Invisalign on holiday

I know I was supposed to write all these fabulous tips for people who had just started invisalign and issues for people who were trying to decide whether or not to start invisalign to think about. But then I had a two-week holiday in Asia and I didn't quite manage to get those blog postings done.

It has however led me to the topic I want to write on today: how to deal with invisalign while travelling.

There were two major invisalign issues when travelling in Asian countries:
1) the temptation/desire to eat all the time; and
2) the lack of public bathrooms, especially clean ones.

Fortunately, I foresaw these problems and spoke to my dentist well in advance of my trip. His recommendation was to finish the two weeks on one set of aligners and then stay on those aligners for the trip, wearing them only at night like a retainer.

So with some good planning, by the day I set off on my trip I was up to Day 12 of that set of aligners (close enough to the end by my books) and it was great knowing that I would not have to feel guilty even if I had the aligners out all day as I'd had the okay from my dentist. As I would mostly be staying in hotels, I figured wearing the aligners overnight should not be too difficult. That gave me all my waking hours to eat and take a holiday from the tooth-brushing fuss I'd endured for nearly six months.

Actually, it ended up being easier than I had expected to wear them for about 12 hours per day. We tended to have breakfast at the hotel, so I was able to put them back in after breakfast and only take them out late morning or even early afternoon when I next wanted to eat. Some days I would leave them out until the end of the day but I found that most days I was able to find an opportunity to put them back in, even if only for an hour or two at a time. The days where I had them out for more than 10 hours at a stretch, I could definitely feel that my teeth had moved and there was a bit of discomfort by the time I put them back in. So whenever possible, I would break up the long stretches and I found that it helped a lot.

The biggest challenges for my trip were a two-day trek and overnight trains with only a tiny not-very-clean bathroom. Bottled water and anti-bacterial gel and wipes were absolute essentials to have with me. My general rule is that when I was in doubt about hygiene, I opted to leave the aligners out. I figure it is better to have the aligners out for longer than to trap food or bacteria in my mouth and risk cavities.

A quick word about flights. I had read in someone else's blog that flights were really difficult but I didn't find that at all. I made sure I had an aisle seat, and with a bathroom at hand throughout the whole flight, it was very easy to brush and put the aligners back in!

When I got home, I moved on to the next set of aligners. They were quite sore for the first two days, but it is hard to know whether it is just one of those more difficult sets of aligners or whether it is something to do with the holiday. All in all though, there seems nothing out of the ordinary and nothing to be worried about. Hopefully the dentist will confirm that at my next appointment.

So, my message for today is: don't fear - invisalign does not have to make holidaying difficult.