Tweaking my Smile After 41 Years - Fanwood, NJ

I officially finished my treatment I April and firmly believe this was a HUGE waste of money. Although my dentist says he is very satisfied with the results, there is absolutely no difference in my smile. My dentist says the my bite has changed, but that doesn't make a difference cosmetically. He sold me this as an opportunity to "tweak my smile" and as you will see in the photos below, my smile is exactly the same as it was four years ago. The funny thing is when I showed this very photo to my dentist be told me how much straighter my teeth look in the photo on the left. That's the BEFORE picture. Sigh.

I am also still waiting on my retainer. It took well over a month from the time my dentist took the impressions until the time it was received in office. When I went to pick it up it fit so tightly that I couldn't remove it. I am now without a retainer while the dentist "works on it." Frankly, I'm so disgusted with the entire experience, that I really don't care when the retainer is ready. I'm going to pick it up simply because I'm entitled to it, but I don't think it matters one way or the other.

Obviously this is my fault as I allowed myself to be talked into a service that I CLEARLY didn't need. I would just advise others not to do Invisalign if you've been told it will tweak your smile because you will most likely not see sufficient change to justify the cost.

Quite honestly, I'm sick over the fact that I spent $5,000 on this. It's like I flushed that money down the toilet. Buyer beware!!

My dentist was recently certified in Invisalign and mentioned that I'd be an ideal candidate, because I just need a little tweak. My teeth are pretty straight, but I do have some crowding and my lower canines are tilted forward. After speaking to him and doing some basic research (not nearly enough research, I admit), I started treatment on February 6th.

For the first six weeks, I was very pleased with Invisalign. It really is completely invisible, and except for some discomfort with the first tray (my tongue got pretty cut up on the sharp edges) I did okay. I wore the trays faithfully for 20-22 hours per day, and I had good results, in that my teeth were moving as expected in the Clin Check.

My dentist told me I would need some attachments with tray 4, and I went in on Friday to have the attachments put on and to get tray number 4. What I didn't realize was that the attachments would be HUGE and across the front of my mouth. I didn't look closely at them in the office, because I didn't hav my glasses and the mirror was tiny, but when I got home, I was absolutely horrified. I looked like I had some kind of deformity! They jutted out from my front teeth and looked horrendous. In fact, as soon as my husband walked in the door, the first thing he was was "what the {beep} happened to your teeth". (And this is a man that didn't notice I dyed my hair light blonde until about a month after the fact.) Ugh.

Naturally, the dentist was closed, but after multiple calls to their answering service, and a lot of crying, my dentist (bless him) met me at the office and took off most of the attachments. There are still a few smaller ones which will need to come off this week, and the tray still juts out where the attachments should be, so it still looks terrible (and it is very much NOT invisible at this point), but at least I don't have to call out sick to work tomorrow. Until I have all of these attachments removed, and I can go back to a smooth tray, I will not be smiling or opening my mouth when I speak (which is a lot harder to do than you'd think). My dentist is going to call the lab tomorrow to see how we can continue treatment without attachments, so hopefully I should have this all resolved within a week or two.

I will continue to update this review as I progress through treatment, and eventually will give a thumbs up or thumbs down on the cost versus the end result. I will say I am very happy with my dentist and give him two very enthusiastic thumbs up, because I know he really wants me to be happy and to have a great result. I wanted to write this review now, though, so anyone considering invisalign knows to ask about attachments. If you are told that you cannot have the treatment without attachments on your front teeth, please think long and hard before agreeing and shelling out the money for Invisalign. In my opinion, attachments on your front teeth look horrible, and they look like you have clear braces. If you're going to do that, you might as well just get clear braces, which in many cases are cheaper and can move your teeth more quickly than invisalign can.

More to come ....