Metal Mouth Message Board

Is it normal to have a small gap between the aligner and the bottom of one of my teeth? My bottom aligners fit nice and snug, but i seem to have a small gap with one of my front teeth on my upper aligner. The aligner completely fits onto the attachment and covers the whole tooth, but the bottom of my tooth doesn't seem to fill the aligner. I am debating contacting my ortho, but wondered if this is common.

It may depend on how long you have worn the aligner. When the tray is new, that space you describe will be more apparent (I have it with every set of aligners), but as the two weeks pass, the space should diminish as your teeth shift.

That being said, I one of my upper front teeth has never fit perfectly into any aligner (although it sometimes comes close). I don't know if that will affect treatment time at all - I have heard yes and no from different people. I do "chew" on a cotton roll or washcloth for 5-10 minutes daily before bed to help the tray settle more overnight. I guess teeth move more at night, so this is a good time to facilitate movement.

If the tray fits well in all other respects, I wouldn't worry too much!

A few of my front teeth have little chips at the bottom from years of abuse etc and this creates the odd gap but I've never been concerned by it, as long as the attachments are fitting the aligners you should be fine! With the attachments it makes it hard to get the aligner to settle any closer so I've just learned to live with it.

The attachments fitting in the aligner are only one indicator of treatment progression, since those teeth without attachments still need to move. As stated above, the first couple of days with a new tray may not allow the incisal edge to fit snugly inside the aligner, but it should shortly thereafter.

If you have any signs of "non-tracking" of your aligners, give your orthodontist a call.

My have stopped tracking, my ortho has said I'd gave to pay for midcourse corrections but I get refinements free. So I'm stuck with gaps at the bottom of two teeth and one tooth that is partially covered!! Another 3 months to go!! Booo

margarita2 wrote:Is it normal to have a small gap between the aligner and the bottom of one of my teeth? My bottom aligners fit nice and snug, but i seem to have a small gap with one of my front teeth on my upper aligner. The aligner completely fits onto the attachment and covers the whole tooth, but the bottom of my tooth doesn't seem to fill the aligner. I am debating contacting my ortho, but wondered if this is common.

I totally understand what you are saying. I have the same sort of problem. My aligners fit very well except around my pre-molars and at one point my ortho said it wasn't fitting very well, so I should spend some time biting down on them. I have been doing that and when I went in for my last appt. he was very pleased with the progress. By the end of the 2 weeks, they still do not fitting 100% but he says that they are moving and fitting well enough. So, we shall see...

When I had about 5-6 trays left in my treatment, I discovered that there was some air/space in the upper aligner under my two rotated lateral incisors.

I showed it to my orthodontist, and he said we should just finish the treatment as planned and see. All the last aligners fit snugly on all my other teeth and the one attachement, and were easy to put on and take out - but there was this obvious space at the bottom of the two rotated teeth on all of them.

At the end of my treatment (25 aligners) the two teeth had not rotated as much as planned and I got 12 refinements.

I'm not really sure what happened, if they were pushed up instead of rotating or if the trays were just constructed "wrong" because of wrong calculations. In any case it seems like this space made it possible for the rotated teeth to fit in the tray, even the last ones where the teeth were supposed to be perfectly straight, without rotating as much as they should.

I have this same problem with one of my upper front teeth too. I'm only on my third tray - my ortho had me wear tray #2 for 5 weeks and I still don't think it seated all the way before switching to tray 3. I chew like mad on the 'chewies' but I don't think it helps. I have traditional braces on my bottom arch, I think it would be easier to use the chewie if I had trays on both upper and lower. I'm curious if anyone has any other tips for getting the tray to seat properly when its not fitting on only one tooth.

Lateral incisors are some of the most difficult teeth for an orthodontist to move properly with Invisalign treatment. The reason is because they are smaller teeth with less surface area, and therefore provide less "grip" for the aligners.

Teeth that do not track within an aligner may have started having a problem several aligners ago. The lack of tracking develops over time and may not be seen immediately. Speak to your orthodontist if you are concerned that the teeth are not moving properly.

Thanks for your comments everyone. I have now seen my Orthodontist again, and he thinks that as the aligners are fitting the attachments correctly and the aligners cover my teeth and fit snug, then I shouldn't have anything to worry about. Subsequently, it apears that all the top aligners I have, now have a small gap on one of my front teeth. I am hoping that this won't cause the need for refinements!