Does this make sense?

[Morrisk64]

Hi everybody, been lurking around here since I started treatment in March, currently on tray 11 of 29 U/L. I'm one of those 40 somethings that got tired of dealing with not so perfect teeth and decided to do something about it, better late than never I guess. Anyway, here's my problem, well not really a problem but it does bother me. Had an ortho appt today and doc pointed out on my bottom teeth that there is a small space between the top of the teeth and the aligner, I noticed that since day one but he made it sound like something wasn't right. So he wants me to stay on tray 11 an additional week and see if the gap fills in or not, its not just on one tooth, the whole front of my bottom teeth have the same gap, I have 7 attachments on the bottom. The top one fits snug and he wants the bottom to fit like that.

Heres my thing, its been like that since day one, I just always thought the attachments might have been put on a little high or something and therefor lifts up my tray a little more to make that small gap at the top. Now, I'm no Ortho, and I did not want to question the guy but hear me out here, the space between my attachment and the top of my tooth will never change, and all trays lock on to the attachment, so I am confused on why he seems to think that the space will close...maybe if they lower my attachments, it would close the tray tighter to my teeth, but otherwise, common sense says that the gap will not close....right?

My current tray,11, is due to be done wednesday and I might just go ahead and put 12 on instead of keeping 11 on for an additional week knowing it will not change the gap. Thoughts on this would be appreciated, I simply do not want to extend this treatment a single day longer than planned. Thanks everybody

[Sunny]

Hi and welcome to this forum!

I recommend you call your ortho and have a talk with him. Keep wearing the 11th tray until he recommends you move forward, but make sure you get an explanation of why that you understand.

Good luck!

[Phantom Muse]

Morrisk - I had a similar issue with my top aligner and teeth. From day one, the interior of the tray never touched the bottom of two of my front teeth. In fact, my retainer also fits this way.

I did not wear my trays more than two weeks each, and my ortho thought early on (and actually up until the final tray or so) that I would need refinements as a result, but I did not need them. That being said, I suspect it is not unusual for trays to fit as yours is, but I would talk again with the ortho and not move ahead without consent. Worst case scenario is that you wear they tray an extra week, and looking back, that's not really a big deal.

Good luck!