Invisalign One-Day Break - How Much To Wait Till Next Tray?

Invisalign trays put constant pressure on teeth to move them into a new position.  If the tray is lost or not worn, the teeth will tend to drift.  This is why it is so important to wear the trays for at least 20 hours a day and to wear retainers for up to a year after treatment is finished.  I would ask you to wear the tray until it is time to go to the next tray and you should be fine.  It is better to loose or forget a tray towards the end of the 2 weeks!

I believe you can move to tray 11 if you only missed one day.

You should also ask the permission to your treating dentist.

 

Hi Tm1900

You should ask the treating dentist, but if that's all you missed for the entire 20 weeks you've been in treatment, I would imagine that its OK to continue with the next aligner as originally planned.

Best,

Dr. Alper

Each Invisalign tray is made to wear for a minimum of 14 days. If you missed one day then just add a day on to your schedule.

This is a very good question and should be discussed with your treating dentist; but generally speaking, after someone has worn 10 aligners they have a pretty good idea of when an aligner has done its job. The majority of an aligner's work is done in the first few days and the rest of the two weeks is to hold the movements. I would suggest you wear the aligner until it comes in and out easily and comfortably and then wear it an additional couple of days. Better to wear the aligner a few extra days than to have to do more lengthy refinements at the end to correct something that could have been prevented by more faithful aligner wear.

Good luck!

I'm sure you're not the first person not to wear the aligners perfectly!  Missing one 12 hour period when you have been good the rest of the time is no big deal.  I don't think you should worry...go ahead and change on schedule or if the new ones feel extra tight, stay an extra day or two on the old ones.

It takes an average of 10 hours to get teeth to begin moving, so if an aligner was not worn for 12 hours, only a couple were important.  After placing the aligner back in, by the following morning the teeth were likely back to how they were.  Moving on to the next aligner as planned, or perhaps one day later, will not alter treatment.