The traditional training has been to ask patients to take them out for any eating or drinking other than water. Some orthodontists are now asking their patients to keep them in the mouth while eating. The benefit of this is the same as that of using the aligner chewies in terms of seating the aligners and stimulating blood flow. In addition, very few people will forget to take the aligners off to clean up after eating with them on, and put them back in immediately. Naturally, there are certain foods that you don't want to eat with them on and you'll want to give your teeth and the aligners a good cleaning afterwards. Note that some patients do complain that it is difficult to eat with them on. Normally when you take them off for eating, there is a longer time you are not wearing aligners, and therefore, there the tendency is to forget to put them back in. Our personal preference is to ask patients to remove them during eating, use the chewies regularly, and remember to wear aligners as soon as eating has completed.