Hey guys, Dr. Jeff Heinz here with Heinz Orthodontics in Rockford and Grand Rapids, Michigan. I want to come to you today with a little video about an aligner hack that I’ve created for our Invisalign and Spark clear aligner patients. Essentially, when you are in clear aligners, you can wear rubber bands to correct your bite. But occasionally one of the buttons that we use to hook your elastic to, can come off. So here’s a little trick that I’ve developed and hopefully can help you out:
When you wear elastics with your clear aligners, oftentimes your orthodontist will put a button on one of your teeth and they’ll put that into a little cut out on your aligner. So that the button sits on your tooth, there’ll be a cut-out on your aligner right there. And then that will sit over the top of the button and fit over top on your tooth. Then you’ll wear an elastic from that tooth to one on your opposing arch or on your other set of teeth to correct your bite.
Occasionally, one of those buttons can be dislodged. It can come off when you’re eating something, or sometimes it just comes off for no reason at all. If that happens and you can’t make it back into your orthodontist, rather than just not wearing your rubber bands and potentially getting behind in your treatment, what you can do is find that notch that was already cut out to fit around your button and then take a pair of scissors and make a little cut like in the photo below.
That small cut will create a little tab on the front side of your aligner that gives you a little area where you can hook that elastic, and then still wear it to the opposing teeth the same way you were before. Then the next time you make it into your orthodontist, they can put the button back on and fix you up right.
Just in case you needed a little visual representation of what we just accomplished, here’s the little tab that we created with our scissors. Here’s a rubber band that you use to hook over top, cut underneath rather, that little tab we just made.
And then of course see at the top, just like it was before. We took that to the tab that’s up on the top. Now you’re still rocking your rubber bands without your button being there and you’re not getting behind the treatment. Thanks for tuning in.
Heinz Orthodontics proudly serves the Rockford, Grand Rapids, Greenville, Ada, and Cedar Springs communities and the surrounding area. In addition to Invisalign and Spark clear aligner treatments, Dr. Heinz offers a range of braces treatment options for kids, teens, and adults. Call us at (616) 951-3006 or click to schedule your complimentary consultation today!