My Invisalign has cracked and dentist shut. Can I superglue it?

76zedfour

I was on a course of aligners with a dentist in Spain this winter. I returned to UK when coronavirus lockdown was invoked in Spain before my dental course had ended. I have a couple of sets of upper left but the lower finished about 8 weeks ago and I have been wearing the final aligner since then. It has cracked but not split in two yet although I think it is likely to split soon. My dentist in Spain is totally shut and not responding to calls or emails. Neither is the local orthodontist to me now nor the two dental labs. Rather limited to whom I can turn to.
Can I repair the crack with simple superglue? I know it can be used to repair cuts so I assume its not toxic.
Anybody repaired this way before or is there a specific product more suitable?

Undervalued

76zedfour said:

I was on a course of aligners with a dentist in Spain this winter. I returned to UK when coronavirus lockdown was invoked in Spain before my dental course had ended. I have a couple of sets of upper left but the lower finished about 8 weeks ago and I have been wearing the final aligner since then. It has cracked but not split in two yet although I think it is likely to split soon. My dentist in Spain is totally shut and not responding to calls or emails. Neither is the local orthodontist to me now nor the two dental labs. I live on the Isle of Wight so rather limited to whom I can turn to.
Can I repair the crack with simple superglue? I know it can be used to repair cuts so I assume its not toxic.
Anybody repaired this way before or is there a specific product more suitable?

The versions made for the medical market are (presumably) non toxic. It started life as a quick way of patching up battle field injuries!

However I don't think I would assume that a bottle of pound shop cheapo superglue was necessarily safe to have in your mouth long term.

Plus, some of the more specialised CA (i.e "superglue") adhesives, particularly the extra thin penetrating ones have some very nasty chemicals in them. Try spilling a drop on cotton clothes over sweaty skin and watch it boil!

Finally, like all adhesives, whilst "superglue" sticks some things very well it hardly touches certain materials. Hard plastics in particular are very difficult to stick with it.

Nile

It is unsafe, don't do it!

One of our members brook2jack (a dentist) posted this on 1 Feb 2016:

There are warnings on packaging for good reason, never use superglue in your mouth , never use it to repair dentures, never use any products in your mouth that are not designed for use there.

brook2jack2

Superglue is not going to do any good at all. The pressures on retainers is so massive that it will split straight away , particularly as you will get glue on the fitting surface and so the retainer will not go in properly in the first place. 

Keep wearing the retainer for now, if it splits go back to your previous retainer, it will take you back a step but it's better than wearing no retainer as you are likely to quickly relapse to where you started. You cannot repair retainers you will have to wait until the dentist in Spain can be contacted and will probably have to send you a new retainer in the post. However as all labs are shut down as well it may be months before this happens. 

76zedfour

Thank you guys, particularly from brooks. I did put the last aligner aside but since returning from Spain I can't find it. The bottom aligners were only necessary to correct a relapse after having a lingual brace (not my fault). I think my teeth are cursed!

76zedfour

I wonder, can I send the aligner direct to Invisalign to be copied or are they shut too?

brook2jack2

Invisalign will not send aligners direct to you. There are several labs they use most of them in America and there is always a backlog of dentists waiting for their cases, most of the communication is done via a dedicated and secure internet connection which can be used by the dentist and the special software only. They are not a direct to the public outfit and a repeat or extra retainer will be billed extra to the dentist direct. 

76zedfour

Just spoke to Invisalign. They are happy to transfer my files to a UK dentist (subject to some form signing) who can then order whatever I need from the lab in, I think she said, Mexico. I have also since spoken to my UK orthodontist who I had lingual treatment with and uses Invisalign so a happy ending. Thank you brooks.