Since treating crooked, crowded, or misaligned teeth needs you to wait for a long time, you get curious to know, How Long Does Invisalign Take To Straighten Teeth?
Invisalign takes an average of 12 months to straighten teeth, but it can take up to 18 months depending on the severity of cases, patient’s discipline, and age. You can speed up the treatment by following all the instructions and wearing the aligners regularly. However, don’t try to rush it, as it will make the situation worse.
Let’s take a look at factors and try to know how long you may need to wear the Invisalign clear aligners and how to speed up the treatment effectively.
Factors that determine how long do you have to wear Invisalign
Here are the factors that can affect the duration of wearing Invisalign.
1. Variation of cases
Every case isn’t the same. People get Invisalign to treat a variety of cases such as overbite, underbite, crowding spacing, and others. So, obviously, the duration of treatment will vary from person to person.
You also have to understand that the goal of treatment is to fix all the issues to get the best outcome. The dentist doesn’t fix only one problem and leaves another. If he does that, it will make the situation even worse.
Let’s know how much time it takes to fix the single cases.
Crowded teeth
In crowding, teeth are overlapped by one another and badly misaligned. Usually, it results from a lack of space in the mouth or arch for teeth or a genetic cause.
But, how long does Invisalign take for crowded teeth?
Mild crowding takes a shorter duration whereas severe crowding requires more time to fix the issue.
The Invisalign clear aligner takes a minimum of six months to fix mildly crowded teeth. But, most of the time, it takes a year or longer than that. Moderate to severe cases require 1 year or longer.
Sometimes you may have crowded teeth in only one jaw and sometimes in both jaws. It also affects the treatment time. If you need a tooth extraction for treatment, you have to wait longer.
Know about how and when Invisalign works for crowded teeth.
Gaps in teeth
It’s also very common to have gaps in between teeth or diastemas. Some may have a gap between front teeth and some may have spacing between a number of teeth. It may be due to a large jaw size, smaller sized teeth, a childhood habit, or some other reasons.
You may think that closing gaps in teeth will take less time than treating crowded teeth. It may seem so simple, but it also takes some effort, because Invisalign can move your teeth up to a certain distance.
But, how long does Invisalign take to close a gap?
The clear aligner may take 6 to 12 months to close the gaps. Smaller gaps need less time while larger gaps require a longer duration to be closed.
Know about How and when Invisalign works for closing a gap.
Overbite
One of the most common orthodontic problems is having an increased overbite. In this case, your top teeth stick out more forwardly or cover the bottom teeth more than usual. Childhood habits or genetics can be the cause of this problem.
But, how long does Invisalign take for overbite?
Duration to fix an overbite with Invisalign depends on the causes and severity of the bite. On average, the clear aligner can take 12 months or more to correct the overbite.
Know about How and when Invisalign works for overbite correction.
Underbite
This is a situation when your lower teeth or jaw protrude forward than the upper teeth or jaw. Invisalign takes anywhere from 1 year to 1.5 years to treat mild cases. However, severe cases require jaw surgery before getting Invisalign to treat it completely.
Crossbite
One or more teeth can be misplaced or misaligned compared to other teeth sometimes. This problem is known as a crossbite.
Invisalign may take anywhere from 3 to 18 months to fix the crossbite. Simple cases require less time and complicated cases need more time.
Skeletal problems
Your teeth aren’t always responsible for misaligned or crooked teeth. The size of jaw bones or growth problems is also a very important factor. If you have these types of problems, it will take a much longer duration to treat the case with Invisalign. Even, sometimes you may have to choose other options like Braces to fix the issue.
2. Complexity of cases
It’s not that people only have one orthodontic problem when they visit a dentist to treat it. Often, they have several problems at the same time. This makes the situation complex. The person who only has a single issue may expect a quicker result than the person who has more than one issue.
3. Discipline
Since the Invisalign is not fixed to your teeth unlike braces, you can remove it anytime if you want. This interrupts the treatment and affects the duration.
As people have control over it, they take breaks from wearing it because of various reasons such as pain in teeth or attending an event.
Also, if you follow the proper food habits and tooth cleaning techniques while wearing the Invisalign button, it may be the cause of delayed treatment.
4. Age of patient
Invisalign clear aligner can work perfectly for any age. But, it takes less time for children to complete the treatment but more time for adults.
Invisalign can move teeth faster in growing children than in adults because the growth of jawbones aren’t completed during that period.
However, it is often seen that it takes longer in children than in adults, since the children do not want to wear it for a long time and remove it from time to time. On the other hand, adults understand the importance of keeping it in the mouth and they maintain it as the dentist advised. So, they get faster results.
5. Attachments you get
Sometimes, getting more attachments to make teeth straighten with Invisalign may indicate that your case is more complicated and it may take more time.
But, with the invention of newer attachments and techniques, Invisalign treatment is now more effective for a variety of cases. It also works faster than before.
You can also check out how long you have to wear Invisalign attachments.
6. Not wearing the Invisalign tray for 22 hours a day
Though the Invisalign’s removable, you aren’t allowed to remove them from time to time. If you don’t wear the aligner for 22 hours, it will take longer to straighten your teeth.
Moreover, the outcome of treatment may not be effective as expected. When you take a break from it, teeth get to move back again to their original position. Even if you have a minor malocclusion, you have to face the same fate.
Sometimes an unexpected event like falling out of Invisalign attachment or buttons may interrupt the progress of treatment.
So, to speed up the treatment, learn why the attachments may fall off, and how to prevent it.
How long does Invisalign take to work compared to braces?
Invisalign works faster compared to braces in many cases. Invisalign may take from 12 to 18 months whereas braces may take 2 years or more to straighten the teeth. Besides, you have to wear Invisalign 22 to 23 hours a day that you can remove it any time while you can’t remove the braces until treatment is completed.
Now, you may be thinking about why many people wear braces. In many cases, braces treatment is more suitable to treat a case. Even thorough it takes longer, it can correct many complex orthodontic problems.
But, what if someone gets Invisalign and other get braces for similar types of case. How long it may take?
It depends on many factors. Braces may work faster than Invisalign because many Invisalign wearers don’t wear the aligners regularly. On the other hand, braces are fixed to the teeth, so it works effectively more. But, if you can maintain the Invisalign in that case, you can see a quicker result.
However, taking care of braces isn’t so easy. So, even if you wear it all the time, but don’t take care of them, it may break off or get loose and delay the treatment. In fact, this is one of the common reasons behind the delay in braces treatment.
Besides, full treatment duration for braces can be more for braces as it focuses on fixing all the errors. So, it takes more time normally. But, it doesn’t mean Invisalign correct other problems. Yes, it does, but technically it’s a little bit different.
In short, if you have mild issues, Invisalign can work faster than braces while in more serious cases braces can work more effectively even though treatment duration seems longer.
How to make Invisalign work faster?
Here are a few tips which help you speed up the Invisalign treatment.
- Wear the Invisalign for 22-23 hours a day
As the clear aligners are removable, people take a break from wearing masks with excuses. Don’t ever do that. You must wear the Invisalign tray for at least 22-23 hours a day. Invisalign doesn’t cause various problems like braces. But, why are you getting so relaxed? You should be grateful and use this properly. People who wear the trays 23 hours a day, get quicker outcome than the others. - Remove only when you eat and clean your teeth
Don’t take that extra snack while getting Invisalign treatment. Try to maintain the mealtime. If you take food or drinks frequently, you have to remove the tray again and again. So, they can’t work properly. If you can wear the trays effectively, you will get a faster result. - Keep your patience
Whether it’s about your lifestyle or using the aligners, you need patience during the Invisalign treatment. Think about the day when the Invisalign will be removed completely and you will get a beautiful smile. - Change Invisalign trays regularly
You have to replace the Invisalign trays every 1 to 2 weeks. When your dentist sets the schedule, you must visit him and replace the trays. If you can do that, your teeth will move continuously and speed up the treatment. But, when you can’t change the aligners timely, it will stop working and delay the treatment. - Clean Invisalign trays properly
You need to clean the Invisalign aligners after each meal. Uncleaned trays may prevent the progress of treatment and worsen oral health. - Prevent Invisalign attachments from falling off
You get a tooth-colored attachment during Invisalign treatment to hold the aligners in position and put pressure on teeth. If you can’t maintain them properly, they may fall off. This will delay your treatment. But, you may speed up the process if you follow all the instructions of your dentist and take care of your Invisalign and oral health properly. - Stop the Invisalign button from getting loose
You get Invisalign buttons or hooks to place the rubber bands and correct overbite. It may fall off as well if you aren’t careful and lead to increases in the treatment time. So, try to prevent falling off of these metal buttons. - Don’t take a break from the rubber bands
To fix an overbite, you get rubber bands with Invisalign hooks or buttons. Same as wearing an Invisalign tray, you have to wear the elastic bands as long as possible to get the best and faster result. Follow the instruction of your dentist regarding the rubber bands. - Don’t overdo anything
Some people think that performing the activities of the dentist is so simple. But, you should know that the dentist needs a special license to treat orthodontic cases. So, don’t try to copy any activity and perform it yourself, because it will make the situation worse and do permanent damage to your teeth. An example of that is putting double bands on the hook applying more pressure. Orthodontic treatment needs to apply an ideal force that produces the maximum amount of tooth movement. If you put excess pressure, it will stop the movement and loosen your teeth. This will lead to the permanent removal of your teeth. So, always do what the dentist said and get fast results.
How long does Invisalign take for one tooth?
Invisalign takes much less time to straighten one or two crooked teeth. The duration can be 6 weeks to 6 months depending upon the complexity. In fact, you may not need to change the position of other teeth with clear aligners. But, keep in mind that most orthodontic problems aren’t limited to only one or two teeth. You may not notice it normally, but when a dentist does the measurements, he finds out all the problems and correct them so that treatment lasts longer.
How long does Invisalign take to start working?
Invisalign starts to work from the very first day when you get the aligners to align your teeth. But, you can’t notice any changes in the first one to two weeks and after 10 to 12 weeks you will see a big difference. Besides, the speed of tooth movement by aligners depends on various factors and varies from person to person.
Takeaways
Duration of tooth alignment with Invisalign depends on factors such as the complexity of the case, taking care of aligners, individual variation, treatment planning, and others. So, if you want to speed up the process, follow all the advice provided by your dentist and use the aligners properly and regularly.
