Dear Patient:

We hope this letter finds you and your family in good health. Our community has been through a lot over the last few months, and all of us are looking forward to resuming our normal habits and routines. While many things have changed, one thing has remained the same: our commitment to your safety.

Infection control has always been a top priority for our practice and you may have seen this during your visits to our office. Our infection control processes are made so that when you receive care, it’s both safe and comfortable. We want to tell you about the infection control procedures we follow in our practice to keep patients and staff safe.

Our office follows infection control recommendations made by the American Dental Association (ADA), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). We follow the activities of these agencies so that we are up-to-date on any new rulings or guidance that may be issued.

You may see some changes when it is time for your next appointment. We made these changes to help protect our patients and staff. For example:

Our office will communicate with you beforehand to ask some screening questions. You'll be asked those same questions again when you are in the office.
- We have hand sanitizer that we will ask you to use when you enter the office. You will also find some in the reception area and other places in the office for you to use as needed.
- You may see that our waiting room will no longer offer magazines, children’s toys and so forth, since those items are difficult to clean and disinfect.
- Appointments will be managed to allow for social distancing between patients. That might mean that you’re offered fewer options for scheduling your appointment.
We will do our best to allow greater time between patients to reduce waiting times for you, as well as to reduce the number of patients in the reception area at any one time.

We look forward to seeing you again and are happy to answer any questions you may have about the steps we take to keep you, and every patient, safe in our practice. To make an appointment, please call our office at (509) 485-8620 or visit our website at www.drweigand.com

Thank you for being our patient. We value your trust and loyalty and look forward to welcoming back our patients, neighbors and friends.

Sincerely,
Richard D. Weigand, DDS

How to Make Your Invisalign Treatment Easier

Posted By: Dr. Richard Weigand | Published On: Nov 5, 2019 | Blog

Patients already love Invisalign because it lets them access orthodontic treatments without anyone else having to know about it. If you really want to get the most out of your treatment, though, you need to know how to get the best results from the process. That means understanding what helps your overall oral hygiene and what will set you back in your progress.

Keep Your Teeth Healthy

The biggest risk when using aligner trays or braces is food getting trapped where bacteria can feast on it without disruption. For patients with braces, it’s around the brackets. For aligner system patients, it’s under the aligner, which is practically the entire surface of all your teeth. To make sure there’s nothing that can stimulate tooth decay when you slip the aligner in, make sure you brush, floss, and use mouthwash after eating and before putting it in.

Keep Your Aligners Clean

Your teeth aren’t the only place that bacteria can be trapped. Cleaning your aligner at the beginning and end of each day helps ensure there’s no buildup there, so you can be more confident in your process after meals.

Make Sure You Wear Them

The biggest obstacle to success with Invisalign is the lack of proper use. Trays need to be in your mouth 22 hours a day, which means they can be removed for meals, but meals need to be short to avoid a total of 2 hours or less of removal time each day. If this sounds like a challenge, there are options to help you manage:

Use a timer after removal
Request the teen format with the blue use indicator dot
Reduce from three meals each day to two larger ones
Cut out snacking

If you can manage to keep the aligners in all day every day, you’ll get through treatment faster and then you won’t have to worry so much about how long you spend at meals. If you want to learn more about orthodontic treatment with Invisalign, contact our office for an appointment with a dentist in Spokane, WA.