New Member Question

[samgsy]

I started invisalign in August 2010, have 27 trays and am just coming to the end of U/L 18 and all is going well and so far I am very pleased with the results.
I have a query, tonight I have gone to put in my new trays and I have two sets of 19, one with just upper and one with upper and lower. When I opened up the upper only packet I was surprised to see that it was made of much thinner plastic. Does anyone know the reason for this? I would telephone my dentist but she has gone on holiday for a week, and the office is closed for 4 days, but I go away in 3 days. They don't seem very strong at all and I am unsure of the purpose of this, and whether they will last two weeks until they are changed.
My other concern is which should come first, U19 alone or upper and lower together? I have put in U19 only and have not found much resistance so am hoping that I am doing it in the right order, and presume that if I should of changed to U/L 19 before U19 that I would of had more of a struggle to put the uppers in as I would of effectively been skipping a tray.
I hope that somebody may be able to shed some light on these issues, thanks

[KUMonkeyMomma]

Do you see any places in the new uppers for attachments that you don't currently have?

Anytime I had an extra thinner tray with my aligners it was the template for the dentist to put on a new attachment. They use the thinner flimsy tray to place/shape the attachment so that they don't risk breaking or having composite get stuck in the regular tray.

If not, I'm not sure why that would be - all my regular trays had 2 sets - at least until I was done with the lowers (I had 24 upper and 18 lower).

[samgsy]

Thanks for your reply.

Within the first 30 minutes of wearing the new tray I realised that it had an extra attachment and guessed that was the reason for the extra thin tray.

I will contact my dentist to make an appointment for the attachment when I return from my vacation. My guess is that as long as I have the attachment put on during my wearing of u19 I am ok to change from 18 to 19 even without the attachment. I dont want to delay the process by waiting an extra 10 days to switch to U/L 19.

Although I may be better keeping with the older trays on vacation as I will probably spend a little less time wearing them with more eating out,snacking and drinking etc.

Thanks for the reply, the forum is a great source of information and reassurance.

[KUMonkeyMomma]

If it were me I would stick with tray 18 - as you said you'll likely have it out a bit more on vacation (I know I tended to wear mine less on special days/holidays or when away, etc). Plus depending on what the attachment is meant to do to that tooth, placing the attachment on partway through wearing the tray might affect how it moves the tooth in the following trays if that particular tooth had moved a bit and the attachment ends up not in the exact spot they intended the attachment to be for the movement they are trying to do.

Confirm with your dentist whether he thinks you should start wearing 19 and get the attachment when you get back before you go ahead doing it - he'd know best what that particular attachment would be affected if you got it halfway through wearing a tray.

Good luck and enjoy your vacation!!!

[samgsy]

I think I will stick with 18 and email my dentist toarrange an appointment for when I get back from vacation to have the attachement done, but will take 19 with me just in case current trays get damaged or mislaid.

Thanks for the input