Do you want to straighten your teeth invisibly while reducing costs and treatment time? The Laster Perfect Smile System may be a great option for you. These teeth straightening aligners are designed to move your teeth to their ideal locations so that you can have a great smile, improve your appearance and self-esteem and clean your teeth easier. To maximize the process, our orthodontist, Dr. Laster, has created this list of 14 Laster Perfect Smile hacks that you need to know before getting your aligning trays.
1. Track Your Time.
While Laster Perfect Smile aligning trays are removable, you’ll still need to wear them at least 22 hours a day. This means that you should only remove them while you eat and brush and floss your teeth. Of course, there are only 24 hours in a day. This gives you two hours to eat and clean your aligners, which means you may have to eat slightly faster than you would without your aligners, and you will have to wear your aligners while you sleep. Our experience is that patients that try to cheat and wear slightly less tend to not get as precise movements as we need for the next try to fit properly. This leads to longer treatment times. Also many patients remark that after about 3 days the tray may feel less tight and are concerned that they “aren’t doing anything”. Even though they feel less tight after three days it usually takes a full two weeks for the roots of the teeth to fully express the desired movement. To get the best results follow the wear schedule Dr. Laster recommends. He has designed and treated thousands of aligner cases and has done extensive research on the science of moving teeth with plastic.
2. Switch to New Aligners at Bed Time.
You’ll change your aligners every one to three weeks, depending on how fast your teeth move to their new positions. To maximize your treatment time, Dr. Laster recommends switching to new aligning trays before you go to bed, instead of throwing away your old tray and switching to a new tray in the morning. This gives you 8 hours of continuous wear the first time you put that new aligner in which can be very helpful in getting successful movements from that aligner. It also allows you to sleep through that initial tightness of the new aligner.
3. Brush Your Teeth After Meals Before You Reinsert Aligner
Make sure you brush and floss your teeth thoroughly after every meal before you reinsert your aligners. Since you’ll only have about 40 minutes or less for every meal, you may have to eat faster or eat smaller meals in order to give yourself enough time to eat and clean your teeth. If you do not brush your teeth after every meal, you’ll end up bathing your teeth in food particles and bacteria, which could lead to cavities and gum disease. This can be tricky for our adolescent patients who wear their Laster Perfect Smile aligners to school. If your school does not give you adequate time to brush and floss after school lunch then rinse with water after eating and then be sure to brush and floss when you get home from school.
4. Clean Your Aligners While You Eat
To reduce the time it takes to clean your aligners, consider multitasking by cleaning your aligners while you eat. This could mean soaking them in water to loosen any plaque and reduce the likelihood of staining before you brush your aligners along with your teeth, or it could mean soaking them in denture cleaner or a retainer cleaner while you enjoy your meal. Dr. Laster uses Dentibrite retainer cleaner for his own retainers but there are lots of options including (denture cleaner, retainer cleaner, white vinegar, clear mouthwash, or even antibacterial soap). For any of these dilute with water and 5 minutes is all that is needed for a good cleaning.
5. 2 or 3 Times a Week Soak Your Aligners in a Mouthwash/Water Solution to Get ‘Em Clean
Pick two to three days a week to deep clean your aligning trays. You’ll generally perform this task before bed. We recommend soaking them in a solution of one part water and two parts mouthwash or Dentibrite. However, you must always use a mouthwash that is free of dyes. This is because the dye can stain your aligners, and no one wants to walk around with blue or pink-stained aligning trays. You can also brush your aligners with your toothbrush and a small amount of clear antibacterial soap. Just make sure you rinse your aligning trays thoroughly so that you do not end up with soap in your mouth.
6. Put Together a Travel Dental Care Kit
Once you have your aligners, you should consider putting together a travel kit to keep on your person at all times. Your LPS travel kit should contain dental chewies, which are firm foam tubes that you bite down on to make sure your aligning trays are properly seated in your mouth when you insert them. You’ll also want to keep your retainer case, travel toothbrush, toothpaste, travel mouthwash, floss or floss picks, Orajel and denture cleaning tablets or LPS cleaning crystals in your case. Never wrap your Laster Perfect Smile aligners in a napkin while eating. This is the number one way aligners get lost as napkins often find their way into the trash. If you even need a new aligner case just ask, we are happy to help keep your aligners safe.
7. Avoid Coffee and Tea and Other Stain-Causing Drinks
When you have your aligning trays in your mouth, you should avoid stain-causing drinks. This includes coffee, tea, dyed drinks and even cola. This is because these drinks can stain your aligners, turning them a different color or simply making them look dingy. Our orthodontist recommends only drinking water while your aligners are in your mouth. Of course, you can still consume these drinks with your meals. Just remember to brush, floss and rinse your teeth thoroughly.
8. Hang Onto Your Previous Aligning Tray Just In-Case Something Is Wrong with Your New One
When you switch LPS trays, you may notice a problem with your new aligning tray. It may not fit properly or you may find that it has sharp edges or isn’t very comfortable. For this reason, Dr. Laster recommends hanging onto your tray that is previous to the one you are currently wearing. So if you are wearing Laster Perfect Smile tray 5 then hold onto LPS tray 4 just in case number 5 gets lost or broken. If your new aligning tray doesn’t fit properly or has another problem, you’ll watch to schedule an appointment, but you don’t want to stop your treatment while you are waiting on a new tray. In this instance, you’d want to switch back to your previous tray temporarily.
9. Practice Talking With Your Aligners In Your Mouth
When you first get your aligning trays, you may have difficulty speaking. This is because your lips, cheeks and tongue aren’t acclimated to the new orthodontic appliances. You can speed up the process of speaking clearly with your aligning trays by practicing talking with them in your mouth. You can accomplish this task by talking to your family members and/or talking to your pets. With a few hours of practice, you’ll find that you can speak clearly while wearing your aligning trays.
10. Clean, Clean, Clean
The importance of cleaning your aligning trays and your teeth cannot be stated enough. This is because your mouth is full of bacteria, and you don’t want to trap that bacteria against your teeth or inside your aligning trays due to the increased risk of developing cavities and gum disease. This means that while the tools you use to clean your teeth and aligners won’t dramatically change, the frequency you brush, floss and rinse your teeth will change. You’ll need to clean your teeth and your trays in the morning and at night as well as after every meal or drink that isn’t water, which could be five or more times a day.
11. Soak While Eating. Keeps Them From Hardening and Makes Them Easier to Clean
To decrease the time it takes to clean your aligners, we recommend soaking them while you eat. Plaque and other particles can build-up on your trays and make them extremely difficult to clean thoroughly. Instead of letting your aligning trays dry while you eat, especially if you are just grabbing a quick bite and don’t have time to soak them in an aligner cleaner or denture cleaner, consider soaking them in water or a mixture of mouthwash and water. If you soak your aligners, you will have an easier time brushing them with either toothpaste of clear antibacterial soap after you eat.
12. Keep Some Ice and Orajel on Hand When You Size Down. Both Will Help With Gum Soreness.
When you first get your aligning trays and every time you switch trays, you may have some gum soreness and/or inflammation. To make the process less painful, we recommend keeping lots of ice on hand as well as Orajel. Applying ice to your face can help alleviate any inflammation, and Orajel can help reduce temporary gum soreness until your mouth adjusts to your new trays.
13. Grab a Free Consultation With Dr. Laster
Dr. Laster at Laster Orthodontics in Raleigh, Zebulon or Rolesville, NC offers free consultations. During your consultation, our orthodontist will examine your mouth, tell you about LPS and answer all your teeth straightening questions. To schedule a free consultation, give us a call at 919-676-0541.
14. Save Time and Money with the Laster Perfect Smile
Dr. Laster offers an alternative to name brand aligners called the Laster Perfect Smile (LPS). LPS is similar in that you will wear clear aligning trays to straighten your teeth at least 22 hours a day and switch trays every couple of weeks. The difference is that LPS was designed by Dr. Laster, using the latest technological advancements in software and plastics.
Laster Perfect Smile aligners are also created in our office, which means you can avoid the cost and time needed when ordering aligners from companies that use overseas manufacturers. Because we print all our aligners here in Raleigh, NC we can provide a high degree of customization and precision to our aligners that other aligner companies can’t match.
We absolutely see our Laster Perfect Smile patients getting better smiles faster and more effectively than with any other clear aligner. Some of that is our materials , but a lot of it is having a local expert design your aligners.
Dr. Laster designs every aligner case we treat; Not a technician or another aligner lab. Laster Perfect Smile aligners also cost less because we don’t have to pay an outside lab to manufacture them for us. Not to mention, your aligners won’t get lost or damaged in the mail, and if you ever have a problem with your aligners, the cause can be quickly identified and new aligners can be created for you so that you do not have gaps in your treatment.
By following these 14 Laster Perfect Smile hacks, you can get straight teeth in record time at an affordable price. To schedule an appointment, give us a call today at 919-676-0541. We have offices in Raleigh, Rolesville and Zebulon, North Carolina.
At Laster Orthodontics, we help families develop healthy, life-changing smiles using customized treatments, cutting-edge technologies, and caring relationships. Our individualized treatment plans help our patients achieve their perfect smile in the quickest, most painless way possible by utilizing a wide range of options from traditional braces to propel accelerated treatment to Dr. Laster’s in-house aligner program, Laster Perfect Smile. With three locations throughout the Triangle Area, we create life-changing smiles every day.
