How to Clean your Aligners After Meals

Invisalign aligners are an incredibly powerful orthodontic treatment capable of producing results comparable to braces, discreetly and in less time.

They’re also removable, which frees you from a lot of the dietary restrictions that often come with traditional braces. However, that comes with the caveat that you’ll need to clean your aligners after meals.

If you’re getting Invisalign aligners soon, you probably want to know a little bit more about what caring for them will entail. Here’s a guide for what you ought to do to clean your aligners after a meal.

1. Clean Your Aligners

After you’ve finished eating, you should first prepare to replace your aligners by gently cleaning them. The best way to do this is with soap and a soft-bristled toothbrush—brush it gently to clear away any food particles or other debris that may have accumulated on your aligners.

2. Clean your Teeth

Then, to ensure that you don’t trap any food particles in your aligners, you should clean the meal you just ate off of your teeth. This is done in three parts:

• Brush: Use a soft-bristled toothbrush and toothpaste to brush away food particles. Be sure to do this for 2 minutes at a time!
• Rinse: After brushing, use mouthwash or water to knock out any leftover food particles loosened by brushing.
• Floss: Flossing is critically important to catching food and bacteria that were left behind from brushing.

How to Floss Properly

Flossing is one of the most often neglected aspects of dental hygiene, so it’s worth taking a closer look at how to do it properly:

• Pull out around a foot and a half of waxed dental floss.
• Wrap around 90% of the floss around one finger, and all but around an inch of it around the other.
• Slide the floss between each tooth and work it up and down in a “c” motion, wrapping up each segment after using it.

At first, you may have trouble with the cleaning process, but before long it will be second nature. And once it is, you’ll be able to keep your aligners nice and clean for years to come.

About Our Practice

At New England Kids Pediatric Dentistry, General Dentistry and Orthodontics, we know that you’d want your dentist to treat your child the way you would. That’s why we endeavor to give every child we see the one-on-one care and attention that they deserve. We also have two pediatric dentists and an orthodontist on staff, which means that you can get your child the highest level of care available in an office that feels like home.

If you have any questions about how to care for your Invisalign treatment, we can be reached at our website or by phone at (508) 832-6278.