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Had Braces, Now Trying Invisalign

Corey
posted 4 years ago
updated 4 years ago

Worth It
Cost: $4,800
San Francisco, CA

I am getting Invisalign to try to help my TMJ. The...

4 Sep 2008

I am getting Invisalign to try to help my TMJ. The dentist said it will act as a mouth guard an help to relax my jaw. I had braces when I was 15, I am now 31. The braces caused one of my teeth to die, DIE! The severe movement from regular braces traumatized my front tooth and it died. The only thing to fix it is a root canal. I also had to have tissue from the roof of my mouth grafted onto my gums to fix gum recession caused by my braces. Thirdly, it appears that my TMJ was possibly caused by the braces because the rubber bands pulled my jaw forward and stretched out the ligament. Now my jaw pops loudly when I open it and hurts most of the time. I have become aware of these problems through recent years. I know these are also possible with Invisalign. I recommend that people do a lot of research and know that there are possibly very serious side effects to both braces and Invisalign.

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Comments (2)

AIV 4 Sep 2011

I highly doubt that the braces caused any of the complaints you have... they would have occurred during the course of treatment, especially the tooth that "died", not years later. TMJ is one of the least understood phenomena in oral medicine. There have been hundreds of longitudinal, peer-reviewed research articles that have found no correlation between ortho treatment and temporomandibular dysfunction. By the same token, any dentist that tells you Invisalign will fix your jaw pain is overselling treatment. There is only about a 30% chance your pain will improve, 30% chance it will stay the same. Best of luck with your treatment.