Hello, the following post is part of a blog I wrote for my dentist. I volunteered to "guest blog" on his site so I could share my experiences with his other patients. I also found this RealSelf forum very helpful when deciding to do Invislaign, so I thought I would repost here. First, I will give you a little background on me: I am a 26-year-old female working in the marketing industry. I was what they call a “relapse case”. I had traditional braces when I was in middle school, but, as is common with a lot of people after braces, I didn’t wear my retainer. I could go on and on with excuses, but I’ll spare you the boring details. Whatever the reasons, my teeth became misaligned again and as I entered into adulthood, I really regretted not keeping them straight. My relapse was a slow process and I don’t think I even really noticed until my sophomore year of college. I saw a picture where a couple of my teeth seemed to catch the light more way more than others and really exaggerate how crooked they were. As the years progressed, I could tell they were growing more crooked. It finally came to the point where one of my two upper front teeth was protruding noticeably and the bottom row of teeth were completely misaligned and overlapping each other. I started get more self conscious of them and even sometimes modify my smile to try to show my bottom teeth less. I would attend business meetings and catch myself thinking about my teeth and whether people were noticing them, instead of focusing on what they were saying. I knew it was time to do something about it. So about two years ago, I had a consultation with an orthodontic office. I had already done some research on Invisalign. I felt I was too old to wear bulky, uncomfortable metal braces. At the consultation, they said I was a perfect candidate for Invisalign. Everything sounded promising … until we got to the financials. They gave me a quote for almost $7,000! During my online research, I had found numerous website that estimated the average cost of Invisalign to be $5,000. Needless to say, I was a bit sticker shocked. I thanked them for their time and said I would need to think about it. I knew that at that price, it would be another year or so before I was ready. Then, to my delight, I found out that sfdental offered Invisalign treatment. Not only that, but Dr. Kivel is a preferred provider because he treats so many Invisalign cases. After speaking with Dr. Kivel about my case, I really trusted him to do my case. Even though orthodontists specialize in the movement of teeth, I felt that Dr. Kivel’s expertise in the complete health and aesthetics of my entire mouth made him the perfect person to help me reach my goal. Invisalign Before and After San Francisco One thing that Dr. Kivel did for me that made a huge impression was an entire computer generated mock-up of what my treatment would be like – for free! At my initial consultation, he took impressions of where my teeth were in their current state. This gave Dr. Kivel the starting point for my case. A few days later, I received an email from him with my entire treatment plan. I could watch an animation of what the movement of my teeth would be like. This is called a ClinCheck. I watched it at least 15 times. I even sent it to my family and friends! If you can’t already tell, I was excited! This was what really sealed the deal for me. I loved being able to see the difference Invisalign would make on my own teeth. I would highly encourage anyone who is considering Invisalign to go in and at least have this free consultation done and the mock up created. Sometimes you don’t know what you are missing until you see it right in front of you! One of the bets parts about Invisalign at sfdental is the price! The cost of Invisalign at sfdental is only $4,500 (when’s the last time you heard about something in San Francisco being priced below average?). Their package even includes retainers at the end of treatment and take home whitening gel (to be used with your Invisalign retainers). With much anticipation, I went forward with treatment! Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post. I hope it helps with your own decision regarding clear braces. In my next blog post I am planning to detail the installation process. Until then … Alison If you are in San Francisco, be sure to check out Dr. Kivel!