Engagers - How to place

Engagers, or "buttons" or "attachments" as some call them, can be thought of as small "handles" you put on teeth to help them move. Because some teeth are shaped or positioned in a way that can be difficult for an aligner to "grab" onto, small composite-resin bumps are placed onto the facial surfaces of the teeth so that the aligner has something to "engage" with.

With ClearCorrect there are two types of engagers; Veritical Rectangle and Horizontal Rectangle.

  A blue square on the treatment plan represents adding an engager.

Engagers are an active area of research and development at ClearCorrect and elsewhere.

Many conceptual designs for engagers have been discussed in literature and professional forums, but when they are reduced to practice and the shape is thermoformed in the engager template, problems of adaptation and air gaps reduce the capability of many of these designs.

Without conclusive information and until the mentioned adaptation problems are resolved, ClearCorrect is happy to stick to simple horizontal and vertical engagers, which work well.

Engagers, templates & case revisions

On the treatment setup, if the engager is blue, it means it’s a new engager placement. If the engager is gray, it means it’s a previously placed engager.

If you are submitting a case revision based on a prior step (not new impressions or scans), we’ll assume that the existing engagers are still on the teeth. You won’t receive a new engager template unless new engagers are needed.