Invisalign: Stories

My experience with invisalign was one of love and hate.

In the beginning:

I was told that I was not a PERFECT candidate, because I had bite problems. However, my ortho was very willing to work with me so I didn't have to get regular braces. He just cautioned me that we might have to eventually put them on if things didn't work out as we hoped. But that would only be for a 2-4 month period. I decided I could deal with that.

I was not told about the attachments or buttons that would be placed on my teeth until they were putting them on. For the first month or so I absolutely HATED invisalign. For the sheer fact that they were quite visible with the number of attachments that I have. I have 21 attachments. All of my front teeth have them, top and bottom. It's very very noticeable. There are two on my lower back teeth that touch my tongue when I eat and they were HORRIBLY uncomfortable. However, I had my ortho shave them down a bit and that helped a whole lot.

About half way through my treatment, I was given my rubber bands. Yes, I got to have elastics on my invisalign. After wearing them for the past three or four months, they seem to be doing their job.

I was very worried about the fact of how visible mine were, but once I got rubber bands on them, that seemed very trivial. Elastics are fairly easy to spot...so I stopped caring. :) It's made my experience that much better.

The buttons were so that my elastics would have something grounded on my teeth to actually pull against and move. I would much rather have these less noticeable than regular braces, while sacrificing a little noticability in order to have my bite also fixed with invisalign.

Overall, this has been a fabulous exprience.

I am on my last top tray and my second to last bottom tray. Only three weeks left to go! I went to my ortho every three trays (6 weeks) up until this next appointment, which is 4 weeks from the last one. He is very excited about what we've been doing with the elastics and how my teeth are progressing.

I would highly recommend this to anyone.