Two Years of Invisalign and Now I Need Regular Braces -Sudbury, MA

jwg01776
Not Sure
Cost: $5,000
Sudbury, MA

I was excited when I started this process two...

7 Mar 2013

I was excited when I started this process two years ago. I was 60 years old and should have had braces as a kid, but didn't. Six months in it was clear I needed a refinement - two front teeth had the braces slipping off the attachments. A year later and braces will be needed afterwards because they could never get those attachments to secure to the teeth. Sigh :-(

BTW -- they don't tell you about the attachments until you're in the chair. They are ugly and annoying but bearable.

Comments (10)

Raj Kumar, BDS, LDSRCS
March 13, 2013

It is common sense for all dentists to mention attachments at the consultation phase. The reason that your aligners would not hold onto the attachments at the front is that you needed more retention at the back with more posterior attachments. Otherwise as you pull the front teeth back, the aligners slip forward instead.

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jwg01776
March 13, 2013

That wasn't the situation at all. The attachments were not shaped properly. As a result the aligners couldn't pull down on the teeth the way the needed to without sliding off the attachments. The aligners held fast to the teeth on either side and did a fine job on all the other teeth but those two. The two teeth in question needed to be pulled out and down - not back. Had the attachments had a reverse slope on the top edge, I'm confident they would have done the job properly.

Raj Kumar, BDS, LDSRCS
March 13, 2013

Ok, Invisalign is not ideal for extrusion to a large degree. I normally fix some premade attachments and then use elastics at night with the Invisalign

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Megan P
March 8, 2013

What a bummer to think that you would be able to use Invisalign for your entire treatment, then have to switch to traditional braces. :-/ I can understand why you would be disappointed. I guess on the bright side the braces were an available option. Are you still in them now?

jwg01776
March 9, 2013

I have three weeks to go to complete the Invisalign treatment. We were going to switch to regular braces about 6 weeks ago, but it seemed to make sense to continue until the end to get the maximum benefit from Invisalign on the vast majority of the teeth that were successfully treated. That way, I'll be able to minimize the time in regular braces to just correct the alignment of the two teeth that were not successfully treated. So, the good news is that Invisalign "mostly" worked. The regular braces will just be required on the top from eye-tooth to eye-tooth and hopefully for not very long.

Megan P
March 11, 2013

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that the braces work as fast as possible when you get to that stage. Please update us when you get them (if not before) and let us know how you are doing with them.

Raj Kumar, BDS, LDSRCS
March 13, 2013

stop sympathising with everyone one lol.

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Megan P
March 13, 2013

Awe, is the sympathizing a bit much for you? I can understand how that could be. Sorry to hear. ;)

Raj Kumar, BDS, LDSRCS
March 13, 2013

well I can see that you are there for the patients and Im here for the dentists and the people. Some people and dentists are silly enuff to try Invisalign for $1500!

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jwg01776
March 8, 2013

Clarification: the attachments were securely fastened to the teeth. However, the braces slid off the attachements and thus wouldn't pull the teeth into their proper place.