My Second Invisalign Appointment – I Get My Invisalign Braces and Wear Them Home!

I got my Invisalign braces! This is so exciting and I am, indeed, so excited!

So here is how the entire appointment went.

First, Dr. Rudman’s office called me – and emailed me (how cool is that?) to let me know that my aligners had arrived. Yay! They asked if I could come in the same afternoon – could I?? You bet I could!

When I arrived, they brought me right into the exam room – and there they were! All 25 sets of Invisalign aligners (remember, you wear one set of aligners for two weeks, then go on to the next, until you’ve gone through all of the sets they create for you – although there can be some adjusting as you get close to the end, if your orthodontist feels you need slightly different aligners, or a couple of more sets, or, whatever may be the case).

Here is how your Inivalign aligners arrive from the lab to your Invisalign dentist or Invisalign orthodontist:

But before they can give you the Invisaligners, it turns out that they have to do a little prep work on your teeth. This is something that a lot of people don’t tell you about (although of course all decent Invisalign orthdontists and dentists will go over all of this with you during your consultation).

Primarily, the prep work involves using a small amount of dental composite material (that is the tooth-colored stuff they use to make tooth-colored fillings) to creat “attachment points”, or “attachments” on the cheek-facing surfaces of some of your teeth.

These attachments help to keep the Invisalign aligners on and in place..they are just little bumps on the surface of your tooth, that help the aligners to line up just right, and to stay exactly where they should (and in some cases to add a little extra torque on the tooth if, for example, it needs to be turned a little).

When you first see the materials and instruments that they will use to create and attach the attachments to your teeth, laid out on a tray, they may fill your heart with dread – they do look a bit like implements of torture. But, fear not, the process is painless, and pretty quick.

Invisalign Implements of Torture:

Once they mix up the composite material, they just squeeze a little bit of it into each of the designated places in a set of pre-made molds which come from the lab, slide them onto your teeth, wait a few moments, and voila – you now have the attachments bonded to your teeth in just the right places.

Here are the attachments, attached to my teeth:

At that point, you’re essentially done! You’ll get instructions for putting on, taking off, and caring for your Invisalign aligners, and they may have you put them in and take them out once before you leave, just so that they are sure that you can do it.

Check ‘em out!