Eating and Clear Aligners

One of the greatest advantages to using Clear Aligners are that it provides maximum results with minimal impact on your everyday life. Clear Aligners are comfortable, easy to insert, and simple to remove. Because you can remove Clear Aligners, you can enjoy all your favorite foods and beverages without worries about getting food stuck in the wires and brackets of traditional braces.

Eating and Clear Aligners

While the aligner is durable and strong, you should remove it before you eat or drink beverages, as the chewing action inside your mouth can break, crack, or distort the aligner. Even minute damage to the Clear Aligners tray will prevent it from aligning your teeth properly. Furthermore, eating with Clear Aligners in your mouth can be quite messy.

Beverages and Clear Aligners

Repeated exposure to hot liquids may also cause the Clear Aligner to distort. This distortion changes the shape of your aligner in a way that will affect how it straightens your teeth. Contact our Shreveport, Louisiana office if your Clear Aligners have distorted after consuming a hot beverage.

Fluids can settle inside the aligner to “bathe” the teeth. Bathing teeth in acidic fluids can be especially problematic, as the acids can wear away tooth enamel. Exposure to acidic fluids is not normally a problem, as saliva neutralizes and buffers the acid then washes it away. Wearing an aligner, however, prevents the saliva from doing those jobs, increasing your risk for tooth decay.

Colored drinks may also change the color of your teeth. Most discoloration is temporary but stubborn stains may occur.

To prevent discoloration and tooth decay, brush your teeth after every meal or beverage before putting in your Clear Aligners. If you do not have access to clean water, chew sugar-free gum to remove bacteria, acid, and food particles from your teeth. As a last resort, you may leave your aligners out for an hour or two until you can brush and floss properly. Before inserting Clear Aligners, rinse the aligner in lukewarm water or use the Clear Aligners cleaning kit.

Contact our Shreveport, Louisiana office for more information about eating and Clear Aligners.