Attachments, IPR & refinements, explained

Those small bumps are attachments — tiny, tooth-coloured pieces of dental composite bonded to certain teeth. They give the aligners something to grip so they can make trickier movements, like rotating a tooth or moving it up or down. They’re planned in advance, placed comfortably with no drilling, and removed and polished away at the end of treatment.

No. Attachments are simply bonded onto the surface of the enamel — nothing is drilled or removed. They’re the same kind of tooth-coloured composite used for bonding, they stay on only for the length of your treatment, and once they’re taken off the tooth is exactly as it was before.

In most cases, no — attachments are an integral part of how Invisalign works, and without them some teeth simply won’t move effectively. They’re only placed where they’re genuinely needed to achieve your result: most people end up with a few across the front teeth and some on the back teeth. Where a tooth can be moved well without one, we leave it off.

They’re tooth-coloured, so from a normal social distance most people won’t notice them. When your aligners are first fitted you’ll be very aware of them yourself, and up close they can be mildly noticeable — but others rarely look that closely, so in day-to-day life they go largely unseen. And they’re completely removed and polished away at the end of treatment.

IPR is the gentle polishing of a very small amount of enamel from between the teeth to create space — usually a fraction of a millimetre per contact. It’s used to relieve crowding or to fine-tune how the teeth meet, and it’s often what allows straightening without removing (extracting) any teeth. It’s carefully measured and planned as part of your treatment.

No, and it’s comfortable — there’s no injection needed. Only a tiny amount of surface enamel is smoothed away, well within safe limits, leaving plenty of healthy enamel behind. Studies show IPR doesn’t increase the risk of decay or sensitivity when done properly. For many people it’s a far more conservative option than extracting teeth to make space.

No. Straight after IPR, if you look very closely, you might spot a tiny gap — usually somewhere between 0.1 and 0.5 mm — between the teeth. That space is deliberate: as the aligners straighten your teeth, they move into it. By the end of treatment the gap has closed, so you’re left with no spacing between your teeth.

Not at all. Refinements are a normal, planned part of high-quality Invisalign. Once your main set of aligners has done most of the work, a fresh scan is taken and a short extra series of aligners is made to perfect the details — the final polish on the result. Needing refinements is a sign your dentist is chasing an excellent finish, not that anything failed.

With us, refinements to perfect your result are planned into your treatment rather than charged as a surprise — your plan and exactly what’s included are confirmed at your consultation. Beware of very cheap packages that treat refinements (or retainers) as costly add-ons.

Elastics are small, stretchy bands that hook between your upper and lower aligners to help guide the bite. They’re used in more involved cases — where the way your teeth meet needs correcting, or to help certain movements along faster and more predictably. You attach and change them yourself each day, and they’re only worn for the part of treatment where they’re genuinely needed.

Only mildly. Because they usually sit toward the back corners of the mouth rather than across your front teeth, they stay well out of your smile line, and most people won’t notice them in normal conversation. You take them out to eat and to clean your teeth, so they’re easy to live with.

No — most straightforward cases don’t need them at all. They’re only added where they’ll genuinely improve your result, usually to perfect the bite or to speed up a particular movement. If you do need them, we’ll show you exactly where they go and how long to wear them each day.