What Happens If You Need A Dental Crown During Your Invisalign Treatment?
The average treatment time for a patient using invisible braces such as Invisalign is 13.5 months. The required length of treatment will vary from person to person, and your orthodontist can tell you how long your particular case will need. But a lot can happen in those months. For example, what if one of your teeth should deteriorate to the point that you need to have a dental crown fitted over it?
Made Just for You
With calm and comfortable efficiency, each set of aligner trays in your treatment series will reposition your teeth until the predetermined alignment has been achieved. This sounds simple enough, but a great deal of precision has gone into planning your treatment. It's not as though your orthodontist provided you with one-size-fits-all aligner trays. Detailed models of your teeth (either digital modeling or a manual impression) were taken of your teeth, allowing your trays to be customized to reflect the exact dimensions of your teeth. This is necessary for your invisible braces to effectively reconfigure your bite. The addition of a dental crown will change the dimensions of your bite.
An Impact on Your Treatment
This change won't be significant, but it can have an impact on your orthodontic treatment. So what should you do—ignore your decaying tooth until your orthodontic treatment has finished? Cancel the rest of your orthodontic treatment and have your tooth fixed? Neither of these options is wise.
A Temporary Fix
Your orthodontist may need to liaise with your dentist, but there are a few solutions available. Depending on the nature of your tooth's deterioration, a crown might be its only option. However, as a temporary fix, a filling can be more appropriate. The composite resin used to fill a cavity won't change the dimensions of the tooth in a way that will disrupt your orthodontic treatment. Once your treatment has concluded, the dental crown can be fitted.
Replacing Your Trays
When a filling won't be adequate as a temporary solution, you're likely to need a dental crown with some urgency. This requires a modification to your Invisalign treatment. The crown will be fitted, and your orthodontist then takes new impressions of your teeth, which takes the subtle changes caused by the addition of the crown into consideration. You then simply continue with the new set of trays. Since an entirely new set of trays will be made, you can expect the overall cost of your treatment to increase. This is unfortunate, but may be unavoidable for some patients.
Needing a dental crown during orthodontic treatment really isn't ideal, but there are a few workarounds to consider.
For more information on Invisalign, contact a professional near you.
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