Metal Mouth Message Board

An interesting email sent to providing doctors last week. I knew it was coming and thought about various motivations for it. We have patients changing on all sorts of aligner cycles for many years. However, we still do not feel comfortable changing aligners every 7 days in all situations. We have a lot of complicated movements such as extrusions, severe rotations, and cases with 4 premolar extraction or large open bites that necessitate longer use of each aligner.

At the end of the day, the number of days per aligner wear as well as the number of aligners required is going to determine the duration of treatment.

Read more here: http://markhamortho.blogspot.ca/2016/10 ... anges.html

Greetings from Slovakia! My orthodontist recommended me the weekly change, but I'm not sure whether it's good in my case... I work as a radio host, so I can't wear the aligners 22 hours every single day. Some weeks I don't broadcast at all, so I can change weekly, but other weeks I have 2-4 broadcast days... Like this week, I had them in: 1. day - 22 hours, 2. day - 20 hours, 3. day - 18 hours, 4. day - 19.5 hours, 5. day - 20 hours, 6. day - 22 hours, 7. day 22 - hours. Can I change them already or should I wait on or more days? Thank You!

Thank you - this was my question last week. I'm on fortnightly changes at least up to and including Tray 5. My orthodontist says he will consider weekly changes depending on progress.

You're welcome! Now I'm wondering if it's necessery to have them all 22 hours/day, or can make it with 20 hours (plus-minus). With weekly change. Does anyone know?

DrJasonKTam wrote:An interesting email sent to providing doctors last week. I knew it was coming and thought about various motivations for it. We have patients changing on all sorts of aligner cycles for many years. However, we still do not feel comfortable changing aligners every 7 days in all situations. We have a lot of complicated movements such as extrusions, severe rotations, and cases with 4 premolar extraction or large open bites that necessitate longer use of each aligner.

At the end of the day, the number of days per aligner wear as well as the number of aligners required is going to determine the duration of treatment.

Read more here: http://markhamortho.blogspot.ca/2016/10 ... anges.html

That's interesting Dr Jason Tam.

Do you know whether the aligners have been built differently to accommodate this change?

I've read post that we can change tray when it starts to feel 'loose' - is that the general recommendation?

what if the doc recommends acceledent?

chinglnc wrote:

DrJasonKTam wrote:An interesting email sent to providing doctors last week. I knew it was coming and thought about various motivations for it. We have patients changing on all sorts of aligner cycles for many years. However, we still do not feel comfortable changing aligners every 7 days in all situations. We have a lot of complicated movements such as extrusions, severe rotations, and cases with 4 premolar extraction or large open bites that necessitate longer use of each aligner.

At the end of the day, the number of days per aligner wear as well as the number of aligners required is going to determine the duration of treatment.

Read more here: http://markhamortho.blogspot.ca/2016/10 ... anges.html

That's interesting Dr Jason Tam.

Do you know whether the aligners have been built differently to accommodate this change?

I've read post that we can change tray when it starts to feel 'loose' - is that the general recommendation?

The aligners are the exact same SmartTrack material. Again, the amount of time per aligner is going to differ on a number of different factors. The issue about a tray being changed when it feels loose is that it may not be uniformly loose. There may also be an issue with the crown portion of the tooth moving, but not the root, which will eventually lead to non-tracking, as well as relapse. Really, only the doctor who has planned your movements and can interpret the ClinCheck they have planned, and tracking how your teeth move, can determine what your change cycle should be.