Switching Dentists During Invisalign

I am miserable with my current dentist. The one thing that kept me there was my Invisalign treatment. That has been amazing. But, I need to switch dentists. I won’t go into the details of why, but it got to the point to where I dread going. My concern is that I am about to start the retainer portion of my treatment. Will I be able to do that if I switch dentists or am I stuck with him until I am done?

Jennifer

Dear Jennifer,

I am glad that you’ve been happy with your Invisalign treatment. It has a very high patient satisfaction rate. As for continuing with your treatment, your dentist is under an ethical obligation to provide your new dentist with all of your treatment information. This includes not just your diagnostics, but his treatment notes as well.

Let’s say that you have a dentist who doesn’t follow his or her ethical obligation? Don’t panic. It is inexpensive and incredibly simple for your new dentist to make a retainer for you from scratch, even without any previous diagnostic information.  Either he or his assistant can take a new impression of your teeth and prepare a new retainer for you. Make sure you continue wearing your final set of aligners while this is being sorted out in order to keep your teeth in their correct position.

I also suggest that you keep your final set of aligners as well. They can double as teeth whitening trays. Then, instead of having to pay to have custom trays made for your bite, you simply purchase professional strength whitening gel from your dentist and wear them in the aligners. You can do this either during or after you’ve completed your orthodontic treatment. This is a tiny trick to save you money and allow you to straighten and whiten your teeth at the same time.

This blog is brought to you by a gentle dentist in Nashville Dr. David Wickness.