POSTED UNDER Invisalign REVIEWS
Braces Round 2! SO Worth It and WAY Better Than Regular Braces! - Las Vegas, NV
ORIGINAL POST
I am 17 years old and had to have a round 2 of...
WORTH IT$2,000
I am 17 years old and had to have a round 2 of braces . When I was 11, I had the regular metal braces put on and had them for 2 years. Once I got them off, being the irresponsible 7th grader that I was, I never wore the retainers that you are suppose to wear through out the day and night after braces and my teeth moved back to even worse then they were before I ever had braces! My bottom got completely twisted and crooked and my top started to over-lap. So 4 years later after regular braces, it sadly was time for me to get them back on again because I couldn't take how bad it got. I went back to my original orthodontist that I had gone to previously to see what we could do. My orthodontist told me that my teeth had moved too badly so that braces was my only option if I wanted them fixed. I knew how painful and terrible metal braces were and I knew that was something I never wanted to have to go through again, so I decided to talk to my orthodontist about Invisalign. (Luckily for me, my orthodontist cut our bill in half since we were previous customers, and my insurance covered some so we ONLY had to pay about $400 out of pocket for the whole treatment!) It was the best decision I ever made. I love Invisalign, and it really does it's job as long as you wear it like you are suppose to! The hardest part to get use to for me was the buttons that they have to glue on to your teeth to help push and move your teeth into the direction they need to go, and also help lock the trays into your mouth. But after awhile, you will get use to them and they will not be as sharp. Invisalign is 1000000 times less painful than traditional braces are, and I HIGHLY recommend them instead of metal braces. Invisalign is much more comfortable, easy to take care of, and you really can barely even tell that they are there. I only had to have mine for a year and they completely transformed my teeth into looking beautiful again. I am almost done with my treatment, and I will be getting a permanent retainer put in on the bottom and will have a clear retainer made for the top on New Years Eve :)
kimberlyalexis's provider
Replies (6)
December 4, 2014
you have beautiful rows of teeth already!
December 5, 2014
Thank you! The bottom 2 teeth are the ones that mostly drived me crazy! I could not stand how crooked they were! Invisalign did wonder for fixing them, as you can see in my later pictures :)
UPDATED FROM kimberlyalexis
Huge progress!
I am so happy to see what a huge difference Invisalign has made for my teeth! As you can see, they have moved tremendously and I am extremely happy with the outcome! I do however still not like my lower left and it is still a bit crooked, but I am hoping that as I switch to my last 2 tighter trays during the next couple of weeks that they will straighten up completely perfect! I am totally amazed at how little pain Invisalign has been. My pain level for my teeth moving that much on a scale of 1-10 has never exceeded about a 4-5. With traditional braces my pain level reached a solid 9-10 at times!
Replies (7)
December 2, 2014
Did you not have any attachments at all?! Your teeth do look fantastic! Did you talk to your doctor about the bit you don't like? Also, you can probably tell whether they'll move into place by looking at your very last aligner.
December 2, 2014
As you can see in the first few pictures where my teeth are very crooked, I did have lots of attachments, also known as buttons. Mostly on the bottom because of how twisted my bottom teeth were. But as you can see in my recent pictures where they are straighter, most of my buttons were taken off because I didn't need them. I currently only have 1 button up top and 2 buttons on the bottom. When I first started my Invisalign treatment I had about 7-8 buttons! :) and yes by the looks of my future trays, my bottoms crookedness should be fixed completely!
December 2, 2014
Very nice! Even 7-8 isn't that many. We have at least one community member here who has 27 attachments, and at least one with 28!!
Were the extra attachments taken off for a refinement stage or was it just part of the regular course of treatment?
December 3, 2014
So at this time last year I got Invisalign and that's when I had the 7/8 attachments. I started off with 14 trays. I was suppose to be finished with Invisalign in June of this year. But once I went back to them after my 14th tray, I was not happy with my bottom at all. It was still crooked! So I got a refinement, which took ridiculously long! I waited over 2 months for my new trays to come in, which wasted lots of treatment time. I finally got them in August and when they came in, I was able to get 5 buttons off because I no longer needed them! I was shocked to see that I had 8 trays when my refinement came back. I expected like 3-4 trays. So now here I am. Will be switching to tray 7 tomorrow. Almost done :)
December 3, 2014
Ah yes, the wait-time! My doctor wasn't expecting me to complain either, I guess, so I had to wait about a month for my refinement to come in. Wearing the same tray that whole time. Boy did it hurt when I finally started on that refinement. It was six trays. My initial was 18 trays, but we only did 15 before moving to refinements. I don't think we took off a single attachment for my refinements, though, so I assumed (back then) that that was normal. But I see a lot of people here on RealSelf who get to have some or all of their attachments removed. And some get them removed for the wait, then get new put on!
Super exciting you've only got one left, though! Doesn't it feel unreal?
December 5, 2014
Yes having to wear the same trays for over 2 months while I waited for my refinements to come in was annoying and gross! They started breaking because these trays are not meant to be worn for more then the two weeks! I was so irritated and called basically every other day to see where the heck they were! Lol. And yes I'm not sure why some people can get buttons off after a refinement and some can't! It must just depend on the person and where their teeth are at! I just switched to my second to last tray yesterday! Had no pain at all, but I do notice my bottom feels and looks a lot straighter! So exciting! Can't wait to be done and get my permanent retainer on! :)
UPDATED FROM kimberlyalexis
Only 3 more weeks left!
Only 3 weeks until I'll be finished with my treatment! :)
Congratulations! Your teeth weren't that bad to start, but I can imagine that having been used to braces-straight teeth before, that they'd feel very crooked once they moved back! Glad to hear that your treatment was so short. I hope you'll show us a pic of your current progress so we can see where the buttons are before you complete your treatment!
Thank you! I'll go look at them now :).