A lot of you have asked us about chewing exercises. Today we will offer you a simple tip on what to do to allow your aligners to fit your teeth better so that your teeth will move more efficiently.
Youย may have heard about chewing exercises. What exactly are chewing exercisesย anyway? Let’s back up a little bit. When youย first put on a fresh pair of aligners, they’re not going to fit your teeth aย hundred percent. If they fit your teeth 100,ย your teethย wouldn’t actually move. Each new set of aligners are designedย to push your teeth just a little bit soย that your teeth willย shift into that new position.ย Aย lot ofย times thoughย when you first put your aligners on, you’re going to notice a little bit of aย halo effect.
You can see the picture above. There’s a little bit of a gap on theย central incisors, where you can see a halo. A halo isย basically a gapย between your teethย and the aligner. In orderย to get your teeth to move better,ย youย actually want to seat the alignerย higher up.
One way is to use your fingers and push up. You can still see a gap there and that’s pretty common especially for people that have power ridges. Power ridges are basically a horizontal indentation in the aligner and that is used to torque the tooth. If you have power ridges, which are pretty commonly found in the upper and lower incisor areas, you’ll notice that little bit of space that’s called the halo.
In order to fully seat your aligner, you have to do chewing exercises. Chewing exercises are using some sort of tool. The most common would be the foam roller types, which are called chewies or munchies.
You canย use them many times. Justย be sure toย clean it thoroughly at leastย a few times a day. Whatย we usually tell our customers to doย is to keep one ofย these chewies insideย their aligner caseย so that they always have access.
