When you’re going through the ALIGNERCO clear aligners treatment, you and your orthodontist will want to do everything you can to make the process as smooth and as quick as possible. Teeth straightening treatments do take time, and we have to measure just steep the teeth rotations can be with each aligner. As such, we understand that people might want to speed the process along, such as wearing their aligners 24 hours a day for a week rather than for the recommended two.
However, there is a very good reason that we recommend two weeks for each step of your clear aligners journey. It’s because realigning your teeth and getting the best possible results takes that much time. Here, we’re going to explore why it’s important to ensure you give each step in the teeth straightening process the time that it needs to work as effectively as it’s designed to.
Don’t teeth aligners start working immediately?
When you put on aligners, it doesn’t take too long for the teeth to be moved into their future position. As such, you might think that you could move to the next step of the treatment in as little as two or three days. Indeed, a lot of aligner manufacturers were considering this same question, which is they experimented and tested a wide variety of different treatment plans. These plans included different periods of time for each step of the way and different durations for wearing each aligner.
From a single week to three or even four weeks, different periods of time were each tested stringently to make sure that they had found the optimal amount to time to both allow the teeth to align and to make treatment as quickly as possible. It was only through years of these tests that we eventually landed on the two-week period for each step of the clear aligners treatment.
So why is it two weeks then?
The reason that we have to give each step of the clear aligners treatment two weeks is due to how your teeth sit in your skull. Your upper and lower jaw bone serves as the anchor for the teeth, connected to each of them individually by the roots that fit into small holes of the bone. As such, when aligning your teeth, not only are your teeth changing position, but your jaw is adjusting, too, as are your gums.
As such, we have to consider giving both the visible part of the tooth and root the time that they need to readjust. Even though the crown, which is the visible part, may align very quickly, that’s not entirely true of the root. If we try to rush things, then the root can be “left behind” to some degree.
When the crown of a tooth is realigning much quicker than the root, this can result in the root of the tooth starting to move in the exact inverse direction. We call this uncontrolled tipping and it’s something that we try to avoid. This is partly because it can do a lot of damage to the root, weakening its stability, which can increase your risk of tooth loss, and exposing it to the air, which can make it vulnerable.
As such, if we try to change your aligners too quickly, it’s likely going to result in us have to order a new set of aligners anyway, since we will soon see that your orthodontic case is only getting worse and needs correction.
Follow your doctor’s recommendation
Perhaps you can’t wait to have a beautiful straight smile. However, for the health of your teeth and the success of your treatment, we recommend that you be patient and allow each step of the clear aligners treatment the time that it needs to complete.
The two week period for each step has been tested and has been found essential to allow your roots, jawbone, and gums the time they need to adjust. It’s done to prevent unwanted and uncontrolled tipping. If there do have to be any changes to your treatment, your doctor should inform you first and foremost. In most cases, however, you’re going to have to wear your aligners for 20-22 hours a day for two consecutive weeks. Your doctor will check with you to make sure your realignment is going as planned.
Give ALIGNERCO clear aligners the time that they need and they can help you achieve the beautiful straight smile you’ve been looking for. Some results are worth making the wait for.
