If you’re considering improving a less-than-perfect smile or correcting a problem with your bite, it’s natural to wonder how long your treatment may take. If you opt for Invisalign, your treatment will likely take between 12-18 months. However, if the issues needing to be corrected are minor, your treatment may be completed in as few as six months. Conversely, if you need to have your bite corrected, or if your teeth are significantly gapped, crooked, slanted, or crowded, your treatment could take up to two years. At your consultation for Invisalign, your orthodontist will be able to provide you with a personalized estimate of how long you’ll need to wear your alignment trays.
What Determines How Long Invisalign Will Take?
Two primary factors will determine the length of your treatment time. The first is the complexity of the treatment required. For example, if you’re an adult who had braces previously, but your teeth have slightly shifted over time, your treatment may only take a few months. Likewise, if your bite is properly aligned, but you have a small gap or just a few slightly crooked teeth, you’ll finish treatment in a year or less.
If you or your teenager has never had orthodontic treatment, and there are more complex conditions to be corrected, such as an overbite, underbite, open bite, or crossbite, the treatment time will likely be 18-24 months. The same is true if the teeth are significantly slanted, crooked, crowded, or gapped.
The second factor that will impact the length of your treatment is patient compliance. If you wear your alignment trays as instructed, for 20-22 hours per day, you will complete your treatment on time. If you fail to wear the trays as prescribed, your treatment will be prolonged.
A word of caution is warranted for parents of teenagers concerning compliance. It is not uncommon for teens to bend the rules a bit when it comes to wearing their trays. As a result, Invisalign Teen is available with compliance indicators. Compliance indicators are tiny blue dots on the trays near the molars. As your teen wears their trays as prescribed, the blue dots fade. If your teen does not wear their trays as instructed, the blue dots remain visible. You and your orthodontist will be able to tell if your teen is wearing the trays as instructed.
If you have doubts about whether your child will wear their trays as necessary, you may feel more comfortable with orthodontic braces, as they are bonded to the teeth.
Are There Ways to Speed Up Invisalign Treatment?
Thanks to innovations in orthodontic technology, you may be able to expedite your treatment time with Invisalign. The V-Pro is a proprietary orthodontic treatment that can speed up tooth movement by up to 50%.
V-Pro works by sending tiny vibrations (known as micro pulses) through the roots of your teeth, to increase cellular activity. This cellular activity reduces resistance to movement so that the teeth shift into alignment faster. In addition to making your treatment time shorter, studies have also shown that V-Pro can make orthodontic treatment more comfortable.
If you are interested in speeding up your orthodontic treatment, ask your orthodontist about the V-Pro.
Book a Consultation for Orthodontic Treatment Today
Dr. Garrick F. Wong provides Invisalign and Invisalign Teen from his technologically advanced orthodontic practice located in Cos Cob, CT. In addition to Invisalign and traditional braces, Dr. Wong provides early treatment and interceptive orthodontics to children and adolescents. To book your appointment call 203-625-9888, or send us a message.