Who Makes the Treatment Plan, the Dentist or the Invisalign Company?

This is a great question and the answer can determine the quality of the result.  There are several important steps in assuring the result is a good as can be.  Step #1.  Proper training and experience of the Invisalign doctor.  Experience in both orthodontics and Invisalign treatment can make the difference between a great result and a disappointing one.  Select your Invisalign orthodontist/dentist with this in mind.  Step #2  Submission of the plan by the dentist to Align Technology.  Although an Align Technician can help with a plan, the responsibility for this should properly be with the orthodontist/dentist and will help to determine the quality of the result.  Step #3 A Clincheck is provided by Align Technology to the treating doctor.  He then reviews it and decides if the plan will get the best result.  If not, he or she can alter the plan (as many times as he/she wants) to get the best result.  Step #4 Approval of the plan starts the process of making the aligners.  Step#5 Shipping to treating doctor.  Step #6 Checking and seating of aligners and the beginning of treatment.  I hope the listing of this sequence is helpful.  It really is a very sophisticated process.  With great patient cooperation and a well experienced Invisalign provider, an excellent result can be yours.

Who Makes the Treatment Plan, the Dentist or the Invisalign Company?
There is only one company manufacturing invisalign. Does it matter which provider I go to?

Invisalign is just like dental implants meaning it’s a medical device so experience and dedication of your doctor has a lot to do with how the results may turn out.  We can use Clincheck software to modify the treatment based on x-rays, photos, 3D model, PAN, CEPH, and patient’s desire.  Some can diagnose, treatment plan and treat complex cases after years of experience and some are new and are not familiar with this new technology.  The ranges of outcomes vary greatly depending on which invisalign provider you go to! The more I have learned about clincheck software, invisalign treatment planning and Cephalometric analysis, etc, the more time I now spend sometimes even hours to treatment plan most difficult cases… Just because you see certain movements on the 3D software, this does not mean they are realistic and modifications have to be made for proper realistic outcome.

Generally speaking you get what you pay for is true in this case. Of course, patient compliance also matters greatly in the types of results. We have had many extremely difficult cases with unbelievable results and then few easy cases with less than ideal results if the patient was not fully compliant to wear aligners as instructed or not keeping good hygiene, etc.

Invisalign and Clincheck Software are tools just like carpenter’s tools but each carpenter will produce varying quality of work based on their experience, dedication and innovation.  

The results you obtain with Invisalign aligners is determined by two things. First, the diagnosis and treatment plan, and second how well you wear your aligners. It is a huge misconception that all Invisalign treatment will turn out exactly the same. Invisalign is just a system that can deliver forces to your teeth to move them. If the forces are prescribed correctly, and if you apply those forces (wear the aligners), you will get a good result. Any dentist can order a set of aligners just as any one can buy a set of golf clubs. It is the skill of the doctor that will determine how your smile will turn out just as it is the skill of the golfer that will determine where that silly white ball will go. When your doctor sends Invisalign a set of impressions, he is presented with a preliminary treatment plan entered into a computer by a "technician" in Costa Rica that has no orthodontic training. The Costa Rican merely follows a generic set of guidelines and then turns the case back over to the submitting doctor. It is the doctor's responsibility to prescribe the movements, study the staging, prescribe the appropriate attachments, and determine if the velocities of movement are feasible. While it is possible that a general dentist can develop the diagnosis and treatment planning skills necessary to achieve a good result, orthodontists have advanced training in diagnosis, tooth movement, biomechanics, etc. If you get your aligners from someone without experience and training, you will not acheive the same results even though your aligners will arrive in the same box. Don't be satisfied with a smile created by a computer geek in Costa Rica. Find an orthodontist who really understands diagnosis and treatment planning and uses Invisalign as just one of many orthodontic tools.