What is Insignia treatment?
This innovative system allows you to order all custom brackets and archwires to shorten treatment and make it safer.
With Insignia we take a digital or conventional intraoral impression and integrate it with the patient’s 3D CT scan (CBCT) to digitize all the anatomy of the teeth with their roots and the surrounding bone. Once we have these digital files we make a design of the final smile and send the planning to the authorized laboratory so that they can manufacture the customized treatment.
All brackets and archwires are custom made and the cementing of the brackets is done indirectly through transparent guides, this allows the exact position of the bracket on each tooth and the movements are very precise. Five archwires per dental arch are usually necessary.
This type of digital orthodontics is much faster 37% less treatment time than traditional braces or clear braces, including Invisalign.
What about Invisalign treatment?
Invisalign treatment is a virtually invisible way to align teeth. It is a system of removable aligners, which can be removed from the mouth for eating and drinking and for brushing and flossing.
Using advanced 3D computer imaging technology, the Invisalign system displays your complete treatment plan based on your orthodontist’s assessment, from the initial position of your teeth to the desired final position. The clear aligners are custom-fabricated so that your teeth move little by little.
It may be necessary to place small tooth-colored composite shapes called “attachments” to help achieve certain movements.
Each aligner is worn for approximately 1-2 weeks before being replaced by the next one, and the teeth are gradually moved into the final projected position. The aligner should be worn for 20-22 hours a day.
Which patient is it intended for?
Invisalign® is for everyone. Children may need orthodontic treatment from an early age. With the Invisalign First system, indicated for patients who are still growing from 6 to 10 years of age, we can achieve functional orthopedics, the treatment serves to move the teeth and act on the bones.
With Invisalign it is now possible to take advantage of the growth and development of the jaws and correct malocclusions in children. Adolescents can also benefit from this type of removable orthodontics without having to wear braces and fixed archwires.
What is essential in these cases is the motivation of the child and his or her parents. The splints have indicators that change color with use, they must be in place 20-22 hours a day for the treatment to be successful. If we get them to remove the splints only to eat or brush, we will not delay the treatment times and we will prevent them from losing them.
In the adolescent age the esthetic motivation is very important and the fact that the appliances can be removed for hygiene is also very important, so we can avoid the appearance of caries.
Adults, depending on the type of malocclusion, will need one of the types of Invisalign: Express, Lite or Comprehensive. The number of aligners that are necessary for your particular case, which is tied to the level of difficulty, will determine which pack of aligners you need.
Insignia™ for permanent dentition: Adolescents and adults.
If the adult patient wants faster results and doesn’t mind wearing braces with the Insignia™ system they can shorten treatment times without giving up digital technology. The adult patient must be able to maintain proper hygiene even while wearing fixed archwires. When we place the appliance we teach them how to achieve this.
What is the process?
In the case of Invisalign® we use extraoral and intraoral photographs of the patient, digital (digital scanning) or physical (silicone impressions) molds of the patient’s mouth, and X-rays of the patient’s skull and dental arches: TLC and OPG.
In the case of Insignia™, a 3D CT or CBCT is required instead of the traditional X-rays used with Invisalign.
Digital Planning: Clincheck/Advanced Smile Design Software
With all records the Invisalign® certified doctor can design the treatment with Align Technology’s digital software, ClinCheck Software which also allows patients to see their treatment plan from start to finish before treatment begins.
With Insignia™ Advanced Smile Design Software allows digital case planning in the same way and previewing. This innovative system takes into account the dental anatomy with its root, so it is more accurate than Invisalign® which only takes into account the crown of the tooth, what you see of the tooth in the mouth and not its root.
Treatment
Depending on the number of splints needed, in the Lite system up to 14 splints and Comprehensive more than 14, the patient will come for check-ups 1 or 2 times a month so that we can supervise their treatment. The treatment time will be adjusted on a case-by-case basis.
The Insignia™ system usually requires 5 archwires per dental arch. Treatment is accelerated because these archwires can be made of different alloys and the brackets are digitally positioned three-dimensionally. Cementation is done with a transparent template because they come placed in the template as planned in the software.
Retention
At the end of the treatment, the Invisalign attachments and the auxiliaries that had to be placed are removed. In the case of Insignia, the brackets and tubes are removed.
With Vivera Retainers® we can maintain the results of Invisalign and/or Insignia™ treatment. Other types of fixed retainers may be indicated depending on each case. Vivera and Essix clear retainers are also removable and are mainly used at night, although immediately after removal it is advisable to prolong their use for the first few weeks.
What are the advantages over traditional treatment?
These digital systems are a clear advantage in orthodontic treatments. Everything is planned three-dimensionally and is much safer than a conventional bracket system.
Insignia™ stands out for its speed as well as its safety. It is a fixed system, so it does not improve the aesthetics of the patient and you have to be careful with the food you take. But the planning taking into account the roots of the teeth makes it the safest system.
Invisalign® stands out for being a removable system, although you have to wear it 20-22 hours a day, it improves the quality of life when eating and performing a correct oral hygiene.
At Navegalia Dental we are committed to Invisalign First and Teen for children and adolescents. In the case of adults with very complex treatments, the use of Insignia™ can be an option to consider compared to Invisalign Comprehensive in adults, since these treatments can be very long with the final alignment phase that is necessary.
A treatment of more than 40 braces (yes, they are not that rare) can take forever and if aesthetics are not paramount the adult patient can see their teeth aligned much faster with custom brackets and archwires.
The price may not seem, a priori, to be an advantage. But these systems make fewer visits to the clinic possible, and even if necessary, check-ups are usually quicker with both systems. They save the patient time, discomfort and inconvenience. They are safer, more esthetic and more precise. Speed is another condition that Insignia™ offers us.
We are in the digital age and these orthodontic treatments are no longer a future alternative, they are the present.