Is It Required That Teeth Are Shaved to Correct Crowding with Invisalign? Can Teeth Not Be Shaved with Invisalign?

"Shaving" teeth CAN be bad if one is overly aggressive, but most of the time we are only taking microns off of teeth and it is insignificant.  If there is no room for crowded teeth, there are only 3 choices, expand the arches to make room, remove teeth to make room, or "shave" teeth to make room.  Every case is different, so "is it possible to have invisalign without teeth shaving"?  Yes, it is possible, but maybe not in your case.

Cuz he was disqualified from doing it? If this is the case then he didnt know that much about doing it in the beginning. Teeth narrowing is common practice amongst dentists and orthodontists alike and is better than extracting teeth to gain space..It does not damage teeth when done by a trained professional and works great. Your 15 yr old son qualifies for Invisalign teen and teens love not having the ugly old braces on their teeth...

Invisalign is always progressing and doing more and more things that traditional braces can do.  We can expand the arch and uncrowd without IPR but sometimes we will need to do some very minimal IPR to get the perfect result.  When we do slenderize the teeth we take such a small amount off that it is rarely noticeable to someone looking at the teeth.  You can try it w/o IPR and always come back when doing a revision with some minor IPR if needed
 

 The good news is that IPR, or shaving of teeth, can be reduced and/or eliminated in most Invisalign cases if the dentist requests this when he submits the case for review (clincheck).  Expansion and then tightening teeth later (called "roundhousing") can help this.  Sometimes even traditional braces requires IPR.  Be sure and express your desires to your Orthodontic provider.  If it is required, ask him where and how much, as many times it is very minor and may be acceptable.  Good luck!

Whether or not slenderizing or narrowing of the teeth is necessary depends on the severity of the crowding.  Any time there is crowding, space needs to be somehow created.  There are 3 ways to do this either singly or in combination: widen (expand) the arch, take out a tooth (or teeth), or make some of the teeth slightly skinnier.  Most crowded cases are due to narrow dental arches so it's better to expand, however this takes time and is best done with traditional braces.  For a 15-year old with crowding, it's most likely due to narrow arches, so I would have several orthodontic opinions before allowing someone "shave" the teeth.  Hope this helps!