Revelations

Read an interesting suggestion in one of Dr. Boyd's reports (dated Sept. 2005):

"It helps to tell patients to keep their teeth together in occlusion when wearing the aligners, particularly in the first three to four days of a new aligner, in order to accelerate the tooth movement changes." Hmmmm - must remind myself to do that as much as possible when in a conscious state. Bite down now...don't clench...just molars together...keep holding..

& from the Invisalign Summit '05 Editorial:

"Tracking Problems - What To Do If Teeth Are Not Following The Aligner?"
~ Relieve any tight contacts, and ask the patient to continue with the current aligner until the tooth cooperates.
~ If the tooth has an attachment - remove the attachment and continue.
~ Bond a thin layer of composite to add pressure, or use dimple plier. Cut a window on other side to allow the movement.
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All good to know.

Turns out many orthos don't like using IPR (shaving between teeth) much. Some only use it as a last resort if expansion, proclination, extraction, & distalization don't provide the extra room needed for a tooth to move properly. It should be used to correct a Bolton discrepancy (whatever that is), close black triangles (the reason I'm going to need some in the middle of uppers/lowers) or to avoid excess proclination & expansion.

Sounds good to me.