Invisalign: Stories

It's been many months now and although some things have subsided, I can't say I'm thrilled with Invisalign at all. I've never had braces so I don't have that to compare it against.

There's a lot of pros and cons and I mainly want to highlight some that were unexpected for me, but I agree with some of the usual complaints: not told about attachments before signing up, not told I could only drink water in them, not told about IPR. Wearing the trays was a very uncomfortable experience the first few months and cause alot of jaw pain and psychological distress because I could not close my teeth - the trays wound up propping one side of my mouth more open than the other side as a tooth was moved out of crossbite. I had no warning of this whatsoever. It was modeled in the simulation as one tooth magically moving right through another tooth for the movement which extended over many months - the simulation did not reveal what that would really constitute in my mouth with the aligners on. It was a really vexing period of time where I could not open my mouth much because people were staring. After all my teeth didn't meet in front and it looked like I had a severe open bite. Now that that has mostly passed, I still can't close my teeth comfortably with the aligners in and I'm conscious of biting plastic. I can't really smile well either. I flash a smile but certainly can't pose a smile for pictures.

One of the ongoing difficulties I'm having is that I'm getting sick alot. I mean more than ever before and despite washing/sterilizing my hands and cleaning the trays whenever I can. I know the source is my mouth because it starts with a sore throat or laryngitis type symptoms. Having multiple colds this year already has been fairly awful and dealing with these things during a cold just makes it that much worse. I only recently figured out that the trays are the source of my newfound sickiness.

OK so I have advanced along. Here's the thing. My teeth in the front are looking alot better BUT....my back teeth no longer contact. The reason why is simple and apparently happens to InvisAlign wearers - the molars have intruded due to the trays being in between my teeth. So when I went into this my back teeth were fine and didn't need a lot of correct. Now, they no longer contact. Can you imagine how this feels - I traded one problem for another. I am leaning to finishing off in traditional braces at this point because my molars must now be extruded to meet and InvisAlign doesn't have the best mechanisms for making this happen.

After a year in InvisAlign my back teeth have been intruded by the aligners, so I've swapped one problem for another. I began this journey with a crossbite in front but perfect aligned bite in back. Now I have an open bite in back and inability to chew or grind with a better looking (but still not wonderful) front with an underbite.

All this adds up too...I wish I had gone with traditional braces. InvisAlign has been a nightmare.

My advice to give to those of you weighing the pros and cons of InvisAlign vs. traditional braces, if any orthodontist along the way has indicated that you are a complex orthodontic case, by no means should you bother with InvisAlign. Your results will most likely be better in traditional braces.

Also there has been much staining despite cleaning well and drinking/eating few staining substances.

Pumice has been used to rid the stains once but only worked a month or so before they were back again.

Having these aligners in is like having bleaching trays...for gray and brown and yellow colors.

April 2013:
Well, I'm headed into traditional braces. This year+ of InvisAlign has been a bust. I'm told I'll need over a year in traditional braces and that I won't really be building all that much on what InvisAlign did to my teeth, which was mainly ruin my bite.

All I can say to those of you reading this and trying to figure things out, if orthodontists along the way have indicated that you are a difficult case, consider going to regular braces. InvisAlign can be a world of frustration and time/money waste unless you are a simple to moderate case. If your teeth need to be rotated alot or moved vertically...if you have bite (cross/under/overbite) issues, nothing beats the customization possible with traditional braces. Don't be like me and waste a year in InvisAlign treatment that leads to discomfort and misalignment.