Here's How to Love the Results AND the Experience...

I absolutely LOVE invisalign! My daughter has been struggling with traditional braces for 4 years and in less than a year, for less money, pain, inconvenience and frustration...I've got a perfect smile and she still needs adjustment after adjustment. Her treatment is a year and half over due. She's had so much pain, missed so much school and been so let down. I definitely recommend invisalign over traditional braces!!! I have just finished with my 21 tray invisalign treatment and I'm also married to a dentist who does several cases a week, with very positive patient results and feedback. All the concerns and complaints found among the various reviews I've just read are valid and quite common. A good dentist or orthodontist who spends time educating his/her patients and then regularly follows-up on their progress is the first key to a positive experience. With that said, here are some other tips that you may find helpful: 1. Smooth the edges of each new tray with ulta-fine sandpaper or the fine side of an nail file. Test the edge on your lip until it is smooth, THEN try them in the mouth. If you wait until after you have a sore spot to fix the tray's edge it will be too late. 2. Put new trays in after dinner and don't take them out until the next morning. This will help you enter the comfort phase within the first day two. If you change to a new tray set in the morning and then take them out several times in the first 12 hours you will have soreness until about the 3rd day. 3. If you don't consistently wear your trays your teeth will try to shift back to their original position and your current tray may seem unbearably tight. First of all, try to avoid this because it is not healthy for your teeth to be repeatedly shifted back & forth. Secondly, call your dentist/orthodontist ASAP and let them know what's happend. Most likely they will tell you to back up one tray at a time until you find the one that feels most comfortable then you'll have to progress from there again. 4. For added convenience carry a travel toothbrush and tooth picks with you at all times. You can do a quick "dry" brush without toothpaste and replace your trays...It's better for you to have a less than perfect brushing experience than to leave your trays out for too long. 5. Clean trays with warm (not hot) water and a little liquid dish soap once a day. They will stay clear and odor free. Using toothpaste tends to cloud the trays and residual tooth whitener left in trays may cause burning if trapped against your gums all day. 6. You may have difficulty speaking the first day or so... One of our patients is a news caster and his solution was to change to new trays on Friday evening so by Monday morning he was used to them. I've also noticed I'll trip on my words a bit if my mouth is dry...So, keep water on hand and sip with trays in place. Hope this helps!