Can My Warped Invisalign Trays be Saved?

Help! I don’t know what I was thinking. I put my Invisalign trays in their case and put them in my pocket while I ate breakfast. Then I started a load of laundry and threw the clothes I was wearing in with it. They went through a full wash cycle and then through a partial dry cycle before I had realized what I’d done. The top tray looks ok, but the bottom appears to be a little warped. Is there a way to bend it back into shape so I can wear it? What should I do?

-Yasmin

Dear Yasmin,

For starters, relax and have a cup of coffee or tea and give yourself a chance to wake up before you call the dentist. Unfortunately, what’s done is done and, in this case, can be chalked up to one of those silly things we all do when we haven’t quite woken up yet.

Your Invisalign trays were custom-shaped by a computer to be a very precise fit. Each set is only slightly different from the one before, and the one after. Because of this, there’s no way they can be adjusted with the same accuracy by eye. Moreover, now that their form has been altered, they’re not likely to ever be exactly the way they need to be to work properly again. So, even if you did manage to make the Invisalign tray look ok, wearing it could push your teeth away from the desired alignment, which would make the next set not work properly and might slow down your treatment considerably.

With that said, going without them for a couple of hours is not going to set your treatment back. That will give you a chance to check in with the dentist and see what he advises. He may want to have a duplicate set made if you recently switched to this set, he may tell you to progress to the next set, or he may have other advice. Because he’s the one who intimately knows your case, he’s the best one to advise. If this had happened on the weekend, or when the dentist was out of town, your best bet would have been to use your last set of Invisalign trays until you could contact the office.

This blog is sponsored by Elgin Dentist, Dr. Steve Sirin.