Answers to all questions: the reality of wearing invisalign

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#1 Post by **acrd** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 12:24 pm

For about a week my mouth was dry and they hurt my tongue when I talked, but since then I have had zero problems and zero pain!

I switch every 2 weeks.

I am on set 11 of 18.

Doing the following is all fine:

Leaving them out all weekend, and generally only wearing them for around 18 hours a day
Eating with them in (I have tried banana, chips, chocolate pancakes, haribo, jaffa cakes to name but a few)
Drinking with them in (anything from tea and coke to red wine, as long as you clean them they're fine)

If you can't get them out use crochet hooks
If you break a set, (I once accidently melted a set in boiling water) just pop the previous set in. Unless you broke that too as i did by snapping one, then just force the next set in, it's fine and cheaper than paying Â£400 for a replacement!
It doesn't affect your speech
It doesn't affect your love life
Mine cost me Â£3150

I even have 12 attachments on all my front teeth which are visible to me, but noone really cares and I have a very professional job and thought I would feel more self conscious than I do.
I tell people I have braces so I dont feel like they are looking at my teeth, which they probably aren't
They do stop you snacking as much between meals, and i wouldn't be surprised if i have lost 2 stone, by eating normally but having fewer (because I do occasionally eat with them in!) snacks.
I have been skiing and snowboarding wearing them.
My only tip is to say that your crochet hooks might be confiscated at the airport as a potential weapon! Hope all that reassures you all.

#2 Post by **PaulInc** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 7:04 pm

Just because your experience didn't end in utter disaster doesn't mean "Doing the following is all fine". That's incredibly irresponcible.

"Leaving them out all weekend" - Terrible idea.
"only wearing them for around 18 hours a day" - Bad advice.
"Just force the next set in" - very bad advice without consulting ortho!
"Â£400" - How did you come up with this number? It seems rediculous.
"It doesn't affect your speech" - Err, yes it does for many people, just usually not very much.

You should sum your post up with "I did all this WRONG, but my teeth are still ok, aren't i amazingly lucky?"

#3 Post by **John37** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 1:47 am

Excellent! I'd just be a little concerned that having them out for too long won't allow your bone to reform around the teeth in their new positions. You may get to the end and find that your teeth are looser than they should be because of this, but I hope not. Good luck!

#4 Post by **andrea26** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 6:19 am

i think invisalign is still a fairly new thing , so the dentists reccommend to

try and have them in as long as possible although it may not be necessary.

the rule is not to drink or eat with them but a lot of dentists reccommend

drinking and eating with them. i am very strict with myself and have my

trays in for 22hours every day but i ve heard about a lot of people who have

them in for much shorter time and the treatment still works.

However the long term result may not be that good. I do drink everything

with my trays in as my ortho reccommended and havent really noticed

any stains on them.

#5 Post by **gdriftr** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 11:17 am

John37, are you saying that the bone reforms properly around the root every 2 weeks, once for each aligner? I know nothing about teeth but that seems quick to me.

I've also been wondering if there are any 'hiddens', i.e. When I wear the aligners less than I should, if there are problems I don't know about, even though everything 'seems' to be progressing fine...

#6 Post by **anastasia** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 12:08 pm

I wonder about the same thing as gdriftr. I cheat, and I seem to be doing quite excellent.

I read someone here saying that the "normal" time in each tray for a "normal" patient is calculated to be 220 hours, that is 10 days if you do 22 hours a day. If you have each tray for 14 days, you should in theory get away with wearing them 16 hours a day. Even less if your teeth move fast.

I'm sure it's not that simple, but does anyone really have any facts concerning the potential damages of leaving the trays out too long?

I keep reading warnings about having to go back several trays or getting loose teeth etc, but I've never actually heard of that happening to anyone.

That being said, I don't recommend wearing the trays less than the ortho tells you. But I do think that they/Aligntech add a couple of hours and even a couple of days to make sure that you do the minimum time, and I think how fast teeth move varies from person to person and not everyone fit in the general calculation.

Wed Apr 15, 2009 2:59 pm

My ortho said I should be aiming for 300 hours over the two weeks. So that's about 21.5 hours a day. I usually have mine in for more like 22.5 hours a day though, I try to have them in for as long as possible.

I'm always a bit shocked by people on here who say they leave theirs out for 8 hours a day etc. Maybe it works for some people but it's not something I'm willing to risk! These things cost me a fortune and the last thing I want is something going wrong cos I didn't wear them enough. Though I'm planning on going away a few months after I'm supposed to finish treatment and I'll be gone for a year. So I really want to finish treatment as close to the expected time as possible so that I don't have to delay going travelling. Maybe i'd be a bit more lax about keeping them in otherwise.

Either way the longer you keep them in the better and I think it's crazy to leave them out all weekend! Surely you'd be undoing a lot of the movement if they're out for that long

#8 Post by **Wireless** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 5:42 pm

I have read that 21 hrs/day is the minimum recommended. However, most orthos recommend 22 probably assuming everyone is going to cheat a little.

In my case, I'm finding it difficult to keep a 2 week schedule due to age and slower tooth movement. This is not my first ortho treatment and I have been told I may have to finish with regular braces if Invisalign doesn't work out. I'm being very cautious!

#9 Post by **gdriftr** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 11:05 pm

I started off between 20 and 22 hours based on what I read on these boards. At the first visit my dentist was impressed with this figure and said as long as I kept above 20 hours it would be fine.

Since then I've been a bit slack though, on a few occasions leaving them out for 4 hours at a time. I guess I am now averaging 18-20 hours. My teeth 'seem' fine, but I'm only on my 4th tray and will have my 2nd appointment at the end of my 5th, so I'll know more then....

#10 Post by **Wobblydeb** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 1:56 am

I've got a couple of teeth not quite where they should be, and I am wondering if it is because I didn't have my aligners in for enough hours.

I got complacent after the first few trays because everything seemed to be going so well ...... and I was missing my cups of tea!

I don't know if the outcome would be any different, but if I could go back 4 months I would be making sure I wore them more hours

#11 Post by **John37** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 3:43 am

gdriftr wrote:John37, are you saying that the bone reforms properly around the root every 2 weeks, once for each aligner? I know nothing about teeth but that seems quick to me.

I've also been wondering if there are any 'hiddens', i.e. When I wear the aligners less than I should, if there are problems I don't know about, even though everything 'seems' to be progressing fine...

I'm not an expert. I was just speculating.

But I would say No, if the bone reformed completely after 2 weeks, then at the end of treatment you wouldn't need to keep wearing the aligners at all, or with braces, they could be taken off instead of wearing them for another 6 months or whatever.

My teeth that are moving are always loose, but I don't think I could push them back to the position they were in 3+ trays ago.

So I'm just guessing that the longer you hold your teeth in the new position the quicker the bone will reform around the tooth in the new position.

On a side note, I do notice that when I put in a new aligner it's better to have had the old aligners in for a bit before changing. If I take the old ones out for 2 hours to eat, then try to put the new ones in they won't fit as well and I'm scared this might lead to the teeth going off track. It's like the teeth move backward a bit during those 2 hours, then I'm trying to move them forward 2 steps. So now I make sure I put the old ones back in for a while before changing to a new set.

About your second question, I haven't heard anything about that.

#12 Post by **PaulInc** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 11:11 am

Leave your aligners out too long and put them back in, it's pretty obvious what's happening and why you need to keep them in as much as possible. Your teeth move back out of alignment.

I have to be honest and admit i do not wear my aligners 22h a day. I think it's near impossible for anyone to eat well and do that. My treatment is progressing fine and i've had no problems in 7 months, but that's not to say someone else could do the same and get the same result.

#13 Post by **invisibyte** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 5:41 am

I agree with most of the things the original poster has stated...although i don't know about leaving them out for a whole weekend! I have, however, left them out for up to 5 hours in a row, and once for about 7 hours due to the fact that I was very sick and doing what most sick people do (use imagination) so didn't want my aligners in, ew!

On average I wear them about 19-20 hours per day. In the first couple of days of a new tray its usually 21 hours. I have not had any problems, nor have any of my trays hurt much, except for the 4th one when I first got my attachments on, I think that's pretty normal.

I haven't eaten with them in but i drink all kinds of things! They have never stained. I've had alcohol with them in too. No hot liquid though, just room temperature. I have smoked on occasion with them in also, and no staining. But I do not smoke often so maybe with continued smoking they would.

#14 Post by **pompompadom** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 10:24 am

My friend has just finished invisalign he always ate and drank, then put them straight back in again.

He would also leave them out for a couple of hours if we were all going out for a meal or something.

He brushed his teeth in the morning and brushed and flossed at night only.

He's now finished his treatment and his teeth look great.

#15 Post by **gdriftr** » Mon May 11, 2009 3:27 am

I just went for my 2nd check up. I had my first after the 1st aligner, now I just finished my 5th.

so as I said above i was a bit unsure what would happen because I've been a bit slack on aligners 2-5, wearing them about 18 hours a day and on occasions having them out for 5 hours at a time.

Anyway the dentist seems very pleased with my progress and has allowed my to reduce from 14 to 12 days per aligner. There must be people she's comparing me to, whose teeth don't move so well, so I'm not recommending my approach to others, just remarking..