Have You Ever Instructed an Invisalign Patient to Eat with Their Trays In?

It is possible to eat most foods with Invisalign, but it does feel weird in the beginning. Clean them right after so food does not remain on the teeth for extended periods. I find it helpful to have my patients eat with their Invisalign in these situations:


To ensure enough hours of wear. Some patients who remove the aligners for eating don't replace them 'till hours later.

To protect the teeth from wear and chipping in case of a bite interference. This may be the case with your teeth.


Stay away from strongly colored foods, such as pasta sauce and red wine to keep your aligners clear. I have not had aligners break due to eating. If an aligner cracks it's typically due to removal difficulty with lots of attachments and/or long crowns. Just in case there is breakage, the Invisalign aligners are warranted to function for the full two weeks. To get a warranty replacement keep the broken aligner and have the doctor's office call Invisalign. To further protect the teeth consider using a fluoride mouthrinse directly in the invisalign aligner after brushing and flossing, at nighttime. The plastic that Invisalign uses at this time is either the third or fourth generation material. The older material, which is still being used by some of it's competitors, was more brittle and would not withstand chewing forces.

 I never instruct my patients to eat with the aligners on.Obviously, the aligners are not going to help you on chewing. I would go for a second opinion.

You should never eat with the trays in.  They are thin and fragile and can break easily.  I do allow my patients to drink clear liquids with them in but never to eat with them.

Your open bite in the posterior may be temporary at this point of Invisalign treatment but needs to be gone by the end.  If it is significant, at the end, a refinement correction with a new set of trays may be needed.  Sometimes dentists try to adjust the bite, but be careful as too much adjusting is not health to your teeth.  If the dentist treating you cannot resolve this, he can call Invisalign and get tips from experts on difficulties.  I definitely do not recommend eating with aligners in as there is too much risk of damaging the aligners in such a way that they can not make the necessary movements.

Sounds a little odd to me.  But I am not seeing what they are seeing.  Eating or clenching with aligners in certainly will not help.  In fact in may even lead to more of a posterior open-bite.  We sometimes see small posterior open-bites in good aligner wearers, but they often resolve as time goes on, and we don't see them as often as one might think.  If your open bite seems to be getting worse, maybe it is time tor a second opinion ... perhaps with an orthodontic specialist.  If there really is problem they are best equipped to help get you out of that situation.

There is likely nothing WRONG with eating with the aligners, but there are SOME risks.  Clearly, the chewing ability is less and they may break, but also the trays can trap particles of food or acidic drinks.  Essentially this is like a bath for your teeth, likely in a lower pH, leading to decay.

If you MUST eat with them in, be sure to remove them at the end of a meal and rinse them out.