Posted by writeradmin
I am on my last pair of Invisalign aligners and am about to move to another state for a job. Can I just be done with treatment or do I need to find another Invisalign dentist?
Melanie
Dear Melanie,
The first thing I would find out is if you will need to wear a retainer for any length of time after you are done with your treatments. If you do not need a retainer, then I would just go about your life and not worry about an Invisalign dentist. If you do need a retainer then you have a few options.
You can just get a regular old retainer. This will not require an Invisalign dentist. Pretty much any dentist will do and it should not be very expensive. If you would like an invisible retainer, then you could look for another Invisalign dentist in your area.
With either of these options, your current dentist is ethically obligated to send all of your records and treatment notes to the new dentist. Because of that, you shouldn’t need many, if any, diagnostics.
Another option is for you to go this on your own by using your final set of Invisalign aligners as a retainer. Here is how you would go about that.
Invisalign as a retainer
First, wear them as you normally would around the clock for about another month. Then, back off to wearing them only at night for about a month or two. Next you can try every other night. However, you want to check to make sure that your teeth aren’t shifting back out of place.
Here is how you would do a check. If you find that the aligner is a little bit more difficult to get back in, then that is a sign your teeth have shifted. If that happens, go back to the previous step for a few weeks and then try again.
Once your teeth are stable using the aligners every other night, the next thing to try is once a week, being sure to notice shifting. If that works for a few months, then you can go to not wearing them altogether. However, you will want to keep the aligners around for a periodic check.
You can also use those aligners as teeth whitening trays, too, so you have another reason to keep them around.
This blog is brought to you by Baton Rouge, LA Dentist Dr. John Theriot.