What Are Clear Aligners And Why Do They Work So Well?

Gone are the days when people thought of metallic braces when they heard “teeth straightening”. Today people associate teeth straightening with simple, effective, and discreet invisible aligners which can do their task with the least amount of pain and discomfort. 

Clear or invisible aligners are oral appliances that have been around since the late 1990s. Over the last two decades, they gained immense popularity due to their discreet nature and improved comfort, finding a wider base, especially among adult patients. Using clear aligner trays made of soft hypoallergenic plastic, dentists are now helping patients achieve straighter teeth and thereby a healthy and beautiful smile.

Even though more and more people are now opting for clear aligner treatment, many are still unaware of how they function and how effective they are. In this blog, we will discuss how clear aligners work and what issues they can solve.

Clear Aligners: How did they become popular?

Clear aligners have evolved over these past decades. Today, there are many brands of invisible aligners that dentists recommend to their patients depending upon their particular issue, degree of malocclusion, insurance or preferred price range, etc. 

Invisible aligners are used to correct several different dental malocclusions. These include gapped teeth, crooked teeth, crossbites, overjets, overbites, and underbites. While many parents opted to get early intervention for their children, correcting most of these malocclusions right from the start, adult patients usually ignored their issues as they did not have a viable option for teeth straightening that promised ease of use and saved them from embarrassment. 

With the advent of clear aligners, more and more adult patients started signing up for teeth straightening. Today, the majority of the invisible aligners users are adults, which is a quite significant change, since the majority of people with traditional braces are children and teens. 

Effectiveness of clear aligners

Clear aligners are undoubtedly a very effective way of teeth straightening and take more or less the same time as traditional braces to bring in desirable results. Once you decide to go ahead with the treatment, your dentist will take a 3D image of your oral cavity and use the data to design your custom invisible aligner trays. Each set of trays is supposed to fit right over your teeth and is meant to be worn for two to three weeks, before switching to the next set. The aligner trays must be worn for a minimum of 20 to 22 hours a day, during which the clear aligners apply gentle, consistent pressure on the teeth, pushing them in the desired direction. As long as a patient follows all the recommendations for oral hygiene and keeps their invisible aligners spotless during the course of their treatment, they will have a smooth treatment experience and can get desired results in 6 to 18 months.

With that said, clear aligners do have a few limitations. The aligner trays may not be very effective if the patient’s degree of malocclusion is very high or has issues with their jaw positioning. As long as a patient has mild to moderate dental malocclusion without any jaw alignment issues, they can straighten their teeth with just invisible aligner treatment. Sometimes, dentists recommend a combination of different treatments including clear aligners to bring a patient’s teeth and jaw into optimal position.

When can you start your clear aligner treatment?

If you are interested in starting clear aligner treatment, book an appointment at our dental clinic in Dubai. Our experts will access your dental issues and recommend the best course of action to get straighter pearly whites in the shortest time possible.

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