Starting Invisalign in my Latelatelate Teens. Urbana, IL

I ended up going to Dr. Shaffer in Champaign for my last six trays and he and his team were amazing. Big update later!

I would have been done probably one year ago if I didn't have depression. It's just hard to be responsible if you're having an episode. Oh well! Down to the last six weeks starting yesterday.

Refinement 5/7 vs before

WOW. So far, he and his team are outdoing themselves. Even though I was about five minutes late, one gal took me back to a private consult office. She took pictures, obtained a history, and went over my particular concerns. She then set me and my husband up with a informational video to watch while we waited on the doctor. After about ten minutes, Dr. Shafer came in and I moved over to the examination chair. He was incredibly personable, very through, and worked incredibly well with his assistant. He went through my teeth one by one and talked about overjet, overbite, underbite, etc. It sounded like I had a lot wrong, but he then sat is back down and went through everything. He again went through all my teeth with my husband and I as he scrolled through the pictures taken of my teeth. He immediately identified the areas that were of my greatest concern and how we would fix them.

My central four top incisors will need to come down a bit and my right canine will have to come in. That's literally it. He said probably about 10 alligners more then maybe a few refinements; so, 6-9 months is his estimate. I asked about possibly doing braces and he was shocked. He said I absolutely would not be a candidate and that it would be much more expensive to start over with braces than to finish up Invisalign. Actually, apparently there is a five year window in which your Invisalign treatment can be finished (and adjusted) without accruing those "gigantic lab fees" at the beginning. The cost is estimated to be between $1200-$2000 to finish my treatment.

I then went to the clinic area, which is open and has about 4 stations to work in. It's pleasant and your positioned as to where you don't see anyone else. My hygienist and I had to wait <10 minutes for the doctor to free up. He wasn't clear on what he wanted to do at first - it ended up that we did some filing (IPR?) and he recontoured my two central top incisors so they no longer look like bunny teeth. As he was doing this, he said, "I bet she'll love this!" and I was then super curious. I LOVED it. The edge of those teeth do feel a little funky now, but that is to be expected. He also took off a few attachments. Then that was that! No pain.

His assistant then did iTero scans - it took maybe 15 minutes; muuuuch less time than at my old office. I'll be back in three weeks and they should have the trays and whatnot. I'm so stoked. :)