If you’ve gone through life with a crooked smile, getting Invisalign as an adult can make a massive impact on how you feel about yourself. It’s also remarkably subtle, so you don’t have to worry about how bulky wires and brackets will affect your appearance.
However, if you’re getting Invisalign treatment as an adult, you may be going into it with a few more bumps and dings to your smile than if you had started younger. You may have even lost teeth, and gotten dental implants as a result. If you’re wondering how that will affect your orthodontic treatment, here’s a guide that could potentially help you.
How Does Invisalign Work?
First, it may be a good idea to understand how Invisalign treatments work. Like metal braces, Invisalign trays apply constant pressure to the teeth, nudging them gently into position. Your teeth are connected to the jaw by a small tendon called the periodontal ligament, and over time that ligament will start to stretch. This allows the teeth to be pushed into alignment.
Will Invisalign Work on Dental Implants?
As you may have gathered from the description above, your dental implants are affected by your aligners a little differently than your natural teeth. While the periodontal ligament that ordinarily connects teeth to the jaw is able to stretch, your dental implant is inserted directly into bone. As a result, it can’t be moved by your aligners.
Can I Still Get Invisalign with Dental Implants?
While your dental implants can’t be moved by your Invisalign aligners, your other teeth still can! That means that you should still be able to get a straighter smile by moving your other teeth around the implant.
That said, this will require a little bit of planning on the part of your dentist, so it’s important that you let them know that you have a dental implant early on in the Invisalign process, maybe as soon as the first consultation.
Even if you have a dental implant, you shouldn’t let that scare you away from orthodontic treatment. You can replace your teeth and still get the straight smile you’ve always wanted.
About Our Practice
At NeoSmile Dental Care, we want you and everyone in your family to get the stellar dental care that you deserve. We do that by ensuring that we can deal with a wide variety of issues—from checkups to braces to dental implants—all under one roof! Our commitment to incredible customer service paired with the wide variety of services we can offer makes us uniquely qualified to help you and your family repair your oral health.
If you have any questions about dental implants and braces, we can be reached at our website or by phone at (215) 643-5220.
