Do Clear Aligners Hurt? Pressure After New Trays and How Discomfort Settles

It is a Sunday night, and a small plastic case sits on the bathroom counter next to the toothpaste. Inside is tray number four. Tray three came out an hour ago after two weeks of feeling like nothing at all, and now the new one snaps into place with a firmness that makes the front teeth feel briefly foreign. Biting down brings a dull, squeezing ache. The question arrives right on schedule: do clear aligners hurt, or is something wrong?

Almost everyone who wears aligners knows that Sunday-night feeling. It is one of the most common reasons people search before they start treatment and, oddly, one of the least honestly answered. Some articles wave it away as “mild discomfort.” Others lean into regret stories.

The truth sits in between, and it is more interesting. Pressure is not a side effect of aligners. It is the treatment working, and it follows a fairly predictable rhythm that you can learn to read.

Do clear aligners hurt? The honest short version

Yes, a little, and usually in a specific way. Clear aligners are removable, custom-made plastic shells that fit closely over the teeth and are swapped for a slightly different shape every one to two weeks, depending on the plan your orthodontist sets. An orthodontist is a dentist with extra training in moving teeth and aligning jaws. Each new tray is shaped for where the teeth are meant to be next, not where they are now, so it presses on them until they catch up.

That pressing is what people feel. The NHS describes orthodontic appliances of all kinds as causing some soreness at first and after adjustments, and aligners follow the same rule: the first day or two after a change is when teeth feel tender, especially when you bite into something firm or tap your teeth together. Between tray changes, most people report little or nothing.

What aligners do not usually cause is sharp, throbbing or one-sided pain. Those sensations point to something other than ordinary tooth movement: a cracked tray edge cutting the gum, a tooth that was already inflamed, an attachment that has come loose and is scraping, or a bite that is not settling as planned. Ordinary aligner discomfort is symmetrical, dull, worst at the start of a tray cycle and better within days.

One more distinction matters. There is tooth soreness, which comes from inside the jaw as bone remodels, and there is soft-tissue irritation, which comes from plastic rubbing cheeks, lips and tongue. They feel different, they have different fixes and they fade on different timelines. Much of the confusion about whether aligners hurt comes from lumping them together.

How clear aligners actually move teeth

A tooth is not cemented into the jaw. It hangs in its socket on a thin cushion of fibers called the periodontal ligament, a living sling that connects tooth root to bone. When an aligner pushes on the crown, the root leans very slightly and squeezes that ligament on one side while stretching it on the other.

Biology takes over from there. On the squeezed side, blood flow drops and the body sends in cells that dissolve a sliver of bone. On the stretched side, other cells lay down new bone to fill the gap. Repeated over weeks, this remodeling lets the tooth migrate through the jaw while the socket rebuilds around it. MedlinePlus describes this gradual repositioning as the basis of all orthodontic treatment, whether the force comes from wires or from plastic.

The pressure you feel is largely that compressed ligament and the inflammatory chemicals released as remodeling starts. It is the same mechanism that makes a tooth ache after you bite unexpectedly on a hard seed. The nerve fibers in the ligament are exquisitely sensitive to pressure, which is why even a small force from a new tray registers as “tightness.”

Aligners differ from braces in how the force is delivered. Braces apply continuous force from a wire that slowly straightens. Aligners deliver force in steps: strongest the hour you put a new tray in, tapering as the teeth move into the shape of the plastic. That stepwise delivery is the key to understanding why discomfort spikes and then settles rather than staying constant.

Bone remodeling has its own pace, which no appliance can rush. This is why treatment plans rely on modest movements per tray and why skipping ahead does not speed anything up; it only adds force without giving the bone time to respond.

What stage of aligner treatment hurts the most, and why the first 48 hours matter

Ask people who have finished treatment and most give the same answer: the first tray, and to a lesser degree the first day of each new tray after that. Not because the first tray moves teeth further, but because everything is new. The mouth has not yet built up tolerance to plastic edges, the tongue keeps exploring, speech feels thick and there is no memory of previous cycles to reassure you that the ache passes.

Within a tray cycle, the pressure typically peaks somewhere in the first 24 to 48 hours. That timing lines up with how the periodontal ligament responds: the initial squeeze, then a wave of inflammation as remodeling gets underway, then a gradual easing as the tooth begins to shift into the space the tray allows. Patient guidance from the NHS and MedlinePlus frames this as a few days of soreness after any appliance change, and aligner wearers describe the same arc.

Two other stages deserve a mention. Trays that introduce a new type of movement, such as the start of rotating a stubborn canine or beginning to close a gap, can feel noticeably firmer than the trays before them. And the refinement phase, when a new set of trays is made near the end to fine-tune the result, sometimes catches people by surprise because they had grown used to trays feeling easy.

The pattern is what to hold onto. Discomfort that is worst on day one of a tray, fades by day three or four and then largely disappears until the next change is the expected shape of aligner treatment. Discomfort that builds through the week, or that appears in the middle of a cycle without a tray change, is a different pattern and worth a call to your orthodontist.

How painful are clear aligners on a scale of 1 to 10?

Pain researchers usually ask people to rate discomfort on a 0 to 10 scale, where 0 is nothing and 10 is the worst imaginable. Across the orthodontic studies indexed in PubMed, aligner discomfort tends to land in the mild to moderate range, and often at the lower end of it, with the highest scores in the first days of treatment and after tray changes. Exact averages vary from study to study because pain is subjective, sample sizes are modest and the plastics, movement amounts and populations differ.

What the research agrees on is more useful than any single number. First, discomfort is real and measurable, so no one should be told they are imagining it. Second, it is generally described as pressure or tenderness rather than pain in the sense of a toothache or a migraine. Third, it decreases over successive trays for most people, a phenomenon sometimes called habituation: the nervous system learns that this sensation is not a threat and turns down its volume.

Where you personally land depends on several things. People with a naturally lower pain threshold, or who are anxious about dental treatment, tend to report higher scores; that is a normal human variation, not a weakness. The amount and type of movement in a given tray matters. Rotations and intrusions (pushing a tooth down into its socket) often feel firmer than gentle tipping. And how tightly the tray seats matters, which is why orthodontists care so much about wearing trays for the full prescribed hours.

A practical way to use the scale: if you would call your discomfort a 2 to 4 that is worst when you bite and fades within days, that fits the ordinary picture. If you would call it a 7 or higher, or it wakes you at night, that is outside the ordinary picture and deserves attention.

Clear aligners vs braces pain: what the comparison really shows

The most common question after “do clear aligners hurt” is “do they hurt less than braces?” The fair answer is: usually somewhat less in the first week, differently after that, and the gap narrows as treatment goes on. Studies comparing the two tend to find lower early pain scores with aligners, but not zero, and not in every study.

The differences are easier to see side by side.

Source of discomfort	Clear aligners	Fixed braces
Tooth pressure after a change	Peaks in the first 1–2 days of each new tray, then eases; smaller steps, more frequent	Peaks in the first days after a wire adjustment; larger steps, less frequent
Cheek and lip irritation	Mostly from tray edges; usually settles as edges are smoothed and tissue adapts	From brackets and wire ends; can recur after adjustments
Eating	Trays are removed to eat, so biting soreness is felt with natural teeth	Hard or sticky foods are limited; brackets can make chewing sore
Speech	Slight lisp common in the first days of wear	Less speech effect once adapted
Emergencies	Cracked tray, lost attachment	Broken wire, loose bracket poking tissue

Notice that the table describes types of discomfort, not winners. Aligner wearers trade one big adjustment for many small ones. Braces wearers trade fewer changes for more soft-tissue irritation and dietary limits. Which pattern suits a given person has as much to do with temperament and daily life as with biology.

The comparison also depends on what is being corrected. Complex movements may need braces regardless of comfort preferences, and in those cases the honest comparison is not aligners versus braces but braces versus no treatment. Your orthodontist can tell you which movements your plan requires and how that shapes the discomfort you can expect.

How long do clear aligners hurt? Aligner pain in the first week and beyond

The timeline most people describe, and that patient guidance from the NHS and MedlinePlus supports for orthodontic appliances generally, runs like this.

The first day is the strangest. Teeth feel tight, the tongue finds every edge, saliva increases and speech has a soft lisp. Biting down on anything firm brings a dull ache along the front teeth. Many people find the trays hardest to remove on day one because they fit so snugly.

Days two and three are usually the sore point for the teeth themselves. Pressure is most noticeable in the morning, after hours of uninterrupted wear, and when the trays are taken out to eat. Cheeks and lips may show small red patches where edges rub.

By day four or five, most people report that the teeth feel normal again with the tray in and only faintly tender without it. Speech has usually returned to normal. The trays come out and go in more easily because the teeth have moved into the shape of the plastic.

The second half of a tray cycle, roughly days seven to fourteen, is often uneventful. Some people even describe the trays as feeling “loose,” which is a sign the teeth have caught up. Then a new tray goes in and the cycle repeats, usually with a smaller peak than the time before.

Over months, two things change. Tissue toughens, so edge irritation fades. And the brain habituates, so the same physical pressure registers as less bothersome. Many people say that by the fourth or fifth tray they barely notice changes at all, apart from a day of mild tightness.

These are typical ranges, not promises. Individual movements, tray fit and personal pain sensitivity all shift the curve, and your orthodontist can tell you which trays in your plan are likely to feel firmer than the rest.

Attachments, elastics and IPR: the other sources of soreness

Not all aligner discomfort comes from the trays. Three add-ons account for much of the rest, and knowing what they are makes the sensations less mysterious.

Attachments are small bumps of tooth-colored filling material bonded to the surface of certain teeth. They give the tray something to grip so it can rotate or pull a tooth that smooth plastic alone could not manage. Newly placed attachments feel rough to the tongue and lips for a few days, and the tray fits more tightly over them, which can make insertion and removal sore until you find the technique. An attachment that chips or comes off entirely can leave a sharp edge that scrapes the inside of the lip; that is a call-the-office situation rather than something to tough out.

Elastics are tiny rubber bands stretched between hooks or cut-outs on the upper and lower trays to correct how the jaws meet. They add a second type of force, felt in the jaw joints and the muscles that close the mouth rather than in individual teeth. New elastics commonly cause an aching, tired feeling in the jaw for the first days. Wearing them exactly as instructed matters: intermittent wear resets the adaptation and can prolong the ache.

Interproximal reduction, usually shortened to IPR, is the removal of a very thin layer of enamel from between certain teeth to create space. It is done in the office with fine strips or discs. The procedure itself is typically painless because it stays within enamel, which has no nerve supply, but teeth can feel briefly sensitive to cold afterward, and the tray that follows sometimes feels firmer because it uses the new space right away.

Each of these is normal and expected when planned. Each can also go slightly wrong in ways that cause unexpected pain, which is why your orthodontist will want to hear about soreness that does not match the pattern of an ordinary tray change.

Who clear aligners are usually for, and who is usually asked to wait

Aligners were originally used for mild crowding and spacing in adults, and that remains their most straightforward use. Over time, attachments, elastics and better planning have widened the range to include many moderate cases and, with supervision, teenagers whose permanent teeth have come through. Malocclusion is the general term for teeth or jaws that do not line up well; MedlinePlus lists crowding, spacing, overbite, underbite and crossbite among the common types.

People who tend to do well with aligners share a few features. Their correction is mostly about tooth position rather than jaw size or shape. They can commit to wearing trays for most of the day and night, typically the 20 to 22 hours per day that treating orthodontists specify, because trays that are out of the mouth for long stretches simply do not move teeth. They keep the trays and their teeth clean, since plastic that traps plaque against enamel raises the risk of decay and gum inflammation, a concern the NIH’s dental research institute highlights for anyone with appliances in the mouth.

Others are often asked to wait or to consider a different appliance. Children who still have baby teeth are usually not candidates because the mouth is still changing. Severe skeletal discrepancies, where the jaws themselves are mismatched, generally need braces, growth guidance or in some cases surgery. Active gum disease, untreated decay or very short tooth roots need attention before any tooth movement begins, since moving inflamed or poorly supported teeth can cause harm. Some large rotations and movements of back teeth remain difficult for plastic alone.

Comfort is one of the factors weighed in this decision but not the deciding one. An orthodontist will look at X-rays, a scan or impressions and photographs, then match the movements needed to the appliance most likely to achieve them safely. If aligners are recommended, it is because that match works, not because they are the gentler option.

What is the 30 minute rule for aligners?

Search for aligner tips and you will meet “the 30 minute rule” almost immediately. It is not a clinical guideline and you will not find it in any professional standard. It is a piece of folk wisdom that has taken on two related meanings, both rooted in something real.

The first meaning is about eating. Because trays come out for meals, the advice is to keep total out-of-mouth time per sitting to about half an hour or less, so that daily wear stays near the hours your orthodontist prescribed. The logic is sound. Tooth movement depends on sustained force. A tray that spends hours on the kitchen table is not moving anything, and teeth left unsupported can drift very slightly back toward where they started, which is why a tray sometimes feels tighter after a long lunch out. The specific number is arbitrary; the principle, that the prescribed daily wear time is the real rule, is not.

The second meaning concerns “chewies,” small soft cylinders some orthodontists give patients to bite on after inserting a new tray. Biting on them for a stretch of time helps seat the tray fully against the teeth and attachments. Some people describe doing this for around half an hour, spread through the first day of a new tray, but instructions vary widely and your orthodontist’s version is the one that counts.

Why does seating matter for comfort? A tray that is only partly seated applies uneven force: heavy on the teeth it touches, none on the ones it floats above. Fully seated trays distribute pressure the way the plan intended, which tends to feel firmer for an hour and then more comfortable overall. If a tray refuses to seat even with steady biting, do not force it; ask your orthodontist to check the fit.

What helps when clear aligners hurt, and what the evidence says about pain relievers

Begin with the measures that need no medicine, because they address the two main causes directly.

For tooth pressure, keeping the tray in is counterintuitive but usually helps. Removing a new tray to “rest” the teeth lets them drift a fraction and makes reinsertion sore again. Switching trays at bedtime, if your orthodontist agrees, means the peak of pressure overlaps with sleep. Soft, cool foods on the first day spare the tender ligaments. Chilled water can be soothing. Chewing gently on the seating chewies your orthodontist provides may ease the ache by improving fit; systematic reviews indexed in PubMed have looked at chewing devices and other non-drug approaches for orthodontic pain and found the evidence promising but limited in quality, so treat them as reasonable comfort measures rather than proven treatments.

For soft-tissue irritation, the fix is mechanical. A rough tray edge can be smoothed by your orthodontist; a small piece of orthodontic wax pressed over the offending spot protects the lip or cheek while the tissue heals. Warm salt water rinses are widely suggested by dental guidance for minor mouth soreness and are low risk for most people.

Over-the-counter pain relievers are the topic most people ask about. Acetaminophen and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are the two classes commonly used for orthodontic soreness; the latter work partly by reducing the prostaglandins that drive inflammation in the periodontal ligament. A Cochrane systematic review indexed in PubMed found that these medicines can reduce orthodontic pain compared with placebo, though with variable study quality. There is also a long-running scientific question, based largely on animal studies, about whether anti-inflammatory drugs might slow tooth movement; the human evidence is unsettled. Whether either class is appropriate for you depends on your medical history, other medicines and any kidney, stomach or liver concerns. That decision belongs with your orthodontist, dentist or pharmacist, not a blog post, and nothing here should be read as a suggestion to start one.

Why some dentists don't recommend clear aligners for everyone

A popular search asks why dentists sometimes steer people away from aligners. The reasons rarely have anything to do with pain and everything to do with fit between the tool and the job.

The first reason is biomechanics. Plastic pushes well but pulls poorly. It excels at tipping teeth and closing small gaps and struggles with movements that need the root to travel through bone, with large rotations of round-rooted teeth like canines, and with moving back teeth bodily. Attachments and elastics extend the range, but for some cases braces remain more predictable, and an honest clinician will say so.

The second is growth and jaw relationships. Malocclusion that stems from jaw size or position, rather than tooth position, may need appliances that guide growth in a child or surgical planning in an adult. Aligners alone would move teeth into a compromise that looks straighter but does not correct the bite.

The third is compliance, said plainly and without judgment. Braces work whether or not you think about them. Aligners work only when they are in the mouth. Someone who is honest with themselves about forgetting, losing or leaving trays out is better served by a fixed appliance than by a plan that quietly fails.

The fourth is oral health. Trays that cover the teeth for most of the day trap whatever is on them. Anyone with active gum disease or a high decay rate typically needs that stabilized first, as the NIH’s dental research institute notes for gum disease generally.

Finally, some concerns are about how aligners are obtained rather than the aligners themselves. Tooth movement without an in-person examination, X-rays and ongoing supervision carries risks that cannot be planned away, from moving teeth with hidden root problems to bites that end up worse. A dentist who hesitates is often hesitating about that, not about the plastic.

What people often get wrong about aligner pain

Myths about aligner discomfort tend to fall into two camps: the ones that minimize it and the ones that catastrophize it. Both mislead.

“If it hurts, something is wrong.” Usually the opposite. Pressure in the first days of a tray is the periodontal ligament responding to force, which is the mechanism by which teeth move. A new tray that felt like nothing would be more concerning to an orthodontist than one that felt tight.

“If it doesn’t hurt, it isn’t working.” Also wrong. Habituation means the same force registers as less bothersome over time, and some trays deliver very small movements by design. Progress is judged by whether teeth track with the plan, not by how much you ache.

“Taking the tray out gives your teeth a break.” It gives your teeth permission to drift back a fraction, which makes the tray sore again on reinsertion and costs treatment time. The prescribed wear time is the least painful path, not the most.

“Aligners are painless compared with braces.” Studies indexed in PubMed suggest lower early pain scores with aligners for many people, but the difference is modest, varies between studies and narrows over time. Plenty of aligner wearers have sore days.

“Pain means the teeth are moving faster.” Bone remodels at its own pace. Extra force from an ill-fitting tray, or from jumping ahead to the next tray early, does not accelerate movement; it can strain roots and delay the plan.

“Jaw ache is normal and expected.” Tooth soreness is expected. Persistent aching in the jaw joints or chewing muscles is worth mentioning, because a thin tray can change how teeth meet and may reveal or aggravate tooth grinding, which Mayo Clinic notes can cause jaw pain and headaches, or a temporomandibular joint disorder, the term for problems in the hinge that connects jaw to skull.

Questions to ask your care team

Discomfort becomes far more manageable when you know what your particular plan involves. These questions are worth asking at the start and again if something changes.

• Which trays in my plan involve the firmest movements, and should I expect those to feel different from the rest?
• How many hours a day do you want my trays in, and how should I handle a day when I fall short?
• Do you want me to change trays in the morning or at night, and how often?
• Will I have attachments, elastics or interproximal reduction, and when in the sequence do they start?
• How do you want me to seat a new tray, and do you provide chewies or another seating aid?
• What should I do if a tray edge is cutting my cheek or gum: trim it, wax it or bring it in?
• If a tray will not seat fully after a day of proper wear, should I go back to the previous tray or call you?
• How will you judge whether my teeth are tracking with the plan, and how often will you check?
• Given my medical history and other medicines, is there anything you would want me to know about over-the-counter pain relief before I use any?
• Which symptoms would you want to hear about the same day, and how do I reach the office after hours?

Write the answers down or ask for them in writing. Aligner treatment runs for many months, and the instructions that felt obvious in the first appointment blur by tray twelve. A clear record of what your orthodontist expects, especially around wear time and seating, removes most of the guesswork that turns ordinary tightness into worry.

Every one of these decisions, from how often trays change to whether a sore spot needs an in-person look, sits with the treating team. The aim of asking is not to second-guess them but to understand the plan well enough to follow it comfortably.

When to call your doctor

Ordinary aligner discomfort is dull, symmetrical, worst on the first day or two of a tray and better within a few days. Anything that breaks that pattern deserves a call to your orthodontist or dentist rather than a wait-and-see approach. Contact the office promptly for any of the following.

• Severe, throbbing or one-sided tooth pain, or pain that keeps you awake, since this suggests something other than routine movement, such as a tooth with an inflamed nerve or a hidden crack.
• Pain that builds through the week instead of easing, or that starts mid-cycle without a tray change.
• A tooth that feels noticeably loose, changes color or becomes very sensitive to heat.
• Swelling of the gum, face or jaw, a bad taste, pus, or fever, which can signal infection and should be assessed the same day.
• A cut or ulcer from a tray edge or broken attachment that is not healing after a week or so, or that keeps bleeding.
• A tray that will not seat despite proper wear, cracks, or feels dramatically tighter than the previous one.
• Persistent jaw joint pain, clicking with locking, or difficulty opening the mouth fully, which the NIH’s dental research institute lists among signs of temporomandibular disorders.
• Gums that are red, puffy or bleed easily, which the same institute describes as early signs of gum disease and which trays can make worse if plaque builds under them.

Seek urgent medical care, not just a dental appointment, if facial swelling spreads toward the eye or neck, if swallowing or breathing becomes difficult, or if a high fever accompanies mouth pain. These are rare, but they are emergencies.

Between appointments, keep a short note of when trays change and how each felt. That record turns a vague “it hurts more than usual” into information your orthodontist can act on, and it is the simplest tool you have for telling expected pressure from a genuine problem.

Frequently asked questions

Do clear aligners hurt more than braces?

For most people, aligners cause somewhat less discomfort than braces in the first week, but not none. Studies indexed in PubMed generally report lower early pain scores with aligners, with the difference shrinking as treatment continues. Aligners trade one large adjustment for many small ones, and they cause less cheek irritation because there are no brackets or wires. Individual experience varies with the movements planned and personal pain sensitivity.

What stage of clear aligner treatment hurts the most?

The first tray is usually the hardest, mostly because everything is unfamiliar, followed by the first day or two of each new tray. Trays that begin a new type of movement, such as rotating a canine, can feel firmer than the ones before. Refinement trays near the end sometimes surprise people who had grown used to easy changes. Over months, most people report each peak becoming smaller.

How long do aligners hurt after a new tray?

Pressure typically peaks within the first one to two days after inserting a new tray and fades over roughly three to five days as the teeth move into the shape of the plastic. This matches NHS and MedlinePlus descriptions of a few days of soreness after any orthodontic appliance change. The second half of a tray cycle is usually comfortable. Soreness that builds rather than eases warrants a call to your orthodontist.

What is the 30 minute rule for aligners?

It is informal advice, not a clinical guideline. One version says keep trays out for no more than about half an hour at a time when eating, so daily wear stays near the prescribed hours. Another version refers to biting on seating chewies for a stretch after inserting a new tray. Both rest on a real principle: teeth only move while trays are in and fully seated, and your orthodontist’s instructions take priority.

How painful are clear aligners on a scale of 1 to 10?

Most research indexed in PubMed places aligner discomfort in the mild to moderate range, with highest scores in the first days of a new tray. Many wearers describe it as a 2 to 4 that is worst when biting and fades within days. Ratings vary with pain threshold, anxiety and the movements in each tray. Discomfort you would rate 7 or higher, or that disturbs sleep, is outside the usual pattern and should be checked.

Why does new aligner tray pain feel worse in the morning?

Overnight the tray sits in place for many uninterrupted hours, applying steady force, and saliva flow drops during sleep, so the mouth feels drier and tighter on waking. Clenching or grinding during sleep, which Mayo Clinic notes can cause jaw and tooth soreness, may add to it. The feeling usually eases within an hour of getting up. Persistent morning jaw pain is worth mentioning to your orthodontist.

Is it normal for aligners to hurt one tooth only?

Mild extra tenderness in one tooth can happen when that tooth is doing most of the moving in a given tray, and it should settle within a few days like the rest. Sharp, throbbing or worsening pain in a single tooth is different and may point to an inflamed nerve, a crack, a loose attachment or a tooth that is not tracking. That pattern deserves a prompt in-person check rather than waiting for the next tray.

Why do dentists not recommend clear aligners for some people?

Usually because the movements needed are not ones plastic does well, such as large rotations, bodily movement of back teeth or corrections that stem from jaw size rather than tooth position. Active gum disease or decay needs treatment first. A person who is unlikely to wear trays for the prescribed hours may do better with braces. Dentists also caution against tooth movement without in-person examination, X-rays and supervision.

Can I take pain relievers for aligner pain?

Acetaminophen and anti-inflammatory medicines are the classes commonly used for orthodontic soreness, and a Cochrane review indexed in PubMed found they can reduce pain compared with placebo. Whether either is appropriate for you depends on your health history, other medicines and any stomach, kidney or liver concerns, so ask your orthodontist, dentist or pharmacist before using any. Non-drug measures, such as keeping trays in, cold water and soft foods, help many people.

Do clear aligners hurt less over time?

For most people, yes. Two things change: mouth tissues toughen, so edge irritation fades, and the nervous system habituates, so the same pressure registers as less bothersome. Many wearers say that by the fourth or fifth tray a change brings only a day of mild tightness. Trays introducing new movements or the refinement phase can bring a temporary return of soreness, which is expected and usually brief.

References

• NHS: Orthodontics
• MedlinePlus: Malocclusion of teeth
• MedlinePlus: Orthodontia
• NIH National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research: Gum disease

This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult a qualified doctor about your individual situation.