AlignDay
Dr. Adrian Lau

Dr. Adrian Lau

BDS, MClinDent, MOrth · Specialist in Orthodontics

Founder, Harbourline Orthodontics · Co-founder & Clinical Director, AlignDay

Dr. Adrian Lau is a specialist orthodontist and the founder of Harbourline Orthodontics in Hong Kong. He received his dental training in Hong Kong and completed postgraduate specialist training in orthodontics in the United Kingdom, earning the qualifications BDS, MClinDent and MOrth.

Dr. Adrian Lau's clinical background

Over more than fifteen years of clinical practice, Dr. Lau's work has centred on clear-aligner treatment — planning cases, monitoring tooth movement against the treatment plan, and, at every check-up, asking the question that decides outcomes more often than any appliance does: how many hours a day were the aligners actually worn?

That question shaped his particular interest in patient adherence. Clear aligners only work while they are on the teeth, and the difference between smooth treatment and stalled treatment is rarely the aligner system itself. It is almost always wear time — which is why an honest wear record matters as much to the orthodontist reading it as to the patient keeping it.

From a clinic tool to AlignDay

After repeatedly seeing patients struggle to accurately track daily aligner wear — and repeatedly reading wear logs that were more optimistic than the teeth suggested — Dr. Lau began developing AlignDay as a simple internal tool for his own clinic.

What started as a two-button timer gradually became a patient-focused aligner tracker: wear records built from exact out/in times, so they survive app restarts, a daily out-time budget, switch-day reminders, and long-term per-tray treatment records. The design brief never changed — make the honest number easy to keep, and easy to show at a check-up.

How this site handles medical claims

Health content deserves a higher bar. Every article on this site is written by Dr. Lau himself, not ghost-written or generated; wear-time figures follow the widely used 20–22-hour clinical guidance; and where the honest answer is "ask your own orthodontist," the article says exactly that. Nothing here is a substitute for the specialist who planned your treatment and can see your teeth.

The same rule shapes the product. AlignDay records what happened — when the aligners came out, when they went back in — and shows you the totals. It does not score you, diagnose you, or push streaks and gamification that would tempt anyone to bend the record. An honest record a patient can hand to their orthodontist is the entire point, and it is the standard Dr. Lau signs his name to.

Role at AlignDay

Dr. Lau serves as Co-founder and Clinical Director of AlignDay, where he is responsible for clinical standards, patient safety, and the boundaries between digital self-management and professional orthodontic care.

In practice, that means every claim the app and this site make about aligner wear is reviewed against clinical guidance; the app records and reports — it does not diagnose, adjust treatment, or replace the advice of your own orthodontist. Questions about your treatment always belong with the specialist who planned it.

He also writes the articles on this site, covering the questions patients actually ask in the chair: how many hours a day aligners should be worn, why wear time quietly disappears, and how to keep a wear record honest. Articles are revisited whenever clinical guidance or the app itself changes, so what you read here stays current.

Spotted something that seems clinically off? Email [email protected] — corrections go straight to Dr. Lau.

Articles by Dr. Lau