Get Clear Aligners ONLY at a Dental Clinic & NOT At-home!
You must visit a dentist every 3 months for a thorough check-up while your Clear Aligner Treatment is going on.
Clear aligners or Invisible braces Treatment is an orthodontic treatment in which teeth are made straight or misalignments of teeth are corrected by wearing a sequence of invisible plastic trays. Lately there are a lot of brands of transparent braces available in India. Hence, it is very necessary that you are aware that the aligners are only a tool. The treatment is planned and conducted by your dentist. This makes in obvious that the dentist needs to monitor the progress of the treatment closely.
The dentist needs to regularly (at least once in 3 months) check if the teeth are moving as per the plan. The patient must visit the dental health centre to maintain perfect dental hygiene to ensure that there is no food lodgement due to the continuous wearing of aligners. This is also to make sure that if there are any caries or pits the corrective action can be taken immediately to avoid cavities.
There are some brands that provide home-shipped clear aligners. The issue with these aligner companies is that the dentist who visits you for the impression or the scan is only responsible for the scanning or impression taking procedure. The planning or design of the clear aligner treatment is done by technicians and then the aligners are delivered to you. These companies do not have clinics or doctors who will take responsibility for the movement of the teeth by the treatment duration since they are only provided a small fee for using their clinic as a contact point between the aligner patient and the at-home aligner company.
You will be wearing these aligners at least 18-20 hours every day. Hence there could be many minor issues that may require clinical intervention and monitoring. Eg. If you get a during the action of the treatment which is a high probability since you are wearing the aligner all the time. In such a case, the aligner company will not be able to attend the issue and the related fit issue of the aligners.
You may also experience tight fitting aligners which may cause short term pain in the middle of the treatment. If your treatment is being done under the consistent and regular monitoring and tracking of a qualified dentist (ideally every 3 months), the orthodontist will be able to solve these issues. However if you are getting the treatment from an at-home aligner company, you will face severe issues because your local dentist will not be willing to adjust his treatment with that of the aligner company.
Also, the aligners are made using standard algorithms which assume some speed and quantity of movement of teeth under the push from the plastic aligners. These assumptions may not be accurate hence, the rate of movement of teeth with the help of aligners may vary from person to person. When you are getting clear aligner therapy under the direct watch and monitoring of a qualified orthodontist, the dentist will make continuous tweaks to compensate for these small discrepancies due to the disparity between the assumed or planned and actual movement.
These are just some of the reasons which require that you are getting the clear aligner treatment done at a clinic and not at home. We sincerely recommend that all patients should get clear aligner treatment done only under the continuous and direct monitoring of a dentist at a dental clinic. At-home treatment and virtual treatment monitoring may leave you with permanent damage to your teeth resulting in pain and sometimes even loss of teeth.
To summarise, we would like to inform patients who are looking for invisible braces treatment or invisible braces the following important points for remember:
- Get Clear Aligners only from a Dental Clinic and not at Home
- Ensure that the dentist is in power of the treatment
- Visit the dental clinic at least every 3 months for getting the treatment tracked and monitored.
- Incase of ill-fitting aligners contact the dentist as soon as possible
SDalign treatments are provided across India at several dentists who are verified SDalign providers and provide direct monitoring and tracking of the treatment at their dental clinic to ensure better and consistent prognosis with effective and efficient treatment plans.
Expert opinion
- Dr. Zita Antao Dental Director of Sabka dentist says “Clear aligners are a good solution for correcting your missaligned teeths, Orthodontist will help you to complete your treatment with proper guidance”
