WHAT YOU WILL RECEIVE 2017-10-23T16:58:51+00:00

What You’ll Receive

  • Smile Aligners

    are packaged in the order of wear. We place a small indentation in the aligner along the buccal of the first molar which corresponds to the number that aligner represents in the overall sequence. Patients are always instructed to wear their aligners in order and not skip any.

    Please check to make sure that the aligner sequence identification on the aligner box matches the number of indentions on the aligner housed in a particular box to ensure the corresponding aligners have been placed in the correct boxes.

  • IPR chart

    When interproximal reduction (IPR) has been incorporated to resolve crowding or interference, the lab will return a chart with the case showing the amount of enamel reduction and target locations for each contact point and amount of IPR done in the laboratory. Please keep in mind this is our best estimated IPR based on the actual laboratory reset through the requested stages. There is always the possibility that the actual amount of IPR required clinically may vary slightly from what was done in the laboratory based on how the teeth respond to each aligner.

  • IPR – Doctor and Lab Communication

    There are occasionally aligner cases that do not respond clinically to the tooth movements built into the aligners in the laboratory. Our experience has shown the most common issue in these cases is the lack of coordinated IPR between the doctor and laboratory. The IPR communication “chain” is started with clinicians’ IPR request on the Rx form which is evaluated and processed through the laboratory. We communicate back to the doctor after which we begin clinical implementation. Considering the precision nature of IPR and the critical need to reduce the teeth in the appropriate areas, there is a great need for the laboratory and doctor to communicate in as much detail as possible

    The most common type of aligner cases we see involves anterior crowding. In this case, the clinician must determine a treatment plan to correct the crowding that involves either expansion/flaring of the anterior segment or IPR as needed to resolve the discrepancies. In our aligner process a crowding case can have 0.25 to 0.50 mm of enamel removed from the mesial and distal of each anterior tooth depending on the amount of crown overlap and access to the sides of the teeth.