One of the reasons why many of our patients choose Invisalign as their orthodontic treatment is because of the few restrictions required to wear it.
In this way, we refer mainly to the fact that Invisalign allows you to eat any food and does not hinder daily hygiene, as is the case with braces.
Leaving aside what refers to food and hygiene, many people also have other doubts about the treatment.
For example, one of the most frequent concerns whether they can smoke while wearing Invisalign.
Therefore, in this article we are going to focus on resolving all the doubts about this issue.
If I smoke, do I have to remove my aligners?
If you are a smoker, ideally you should remove your aligners before smoking. However, if you are a heavy smoker, removing them may be counterproductive.
This is because the aligners must be worn 22 hours a day for the treatment to provide the planned results.
And, if you wear them for less time, two things can happen: the movements may not be completed correctly (which harms their long-term stability) or orthodontic treatment may take longer than planned.
Therefore, if you wear Invisalign braces you should be aware that it is imperative that you are responsible with the length of time you wear them.
That said, you will need to consider whether it is preferable to remove the appliance every time you smoke – with the consequent reduction in wear time – or to smoke with the aligners in place.
Invisalign clear splints
Invisalign Removable Orthodontics
What happens if I don’t remove Invisalign?
If you smoke while wearing braces, the appliance will eventually stain, discolor and become dull.
This will cause Invisalign to lose the transparency that makes this method so esthetic and the teeth may look dirty.
Having said all this, it should also be noted that Invisalign is a system in which the aligners are changed every two weeks.
This means that there is not as much time for them to stain.
However, if the patient smokes a lot, it will be noticeable that the color of the splint has been changing over the days. And, therefore, it will turn yellow.
If you smoke while wearing Invisalign, the splints will darken and turn yellow, losing their esthetic properties.
How can I keep the splints clean?
Whether you smoke or not, it is very important that you clean your Invisalign aligners several times a day to keep them clean.
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This involves washing the splints every time we take them off, either to eat or to brush our teeth.
The best way to clean the splints is with a brush, warm water and neutral soap.
But, in addition to this, it is advisable to dilute a denture cleaning tablet in a glass of water. And then immerse the aligners.
Washing Invisalign to keep it clean
Clean Invisalign every day
This routine can be done once or twice a week.
And, with this habit, in addition to helping the aligners maintain their transparency, we will prevent them from smelling bad.
The denture cleaning tablets mentioned above can be easily purchased in pharmacies, as there are different brands that market them.
Evaluate if you should remove Invisalign
Although the ideal is to remove the aligners to smoke, if you smoke a lot it may be better not to remove them, since you have to wear them 22 hours a day.
Aside from staining my aligners, what other negative effects does smoking have?
In the same way that tobacco is harmful to the splints, it is also harmful to our mouth. And for general health as well.
Mouth
On the one hand, smoking is very harmful at a local level, as it damages the state of the mouth in general, and of the teeth, gums or tongue in particular.
When we think of the negative effects that tobacco has on our teeth, the first thing that comes to mind is that it darkens them and turns them yellow.
Or even the characteristic bad breath it causes.
But in addition to this, which may seem more or less important to us, smoking has worse consequences for our oral cavity.
On the one hand, it hinders the response to periodontal diseases (gingivitis and periodontitis).
On the other hand, it increases the risk of failure of dental implants, in the case of patients who have undergone this type of surgery.
And, to finish with what is probably the worst consequence: smoking increases the chances of suffering from mouth cancer.
Yellow teeth due to smoking
Smoking yellows teeth
Rest of the body
On the other hand, smoking is also very harmful to our general health.
As we have just mentioned, one of the most well-known – and negative – consequences is cancer in different parts of the body, such as the lungs.
However, smoking also has a direct relationship with cardiovascular diseases -such as acute myocardial infarction- and pulmonary diseases -such as COPD-.
For all these reasons, if you are a smoker, the last thing you should worry about is whether or not smoking yellows your Invisalign splints.
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The most worrying thing is, therefore, the dangerous consequences of smoking for the health of your mouth and the rest of your body.
That said, our recommendation would be to quit smoking or, if you don’t want to, to restrict smoking as much as possible.
