Invisalign during the Covid crisis

Invisalign works by providing staged aligners, that should be changed every 10-14 days. You should also be reviewed for spacings, buttons and misfitting during the process. Unfortunately with dentistry and the public in lockdown, we need to decide wether the Invisalign process should be continued or put on hold.

Luckily for many of you, Forma Smile have given you all your aligners. For some new starters you may only have 2-3 aligners and for some ex Finest Dental patients, you may have been given a limited number of aligners by FD.

Advice on staging

There are four types of patients as stated, but to be more clear :

1 Patients who have had no buttons added yet; our advice is to stop at aligner 2 ( or the last aligner without attachments) and wait until we can book you in. You can wear your last aligner just at night as a holding brace.

2 Patients who have yet to start treatment; our advice is that we must wait until Covid is over to start your treatment.

3 Patients who are in the middle of treatment or near the end ; our advice is to email and tell us what number aligner you are on, and we can advise on wether you needed spaces or just to carry on.

4 Patients who had reviewed their scans and the aligners are on order; we are waiting for shipments and we can ship the first aligners to you before any buttons/attachments are bonded.

In light of the crisis any new orders are being processed with at least 3-4 aligners with no buttons or spacings, which would give you Invisalign treatment for 6-8 weeks. This should take us out of the Covid crisis.

Advice on diet

As many of us are in lockdown, we have all day to sit at home and visiting the fridge/larder becomes very tempting. I personally am in a perpetual cycle of eating and exercising.

Aligners need to be removed for eating and drinking anything sugary or fizzy. If you feel you cannot manage aligner therapy and all the consumption, then perhaps put aligner therapy on hold and just wear the current aligner at night.

For those with the more active outlook, you may see this lockdown as a great way to continue aligner therapy; but be careful about tooth decay if you are eating or drinking more often.

Try your hand at cooking healthy meals with more vegetables or salads at the table. I for one make more Indian vegetable curries now and hardly eat meat. My daughters think I am a flexitarian!

Advice on hygiene

We always recommend flossing 2-3 times a day and the use of the Philips electric tooth brush. This regime will keep your teeth and gums clean, but also keep the aligners clean. Do not use hot/warm water (or even the dishwasher) on the aligners, as they will surely distort.

Sometimes soaking them in an oral antiseptic solution will also help.

Advice on personal health

Lockdown means no visits to the gym, parks or swimming centres. It also means long periods of sitting down.

In this quiet period of self reflection exercise can break the mood and get you healthy again.

You can probably still find bargains on Amazon or Ebay, but many of us do not have a great income coming in, so perhaps an economical purchase is advised.

Luckily I had ordered an exercise bike on Ebay before Covid. I bought an ex gym club bike, worth probably £1000 for as little as £200. For some of you who want a gym standard bike going cheap the ebay site equip4gyms in Wales was where I bought my bike from (shipping takes about 1 week). It has a rest for my Ipad so I can exercise and watch Money Heist or even a seminar.

I also have an outdoor bike and I make sure that at least once a day or two I go for a bike ride as well.

A daily walk/run is also recommended before you get down to your Netflix series or knitting, as is the fad in my house.

Always be careful not to out do your self and pace your exercise with care.

For any further information please email us

admin@forma.co.uk

or tel 02074369672