To clean Invisalign aligners, rinse them in cool water whenever they come out, brush them gently morning and night with a soft toothbrush and clear unscented soap, and soak them in cleaning crystals two or three times a week. Never use toothpaste or hot water. At Toothi in Edgware we show you this routine at your fitting. Chewies are small foam cylinders you bite on for a few minutes after putting in a new aligner, so it sits fully against the teeth. Neither takes more than a few minutes a day. Together they’re the difference between aligners that stay clear for their fortnight and aligners that look yellow and smell by day five.

If you’re still deciding whether to start, our guides to how Invisalign works, living with Invisalign and Invisalign treatment in Edgware are the better place to begin.

Brush them morning and night, rinse them every time they come out, and soak them a few times a week. Aligners sit against your teeth for around 22 hours a day, so anything left on them sits against your teeth too. Within a week it’ll feel automatic.

• ✓  Morning. Aligners out, brush and floss your teeth, then brush the aligners inside and out with a soft brush and a drop of clear soap. Rinse in cool water and put them straight back in. Bacteria build up most overnight, so this is the clean that matters.
• ✓  After eating or drinking anything other than water. Take the aligners out first. Rinse them while they’re out, and rinse your mouth or brush before they go back in, so sugar and acid aren’t trapped against the enamel for hours.
• ✓  Night. Brush and floss, brush the aligners again, rinse. If you have a new set to change into, tonight is the time: a fresh aligner is tightest in its first few hours, and it’s easier to sleep through that.
• ✓  Two or three times a week. A 15-minute soak in cleaning crystals or a retainer tablet while you eat, to lift the film that brushing misses.
• ✓  Always. Out of your mouth means in the case. Most lost aligners end up in a restaurant bin wrapped in a napkin.

Each aligner is worn for one to two weeks, so you’re keeping it clear and comfortable for a short working life, not preserving it for a year. The habit that really decides whether treatment finishes on time is wear, covered in the Invisalign 22-hour rule.

Toothpaste, hot water, coloured mouthwash and household cleaners all damage aligners. Here’s why, and what to use instead.

What damages more aligners than any product, though, is eating or drinking with them in. Coffee, tea, red wine and curry stain aligners within minutes, and chewing cracks them. Only water while the aligners are in.

Cleaning crystals are a powdered soak, usually in single-use sachets, that dissolve in cool water into a mildly fizzy solution. They typically contain a gentle oxidising agent that lifts protein film and faint staining from the plastic, plus a surfactant that rinses it away. Their job is to remove the biofilm that makes aligners look cloudy and smell.

How to use them: dissolve one sachet in enough cool water to cover both aligners, leave for 15 minutes (or as the pack says), give them a quick brush, and rinse thoroughly before they go back in. A mealtime is the natural slot.

How often: two or three times a week is plenty for most people. Go to daily if you drink a lot of tea or coffee or notice your aligners dulling quickly.

Alternatives: retainer-cleaning tablets from any chemist work on the same principle. A ten-minute soak in half white vinegar, half cool water lifts mineral deposits well if you rinse properly afterwards. Which one you pick matters less than doing it regularly.

They push each aligner fully onto your teeth so it grips every surface it’s meant to. Chewies are small cylinders of soft foam, about the size of a cotton-wool roll, that you bite on with the aligners in. Each new aligner is designed to be a fraction ahead of where your teeth sit. It clicks over the teeth with finger pressure, but there’s often a thin gap between the plastic and the biting edges, especially around the back teeth and around attachments.

That matters because an aligner only moves a tooth it’s in full contact with. Over one aligner a poor fit is a small loss. Over a whole series it’s how teeth fall behind the plan, and it’s a common reason patients end up needing refinement aligners. Dentists call this “tracking”: an aligner that’s tracking well sits flush with no visible air gaps.

How to use them: work the chewie slowly around the whole arch, biting firmly on each section, for three to five minutes. Do it every time the aligners go back in during the first two or three days of a new set, then once or twice a day, and any time you spot a gap. A clean, rolled-up piece of kitchen paper does a passable job in a pinch. More detail in our Invisalign chewies guide.

Usually it’s mineral build-up, staining or bacteria. Most of it is fixed by brushing, soaking and keeping food and drink away from the aligners.

• ✓  Cloudy or white film. Usually mineral deposits from saliva, sometimes fine scratches from toothpaste. A crystal or vinegar soak lifts deposits. Scratches are permanent, so switch to soap and the next aligner will stay clearer.
• ✓  Yellowing. Staining from coffee, tea, wine, turmeric or smoking with the aligners in, or from coloured mouthwash. A soak helps a little; prevention helps a lot, and a fresh aligner is never more than two weeks away.
• ✓  Smell. Bacteria in the film on the aligner and, more often than people expect, on the teeth underneath. Brush the aligners rather than just rinsing, soak them, and make sure your teeth are clean before they go back in. If a fresh aligner still smells within a day or two, mention it at your review, as it can point to a gum problem.
• ✓  Sharp edges. A clean emery board takes an edge off in seconds, or tell us and we’ll smooth it.

If an aligner is badly stained or warped, don’t persist with it. Let us know. We may move you to the next aligner early, or back to the previous one while we order a replacement. Soreness unrelated to fit is covered in does Invisalign hurt?.

The same way as aligners: cool water, soft brush, clear soap, a soak a couple of times a week, never toothpaste, never hot water. Every Toothi Invisalign package includes clear removable retainers and a fixed wire retainer behind the front teeth. The difference is that you’re now keeping one appliance in good condition for years rather than a fortnight, so the soak and the case both matter more. Our Invisalign retainers guide explains wear schedules, and replacement retainers covers what to do when one cracks or goes missing (from £150 for one arch; see our fees page).

The fixed retainer is a thin wire bonded behind the front teeth. You can’t take it out to clean, so brush with the bristles angled towards the wire and thread floss under it each night with a floss threader or superfloss. We clean around it at your hygiene appointments; full detail is on our fixed retainer page.

At Toothi we show you the cleaning and chewie routine at your fitting, and we’re a WhatsApp message away between your 8-weekly reviews. There’s nothing to buy from us: everything on this page is available from any chemist, and the right products are the gentle, boring ones. Our dentist, who has a special interest in Invisalign, checks your tracking at every review. If you haven’t started yet, the free consultation and our package options are the place to begin.