What is an Invisalign Lisp? And What Can You Do About It?

Thin as your thermoplastic aligners are, they very slightly modify the shape of your teeth and the interior of your mouth. Because the way that you make sounds and pronounce words is often determined by the placement of your tongue against various parts of your mouth, those tiny and subtle changes to the shape of your mouth can temporarily affect your speech while you get accustomed to wearing Invisalign in Edmonton. Those speech changes will sometimes take the form of a lisp.

An Invisalign-related lisp is a minor and temporary speech defect that mainly affects your ability to pronounce the “s” and “z” sounds. Rather than sounding like “sss” and “zzz,” you may find that those sounds temporarily come out sounding more like “th”. The lisp is caused simply because the placement of your tongue inside your mouth has changed just slightly due to the presence of your aligners — enough to change the way that air flows through your mouth and the way that sound is produced.

For most patients wearing Invisalign near you, that lisp appears in just hours or days, and certainly within a couple of weeks. The key to getting rid of the lips is to keep speaking — while wearing your aligners — to give your tongue and mouth the opportunity to get accustomed to the new shapes, positions and airflow patterns. If you’re self-conscious about it, try reading aloud when you’re alone, talking to yourself in the shower, or talking on the phone while walking the dog. The more you talk, the quicker that your tongue will be able to learn to move around and along the newly defined perimeters of your teeth. Whatever you do, keep talking and — before you know it — you’ll forget you ever had a lisp.

Before you ask… no, you won’t experience the lisp anew with every one of your aligners during your Invisalign treatment plan. Although each aligner varies slightly in the way that it affects and pressures your teeth, the aligners are nearly identical in shape and volume from one to the next. Once you’ve gotten over your lisp with your first aligner or two, you should find that the Invisalign-related lisp is behind you for good.

Whatever you do, resist the urge to take your aligners out of your mouth to speak. Taking your aligners will stall your progress and prevent your tongue from re-learning the perfect speaking patterns taking into account the new shape of your mouth. It will also stall your progress toward your newly straight teeth. Remember, Invisalign’s aligners only work while you’re wearing them. To achieve your goals, you need to wear those aligners for at least 20 hours a day, and ideally 22 hours daily. You may be tempted to take your aligners out because of frustration with the lisp, but remember that wearing them will help you get rid of your lisp faster — and help you get rid of your crooked teeth faster, too!

What if your lisp persists? If you find that your lisp is lasting for a lot longer than you expected, make an appointment with your dentist in Edmonton or make sure to bring it up at your next follow-up appointment. A persistent lisp can be caused by an ill-fitting aligner. It is rare that an aligner won’t fit properly, seeing as they’re made precisely for your teeth based on digital images taken early in your assessment and the development of your treatment plan. A persistent lisp may, however, indicate a possible fit issue that a dentist near you will investigate and take any necessary steps to correct.