Clear Aligners

Clear aligner treatment is a virtually invisible treatment that uses a series of custom made removable aligners to apply a force that gradually moves the teeth into their ideal position and straightens the teeth.

Clear aligners look fantastic.

They’re discrete, clear and barely noticeable. A great analogy is a contact for your eye. They can’t really be seen from a distance but if you get really close they can just be made out. Most people will have small tooth coloured filling material attachments placed on their teeth, this provides a specific movement of the teeth. They look like small circles on the teeth and do not have any great impact on aesthetics but if you are significantly conscious of potential attachments, let us know and we can discuss alternatives.

The Clear Aligner Process at Curran Dental Port Lincoln

  1. Initial appointment 60 minutes.

    Your aligner journey begins with an orthodontic assessment, this includes record taking during your initial appointment. This process involves an oral examination, extra oral, and intraoral photographs, 3D scan of your teeth, and X rays. Following your initial appointment, your digital records will be sent to our clear aligner manufacturer laboratory to stimulate how your teeth will move from their current position to the corrected position or recommended position. We call this simulation a ‘Clin Check’. Your ‘Clin Check’ is prepared by your dentist and the clear aligner manufacture orthodontic technician. This process can take a few weeks.

  2. Your Plan or ‘Clin Check’ Appointment (40 Minutes)

    We will discuss and review all the details of your teeth alignment plan together. Any risks specific to you or in general with orthodontic treatment will be explained to you and your feedback will be incorporated into any modifications of the treatment planning if it is required. Once you understand the risks and benefits of an orthodontic treatment with clear aligners and you are happy with their simulation and the treatment plan made, you need to approve the treatment and agree to the financial terms. From here your aligners are manufactured specifically for you and shipped to our dental practice. Delivery may take three to four weeks.

  3. Clear aligner delivery appointment (90 minutes)

    When you receive your aligners for the first time, we will give you all the necessary instructions with a shared link of your teeth alignment plan. Any required attachments will be placed on your teeth. Interproximal reduction- may also be performed to ensure there is sufficient space when correcting crowding.

  4. Review appointments (20 minutes)

    Often we will initially review every 4- 8 weeks to ensure the teeth are moving or tracking in the predicted manner. We may set up Dental monitoring which allows remote monitoring and in this case we may only need to see you every 3-4 months.

    From time to time we may need to perform further interproximal reductions or add additional attachments.

    The treatment plan may be revised if the teeth are not tracking as we had predicted, sometimes teeth can be stubborn and not follow the computer simulation that we made!

  5. Refinement

    After the initial set of trays are completed another course of treatment may be prescribed to refine the final position of the teeth.

  6. Treatment Completion – Retention

    Once your teeth alignment is complete, we must ensure that your teeth remain in their ideal position, we ideally want the teeth to stay the same as the day we finished the treatment. Your teeth have moved into their new position and there are risks of relapsing or teeth moving back to their original position. To stop this from happening, we may fit fixed retainers on the back of your lower an upper front teeth, and we take final scans of your teeth and manufacture removable retainers, like aligners but made from a more durable plastic. You are instructed to wear your removal retainers as much as possible in the first three months after your treatment is completed and then every night for at least the first 12 months. After this you can usually reduce the wear to three nights per week. Retainers should be worn for minimum of two years after clear aligner treatment or sometimes a lifetime attention is needed you will be guided by Dr Curran. Retainers have a lifespan and will require replacement from time to time at an additional cost.

Clear Aligner FAQ

  • The cost of an orthodontic treatment with clear aligner depends on the complexity and duration of treatment, a rough estimate of what patients can expect to pay varies form $4500 for minor correction/relapse, $6600 for a mild correction up to complex correction of $8500. A precise and final fee will be quoted at the time of your clinical check appointment.

  • The short answer is no, but the great majority of teenagers and adults can be. All orthodontic treatment will require great cooperation from the patient or it cannot work. Some cases will be required to use fixed braces. We are happy to arrange referral to a specialist orthodontic if you would prefer and for more complex cases this will be required.

  • You can remove your aligners to eat and drink anything other than water, however cleaning your teeth and aligners are recommended to maintain oral hygiene before inserting aligners on your teeth. To keep your teeth healthy and clean during your teeth alignment, brushing twice a day and flossing is recommended. We also encourage you to keep continuing your oral hygiene maintenance appointments at our dental clinic with our oral hygiene department every six months or as recommended by our oral health therapist.

  • Clear aligners is the generic name for any plastic tray that Is used to move the teeth orthodontically. Invisalign is one particular brand, they were one of the first manufacturers and are the best know of the clear aligner brands. They had terrific innovation and were previously well ahead of the other companies.

    Over the last 5 years many of the traditional dental manufactures have caught up and overtaken Invisalign in terms of innovation and clinical control for the dentist. The analogy we like to use is how Tesla was the first and most well-known electric vehicle, but recently lots of traditional manufactures have started to offer their own electric vehicles which are arguably more refined and reliable. We understand that many people know Invisalign and are happy to use them if you request it, but generally we find we have greater clinical control and more predictable clinical outcomes with Spark Aligners.