While straightening your teeth with metal braces has its advantages, it also has its drawbacks.
Metal braces—whether they are buccal or lingual—will cause challenges, from your appearance to your oral hygiene. Not only will cleaning your teeth become difficult, but your struggles with oral hygiene can also lead to other health problems, such as gingivitis.
Instead of settling for the challenges of braces, you can choose Invisalign clear plastic aligners to correct your bite. If you’re wondering if Invisalign is a good option for your life and your smile, look no further than a study published by BMC Oral Health.
Conducting research, a group of scholars examined 100 patients who either had fixed orthodontic appliances or Invisalign. At the end of the study, the results showed Invisalign was a better option for healthy gums and happy patients. Here’s what the study found:
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Invisalign helps maintain your gum health.
According to the study in BMC Oral Health, the scholars used two different measurements to determine the gum health of the Invisalign patients versus the patients wearing metal braces. (In the study, these were abbreviated as GI and SBI.)
While gum health was nearly unchanged for Invisalign patients, for patients with regular braces, gum health declined. Here’s what the study had to say:
GI and SBI values were hardly increased in Invisalign® patients during orthodontic treatment whereas GI and SBI values increased 2-fold in FOA patients during orthodontic treatment (Table 2).
You may be wondering why there was a difference in gum health between Invisalign patients and their peers.
The reason: The logical cause behind this gap was that the Invisalign patients were able to remove their clear aligners to brush and floss—something impossible with metal braces.
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Invisalign helps create happy patients.
The study also found that Invisalign patients also experience a greater degree of what the article termed as well-being.
The study queried both sets of patients on their quality of life. Here are a few statistics it found:
- While 6% of Invisalign patients reported a decline in general well-being, for fixed orthodontic patients (those wearing metal braces), the percentage was 36%.
- When it came to laughing, a negligible 6% of Invisalign patients felt self-conscious. In contrast, 26% of the other group experienced some embarrassment.
- When asked if they would repeat the same treatment, 98% of Invisalign patients replied in the affirmative compared to 78% of their contemporaries.
We can’t know all possible reasons for the gaps between the two groups’ quality of life. However, Invisalign may have outperformed its competitors because of its discreet appearance, easy removal and other features.
Specifically, Invisalign allows you to…
- Correct a crooked smile without bringing unnecessary attention to your teeth. The Invisalign clear plastic aligners are inconspicuous, unlike metal braces.
- Avoid altering your diet to accommodate your orthodontic treatment. Remove your aligners to eat hard candy, popcorn or other foods forbidden for metal braces.
- Clean your teeth as you would without braces. You won’t need a special toothbrush to clean your teeth. Invisalign patients remove their aligners if they need to brush or floss.
If you want to straighten your teeth yet still preserve your gum health and quality of life, it’s time to consider Invisalign as an option. With Invisalign, you’ll use a series of plastic aligners to correct your smile, and you’ll still be able to…
- Eat what you wish.
- Laugh, smile and talk freely.
- Clean your teeth easily.
Take the first step to straightening your teeth with Invisalign, and see if you are a candidate. Click here to locate your nearest MiSmile Invisalign provider and schedule your free consultation.
