How do I clean Invisalign after drinking alcohol?

Remove your Invisalign aligners before drinking anything other than water, and after drinking alcohol rinse or brush your teeth and clean the trays before reinserting. This follows Invisalign’s patient-use-and-care advice to remove aligners for eating, drinking and oral care and the brand’s cleaning recommendations. [1, 3]

Quick takeaways

• Always remove aligners for beverages other than water; alcohol is included.
• Rinse your mouth after drinking; brush teeth before reinserting when possible.
• Use a manufacturer-recommended soak like Invisalign Cleaning Crystals (example: 15-minute soak) for deeper cleaning when needed.
• Do not soak trays in mouthwash—some clinics advise against this—so prefer the manufacturer’s cleaning system or rinsing and brushing. [1, 3]

Step-by-step: what to do after you drink alcohol

Take the aligners out before you drink alcohol (Invisalign advises removing trays for anything other than water). [1]

After drinking, rinse your mouth with water to remove residue and, when possible, brush your teeth before reinserting the trays—Invisalign patient guidance specifically recommends rinsing or brushing after consuming anything but water to reduce staining and acid exposure. [3]

If you can’t brush right away, at minimum rinse both your mouth and the aligners with water before putting them back in for a short period, then clean them properly as soon as you can. [1, 3]

Cleaning options for the trays

Use Invisalign’s Cleaning System (Cleaning Crystals) as the manufacturer describes for a deeper soak—Invisalign promotes a short soak (example: about 15 minutes) to help keep aligners clear and hygienic. [2]

Some orthodontic practices explicitly warn against soaking aligners in mouthwash; clinic guidance and the ADA note that mouthrinses are adjuncts to brushing but do not provide an aligner-soak endorsement—so preferring the manufacturer cleaning product or rinsing and brushing is the practical option supported by the returned sources. [4, 5]

What the sources don’t say (important limitation)

The provided manufacturer and practice materials do not report peer-reviewed clinical or laboratory studies that measured the specific effects of short-term alcohol exposure on Invisalign material (staining, warping or chemical damage). [1, 2]

Because the guidance is manufacturer and practice-level patient care advice rather than alcohol-specific experimental evidence, follow the stated removal, rinsing/Brushing and cleaning steps rather than assuming a laboratory-measured harm pathway has been established in these sources. [1, 3]

Using Smilo to help keep a routine

If you want an easier way to track cleaning after drinking, Smilo lets you log aligner cleaning sessions and set configurable regular-clean and deep-clean reminders so you remember to rinse, brush and run a manufacturer-recommended soak when needed.