disease can eventually result in tooth and bone loss.
Final Thoughts
Prioritizing your oral hygiene during clear aligner treatment may take some getting used to, but with the tips we’ve outlined above, we’re confident you will be able to maintain a healthy smile during your treatment (and afterwards, too!).
Frequently Asked Questions
Do clear aligners make cavities more likely?
Clear aligners add some challenges to maintaining great oral hygiene, and when you have poor oral hygiene, cavities can start to form. This doesn’t mean clear aligners are directly causing cavities, it just means you’ll need to be more vigilant with your oral hygiene during aligner treatment. Compared to traditional braces, cavities are less likely with clear aligners.
Can I get a cavity filled during clear aligner treatment?
Getting a cavity filled during clear aligner treatment can be a little tricky, since aligners are shaped to the exact fit of your tooth. If your new filling changes the silhouette of your tooth, then you’d need to have new aligners manufactured, which can take time and adds to your total cost.
How does someone know if they have gingivitis?
Usually gingivitis shows itself with inflamed, red, gums that bleed when you brush your teeth or floss. But sometimes gingivitis sneaks by unnoticed. Your dentist can take a look at your gums to better determine whether or not you have gingivitis. No matter what, it certainly can’t hurt to start maintaining great oral hygiene to keep gingivitis at bay.
Is gingivitis reversible?
Gingivitis can usually be reversed with good oral hygiene. A visit to your dentist can help remove any plaque or tartar on your teeth. Coupled with great brushing and flossing habits, your gingivitis should soon be reversed.
How frequently will I need to change my aligners?
Usually a treatment plan will have you changing to a new set of aligners every 1–2 weeks.
What happens if I stain my aligners?
Unfortunately, you won’t have very many options if your aligners become stained. Your provider doesn’t usually have backups of your aligners in stock, so a new one would need to be manufactured, which can take time and delay your treatment. You’ll likely need to finish the two week period of that aligner, even if you aren’t crazy about the color.
Should I soak my aligners in mouthwash?
Your aligner provider should have the final word on this, but generally it isn’t a good idea to soak aligners in mouthwash. Mouthwash can have harsh ingredients which can harm or damage your aligners.
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