How Invisalign
Creates Custom Aligners for Each Patient
Additionally, Invisalign requires photos and X-rays to ensure that aligners are made to fit perfectly. Once all of that information is gathered, it’s sent to Costa Rica, home of Align’s treatment operations facility. Using your impressions, one of Align’s technicians creates a digital, 3-D model of your teeth. Aligners are then designed using computer software. The number of aligners for each patient varies depending on the treatment plan, from just a few sets to 30. Before these designs are manufactured, though, your doctor needs to approve the
treatment plan. Once they sign off, the information travels from Costa Rica to Juarez, Mexico, to be turned into aligners. First, molds are created for each of your aligners using stereolithography, the most advanced method of 3-D printing. The molds are the base on top of which the aligners are constructed. After initial fabrication, aligners are trimmed, polished, and packaged. By the time they return to your doctor’s office, your aligners have traveled well over 3,000 miles. After that long journey, they just need to move from their cases to your mouth and back.
For patients, Invisalign treatment is as simple as popping in aligners. Creating those aligners, however, is a complicated process spanning three countries. Align Technology, the company that owns Invisalign, builds precise, custom aligners for every patient, which requires a lot of technology and hard work. The first step in the creation process happens in your dentist or orthodontist’s office, where impressions of your teeth are taken. These impressions also include a bite registration that shows how your teeth fit together.
ffice Happenings!
Sausage
& Barley Soup
It’s a great time of year to warm up with a cup of soup, and this comforting, guilt-free dish comes together in a flash.
INGREDIENTS
Hannah won a backpack for winning the Erasers Guessing Game, and our lucky fitbit winner!
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1/4 cup uncooked quick-cooking barley 1 cup coarsely chopped fresh baby spinach
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2 cups water
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Cooking spray
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can Italian-style stewed tomatoes, undrained and chopped
6 ounces turkey breakfast sausage 2 1/2 cups frozen bell pepper stir-fry
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DIRECTIONS
3. Add stir-fry puree, tomatoes, and barley to sausage in pan.
1. Heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add sausage; cook 3 minutes or until browned. Remove from heat. 2. While sausage cooks, place stir-fry and 2 cups water in a blender; process until smooth.
Bring mixture to a boil over high heat; cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 10 minutes. Stir in spinach; cook 1 minute or until spinach wilts.
www.ShullmanOrtho.com • 561.868.5050 • 3 Recipe courtesy of CookingLight.com.
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