By Justin Kohl In recent years, clear aligners have become a much more viable and common option for kids and adults alike as a substitute for traditional wire and bracket braces. However, this means you need to adjust and practice new habits in order to properly care for and maintain your aligners so that they’re able to perform correctly. Here are five tips for taking care of your clear aligners.
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Remove and Rinse
Whenever you remove your aligners, whether to eat, brush your teeth, or for another reason, you should immediately rinse your aligner trays. Your mouth and saliva carry a lot of bacteria, and you don’t want bacteria to build up on your aligners and for them to become gross and laden with plaque. This can mess with the fit of your aligners and compromise their ability to adjust your teeth into their proper place.
Maintain Oral Hygiene
One of the benefits of aligners and the best tip for taking care of your clear aligners is to maintain the same habits and routines you had concerning oral hygiene. Since the aligners are removable, you’re able to brush and floss just like you did before, unlike with wire and bracket braces that become an obstacle and make oral hygiene difficult. As such, it’s a good idea to always brush and floss your teeth before wearing your aligners so that your mouth is nice and fresh.
Don’t Brush With Them On
Relating to oral hygiene, you do not want to brush your teeth while you’re still wearing your aligners. Not only are you not really cleaning your teeth, but toothpaste is very abrasive to plastics. Thus, your toothpaste can damage and erode your aligners over time. Instead, there are easier and better ways to clean your aligner trays, which we’ll touch on soon.
Avoid Colored Drinks
Because of the dye used in most vibrantly colored drinks, it’s best to avoid them altogether to prevent your aligners from becoming stained by the color. That being said, it’s not that you’re not allowed to drink them; you just need to be vigilant in removing your aligners before drinking juice, colored water, sports drinks, and other drinks like them.
Cleaning Your Trays
When you go to clean your trays, there are special cleaners offered by brands like Invisalign that are most effective and convenient for cleaning your aligner trays, but you can also just use a clear antibacterial hand soap as a suitable substitute. Best practices dictate you should clean your aligners at least twice a day.