“Long, Pain-free Experience with Pretty Good Results. - Winnipeg”

I suffered with overcrowding on my top and bottom teeth, to the point where one upper canine had been pulled in my highschool years, and the other canine was impacted above the gumline. My lower teeth were crooked, overlapping or tilted severely in.

My orthodontist was concerned with one or two teeth on the bottom and the effectiveness of invisalign to correct them. He offered either conventional braces for 3 months prior to invisalign, plus 1 tooth extraction (which didn't need to be done in the end, so I got to keep all my teeth that still existed!). He was hesitant but confident that he could correct one severely turned upper tooth with invisalign (I refused treatment if my uppers had to have conventional braces).

My case was timed out for 1 year (to the insurance company) and 2 years (to me). The conventional braces to start added no additional cost, so my grand total was $5500 of which my insurance paid about $2500.

My stint with conventional braces was less then pleasant; they were extremely painful, for about a week at a time. They were difficult to floss, even with the special kind of braces floss. I was ALWAYS worried about food being stuck in them (I was a 23 year old professional working for the government), and embarrassed to have them at 23. The metal rubbed horribly on my gums, I used a ton of dental wax to stop the sores in my mouth. I was FREAKED that I would end up with acid staining where the brackets sat, and have ugly white marks on my teeth.

Thankfully, the conventional treatment wound up taking about 2 months at the end of the day. I switched over to invisalign, and LOVED them.

I could once again eat whatever I wanted. I loved the fact that people really couldn't tell I was wearing them (except in the last 6 months of treatment when I had an ugly silver 'button' on my top tooth to pull it down, which people kept confusing for 'diamond studding'. : P ).

I loved being able to pull them out to floss and brush; including brushing the aligners and using denture cleaner to get them all fresh tasting. Mmmm.

If I was going out to dinner, I would simply pull them out before heading into the restaurant, saving me the unsightly image of pulling them out of my mouth (you saliva clings to them, making it kinda gross).

The pain was almost non-existent compared to conventional braces; 2 days max before I stopped noticing them, and I actually miss the pain a bit! The actual invisalign braces never rubbed, only the cheap locally made 'retainer' I got between conventional and invisaligners.

I did end up with a couple of gum sores along the way, which I think relate to putting my fingers in my mouth to attach the elastics.

My bottom teeth finished in about a year, and look FABULOUS. The conventional braces first did a miracle, and I LOVE how they look. The retainer pops in and out easily, and I'm so pleased.

My top teeth took a lot longer. I'm currently in my first set of retainers, which my orthodontist modified to use as the last tray, due to their added stiffness, and it's ability to pull down my top tooth. The total treatment to this first retainer was about 2 years, with this retainer taking another 2.5 months to complete the pull-down.

So time-wise, the treatment was nearly bang-on.

My top teeth aren't 'perfect', but I do grant that not having canines changes the look of the top teeth. However, the twisted tooth never completely twisted back around (this is a pretty extreme move for invisaligners), but the rest turned out good. The right side teeth never pulled down enough to touch the bottom teeth, though the left side touches.

My dentist, believing not much more can be accomplished by the invisaligners (and 2 years into the treatment), plans to complete the treatment by filing down one tooth that overextends the rest, and doing a little 'cosmetic surgery' on the twisted tooth to file down a straight edge and rebuild it to look more like it's mirrored tooth (no charge on the veneers). Again, don't fault him when the gumline on this tooth sits higher, and invisaligners can't exactly pull down gumline : P

All in all, for $500 more then conventional braces, I feel like I improved the appearance of my teeth 90% (friends and co-workers think they look perfect, but they don't stare at my teeth as often as I do : P ).

I also think it took the same amount of time as conventional braces, with less pain, less discomfort, more freedom, and less embarrassment.

I'm skeptical that conventional braces the whole time could have done much better, perhaps achieving 95% correction in the same amount of time. 5% difference is negligible in comparison to the gain.

Granted, I do grind my teeth more, which leads to some headaches. I also find it weird to have my teeth out of the retainers and have trouble lining things up when not wearing them.

I have twice 'lost' my trays, but found them both times before having to order replacements (once they were thrown in the trash by cleaning staff at a meeting, the other I dropped them at a campground on my way back from bushing my teeth).

I have had no trouble taking them in and out, actually enjoying the satisfying click when they go in. The elastic thing is a bit difficult (I've flung them across the room), but probably not much different from conventional braces elastics (and less unsightly).

Given the opportunity, I would do it again.