More Invasive Than I Expected - Columbus, OH

This photo was taken the day that I had my front teeth contoured and was fitted for a retainer (not worn in the photo)

I completed my course of Invisalign treatment 4 weeks ago. When I finished my last aligner set, my bottom teeth were perfect, and my top teeth were maybe 95% of the way there. I could have elected to go on with refinement (which was free), but I decided that my teeth were "good enough" for my purposes.

I had all of my attachments removed on my final official day of treatment, and I thought I would have contouring done that day and be fitted for a retainer, but it turned out that there was another miscommunication from my dentist's office, and the contouring/retainer fitting had to be scheduled at another visit. And... he had no open appointments for almost two more weeks. As a result, I had to wear my final set of aligners for almost four weeks, and they are really not meant to hold up well for that long (discoloration, peeling, cracking). I finally got an appointment and had an hour or more of bonding and sanding my front two teeth and filing the two next to them to try to make it look even now that my teeth are positioned differently. The way my teeth looked with bottom edges filled in and completely horizontal rather than angled was actually startling to me the first time I looked in the mirror while it was being done. The image in my head did not exactly match the reality of having front teeth of a completely different shape in my mouth. They looked huge at first and needed to be filed down quite a bit. I am 95% pleased with those results (95% seems to be my number here!).

I have an Essix retainer (or its equivalent), and I wish the Invisalign aligners would have been as invisible as this thing is! It covers more of the teeth and gums (and a bit of the hard palate), but it is basically impossible to see and minimally affects speech. It is tough to remove, however. My dentist told me that I could go right into only wearing it overnight, unless it felt snug when I put it on at night, suggesting that my teeth were shifting. I think it feels snug every time I put it on, so I have been wearing it about 16-18 hours per day. I'm more careful not to drink anything but water with the retainer in because I don't want to discolor it. One thing I had not expected was that the retainer made my teeth VERY sore for about a week, especially the last molars. As soon as I got the retainer, I went back to my regular dentist and ordered some Opalescence whitening gel, which can be used inside the retainer in the most awesome (and cheap) way.

Overall, I am 95% satisfied with the process and results of Invisalign. The worst part of it for me was that the attachments were very visible, in my opinion, and made me feel so conspicuous that I might as well have been wearing ceramic braces. I didn't smile normally at people for months. Also, it slightly over-rotated one front tooth and didn't completely correct the second tooth that began as my most crooked one. I realize that I could easily have gone on with a few months of refinements and made them perfect, but I was a bit disappointed that being a compliant patient in wearing the aligners as directed with all of those crazy attachments didn't get me all the way there. I did find the aligners to be easy to use, and the process was fairly short (7-8 months). And I'm happy with the retainer.

I finished aligners 16/16 today and had all of my attachments removed. My bottom teeth are perfect, and my top teeth got maybe 95% of the way there. Instead of doing refinements on top, my provider believes that we can get the rest of the way by doing minor filing and bonding of my front teeth. Since the bottom edges would have required some leveling anyway, I am going to go that route. Unfortunately, his schedule is booked for almost 2 weeks, so I have to hang out in my last set of aligners until bonding can be done and Vivera retainers ordered that will fit my "new" teeth.