Let's Get This Straightened Out. - Leesburg, VA

So the reason that I was looking into doing Invisalign is because of the crowding on my bottom teeth as shown on the top of the two pictures. I had my wisdom teeth come in when I was 16 and there was no room for them to come in. They pushed my teeth out of place and caused so much pain, the dentist ended up cutting my wisdom teeth out of my gum to stop them from becoming impacted. But my teeth were already pushed out of alignment and thus some years later, I decided to look into getting them straightened.

I looked into Invisalign because I was / am afraid of braces. I didn't think I would have the commitment to them that they needed, I didn't want to smile for pictures and have braces show up, and I didn't want to have a bracket placed on every single tooth. My friends and some co-workers had braces and they were always miserable with pain when they were tightened or aggravated when a wire came out. Always unwilling to smile for a photo.

I was skeptical at first if the plastic trays would really be able to move my teeth, but my dentist gave me a guarantee that it worked, and if I was unhappy and wanted to switch to braces, we could do that as well, so I took the plunge and had Invisalign.

So the first thing, if you are thinking about getting Invisalign you should know that once they pop the first liners in, the more attachments they put on your teeth, the harder it will be to get them off at first. It took me a couple of days to figure out what worked best for me. I found that if I took them off from the back by popping one side out first, then following my teeth it was so much easier to get them off. I aligned them on the same way. Line up the invisalign back to your back teeth, then push forward until you get to your front teeth, and boom perfect fit.

The next thing to know is that new trays especially your first ones, will be sharp to your tongue along the bottom. After 2 weeks I never really noticed anymore, and it was never sharp enough to cut, just sharp enough to make me want to get it out of my mouth as my tongue kept dragging against it.

The attachments they put on to help move your teeth into position can be sharp as well when they are first put on. I don't know if I just got used to them, or if i dragged my tongue against them so often when my liners were off, that they rounded off a bit. I had a hurt cheek in a couple of places in the very beginning as they dragged against the inside of my mouth when eating, but the same thing can happen if you lose the wax off of a bracket on your braces, and unlike the attachments, the brackets are metal and do not dull on braces.

Some people have said that doing Invisalign will stain your teeth. In fact, I would say the opposite is true. My teeth started getting whiter and white with the Invisalign treatment. For anyone who say their teeth stained, I will bet you the reason is because they were not brushing before putting the liners back on and were probably drinking things other than water while they were in.

The liners themselves do give you bad breath if you don't take care of them. Plastic absorbs, so you should only wear them after brushing / flossing / rinsing and you should clean your liners before you put them back in your mouth. This can be hard to do when you're out and about, but try to make it a habit whenever possible.

For the Invisalign treatment itself, I took longer than was originally anticipated because I was offered unlimited refinements. Basically this means at the end of the treatment, if I am not satisfied with the results, I can get more impressions made, and more liners until I am happy with everything. I think all together I did 3.5 refinements after my first initial treatment.

The first set of Invisalign got me to a certain point, but my bottom teeth were not perfectly straight. During the refinements, the dentist would have to 'sand down' some of my teeth to make them fit better. Some of my front teeth were taller at the top than at the bottom, so the sanding made them more flush, which in turn made them fit better, and become straighter. During my last refinement, I stopped halfway through because I was happy with the results, and to go any further I would have to have an additional sanding done (which wasn't needed, and I didn't want).

The dentist had me change my liners to the next step every 2 weeks and would give me 3 sets at a time.

When doing refinements, I would sometimes have to wear the same liner for a month or more, until the new liners came in. Its very important to take care of the liners and make sure you don't break them (which is near impossible, I never even cracked one) and keep them clean, as once they start to yellow its harder to get them 'clear' again.

So the biggest question is, would I ever do this again? Yes. A resounding YES. Invisalign gave me the freedom of getting my teeth straightened and still allowed me to have my smile during important events in my life. For instance, my engagement photos! I don't ever have to look back at my engagement photos and wish I didn't have braces in all of my smiles and for that I am grateful. It also allowed me the freedom to eat what I wanted when I wanted, by popping them out.

I have heard a lot of my friends complain about their mouth hurting with braces as they get the wires tightened up, but I never had that problem with the liners. At most, I felt a 'tight' feeling over my teeth that would go away once they were in the correct position, but I never had pain that prevented me from eating certain foods as my friends with braces did.

If you're thinking about getting Invisalign and have any questions just let me know. I can tell you everything from start to finish. :-)