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Is There Long Term Damage Done when Skipping 5 Invisalign Trays?

I'm a 27 year old woman who has never had braces in the past. I'm currently doing the Invisalign treatment. I've completed trays 1-6 wearing each tray for 2 weeks. When I went to get set 7 from my dentist, he accidentally gave me set 12 which I've now been wearing for 4 weeks without knowing it was the wrong set. I've obviously been in a lot of pain for the past 4 weeks and they still don't fit flush down onto my teeth. What damage has most likely been done with this unnecessary rapid movement?

Doctor Answers 3

Try not to skip trays..

January 11th, 2013
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Hello!

That is unfortunate your dentist gave you the wrong aligners... but, this should not cause long term damage. The best thing to do is stay on set #6 until you can get back to your dentist to get the correct aligner. By skipping so many aligners, it will cause your aligners that you switched to to not fully track or "seat" no matter how long you wear them, and then you will have to be either rescanned or have new impressions taken over for new aligners. 

Jacqueline Fulop-Goodling, DMD


New York Orthodontist
3.6 out of 5 stars 13 reviews

Should be ok

January 10th, 2013
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Most likely you have done no damage.  Worst case scenario, your case no longer tracks and your dentists has to "reboot" it.  I would suspect that you just go to aligner 7 and it will be fine.

Bradley Matthew, DDS

Bradley Matthew, DDS
Los Angeles Dentist

No damage

January 10th, 2013
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Very likely no damage has been done that can't be reversed.  I would simply find tray number 7 and continue as planned.  The teeth MAY not have moved enough to be a problem.

Web reference: http://www.DrTimmerman.com

Lance Timmerman, DMD

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