Metal Mouth Message Board

I just wanted to survey everyone to see how much time they spend wearing the invisalign trays per day. My ortho said I should wear then for 23 hours a day. However I have kept track of the time I have had them off over the last two days, and I am averaging about 22 hrs with trays on. I think 23 is pushing it. Does anyone else agree 23 hrs is hard to adhere to? Should I not worry if I am wearing them 22 hrs? Maybe he is saying 23 knowing people will be less than this so he is overestimating to get patients to be compliant as possible.

Thanks in advance for any an all replies!

i have them in usually about 20 hrs per day. maybe sometimes less on the weekends as i have an active social life and do not like wearing them out to bars or when i am pounding beers . and my dentist has said that my progress is coming along just as expected. i am just starting my second week of trays 7 on both upper and lower.

I am now into my second set of trays as of today and I must say that since I started I have not worn them for 22 hours at a time as instructed. A lot of times I may have them out for 2-6 hours throughout the day due to trying to catch some relief from first time issues with treatment. Fortunately my second set of trays fit with no problem but then again I do have to wear my trays for 3 weeks at a time instead of 2 weeks like most people are instructed.

Hi,
I used to wear them on average for 21 hours a day. I finished my treatment a had no problems. 23hours seems a lot to me. I think anything above 20 hours is fine.

I'm onto week 8 now and are managing to keep my trays in for 22hrs a day Monday to Thursday and about 20hrs a day on Fridays and weekends. I feel if I am really strict for the first 4 days of the week I can have a bit of a reward and enjoy the food and drinks that weekends are all about. Still allowed to have a life even with invisalign. I am finding wearing these trays really easy, hardly even notice I have them in most of the time. All good.
I do tend to drink warm coffees and also alcohol with them in no problems, just swish in a bit of water from time to time. Have been in pub drinking beers with them in and I don't think they discolour, no one has noticed or said anything.

I've been wearing aligners for close to two years. I'm probably averaging 21 to 22 hours / day and my ortho has not noted any problems because of wear time. My case is probably more complex than most, so if there was a problem, I think it would have shown up. My ortho's website notes 20 to 22 hrs per day wear time in his Invisalign description.

23 hrs / day sounds very restrictive - thats 15 minutes to gulp down a meal with 5 minutes to brush - three times a day. My meals are with family and sometimes business clients. In addition, I do travel some for my job. There's no way I could make a 23 Hr/day schedule work.

About 20 hours a day.

I'm just in the process of getting refinements and my ortho says thats the reason why!

He can be a bit of git.

I don't see how you can possible eat enough in a day and floss and brush your teeth in only 1 hour, so I agree that 23 hours per day is far too restrictive.

I was told 22 hours per day, and I do my best to stick to that. The worst I've been so far was probably about an extra 20 minutes out of them 1 day.

Most days I have half an hour for breakfast, half an hour for lunch and 1 hour for the evening meal.

Agree with most of the above. 23 is a bit much. 22 is what is "safe". For some individuals, 20 or 21 may be ok, but dropping below 20 is asking for failed Invisalign treatment. Wearing aligners for 3 weeks instead of 2 doesn't mean you can wear them for 2/3 of the time required per day. The teeth move based upon the application of "continuous" force, not periodic forces.

My ortho told me to wear mine 23 hrs a day as well...but I typically have mine out 30minutes in the am, 30minutes at lunch, and 30minutes or more in the evening. I find that I'm much more strict with myself in the first week, when I can feel that they're a little tighter putting them back in after the 30 minutes. I will take a bit of a longer "dinner break" in the second week, but try to never allow them to be out for more than an hour at once.

I think the idea is to allow as little movement as possible in order to allow the teeth to stabilize in their new positions before moving on to the next. Sometimes I want to just take them out and forget about them for a few hours, but risking the health of my roots, and getting off track and prolonging my treatment just isn't worth it! That said, I've found 23 hours to be pretty much impossible....I mean I gotta brush and floss too for goodness sake!

I usually average 21 hours. Like a lot of you I do better the first week because of how tight they are putting back in if I leave them out too long.

No way could I keep them in 23 hours - heck it takes me longer than half hour to eat a meal (other than bfast when it's cereal or toast, etc), let alone brush and such after!

23 hours is pretty much impossible unless you plan on starving yourself and skipping out on brushing and flossing a lot.

22 hours is borderline impossible for me but I do my best to stick to it.

I probably come in somewhere between 21 and 22 hours most days. I slip up occasionally if I'm out to eat with friends or family because with the length of time that it takes for a meal to come out to the table between appetizers, drinks, desert, conversation, etc. I can't stick to making it a quick meal unless I want to be rude and awkward and take the aligners on and off a bunch of times in front of everyone at the table.

Also, the brushing and flossing takes me a little while longer than most people probably take, so there goes a good chunk of my time right there.

Anyhow, at 21 to 22 hours per day with the occasional slip up, my progress is moving along just fine. Only 2 more trays to go and I'm done!

I keep them on for about 22 hours a day, 20-21 on weekends when I go out more.

My orthodontist told me to keep them in 22 hours a day, but that I can cheat. The invisalign site says you have to keep them in at least 20 hours. I guess your dentist always tells you more so you don't cheat too much!