My Horrid Experience with Invaligns - Surrey, BC

A few things to note about Invisaligns (I'm just finishing up with my invisaligns right now) ... I'm 19 years old now, got them in senior high at 17

Invisalign is definitely a great idea, but it isn't as "perfect" as they advertise it ... it IS too good to be true. I had just lightly messed up teeth, but ended up having to wear them for 2+ years (still wearing them actually)

When you put them in your mouth, they aren't 'invisible' like in the demo pictures you see on google images. Those are propoganda pictures. If you're sitting next to someone and talking with them, they'll almost definitely notice that you have invisaligns ... Invisaligns make your teeth look WAXY, like for some reason you spread vaseline all over your teeth, or have some problem with saliva in your mouth. If there is anything bright in the room, your teeth will shine/sparkle like something slimey. They aren't 'thin' ... they're fairly thick actually

The propoganda pictures they have on their website also show people just 'taking them off' - it's not quite that simple though .... they have to attach little tooth-colored 'knobs' directly onto the front of your teeth - in fact, EVERY SINGLE TOOTH in your mouth. They vary in size, and some knobs can be quite huge. The biggest ones they put in my mouth were RIGHT ON MY FRONT 2 TEETH, which looked awful. It makes your teeth look 'spikey' when you take your invisaligns out, which in my opinion looks terrible. They aren't 'neatly organized' either ... they're just placed randomly on your teeth, in randomly orientations, making you look like a mutant. This was probably the part that made me the most frustrated with invisaligns. Hopefully, in the future, they'll start attaching those knobs to the BACK of the teeth, where they aren't noticeable at all, but for all intents and purposes, the knobs on the front of your teeth are very visible.

Just a week ago, I went into the final 'stage' of invisaligns, since I have a crossbite (top+bottom teeth smash into each other when I try to eat/smile), so I have to start wearing elastics to correct my bite. This part made me cry for the first time in years, when I looked in the mirror and saw what they did to my teeth. They attached 2 bulky plastic 'hooks' to my two front incisors (those sharp teeth), and two METAL hooks to my two bottom incisors. These look TERRIBLE. I can't smile at all. I mean - if they attached these to some of my teeth further back in my mouth, they would probably look OK, but they attached the hooks to my teeth in the front =(. On these hooks, I have to wear elastics, like any braces-user would, to correct my bite, which isn't too bad .... but without braces, people are like "wait - wtf are those in that guy's mouth? those look like elastics but ... that guy doesn't have braces? wtf is that? is that saliva or something? egghhh!". Even when I take the elastics out, the hooks look awful - and those are bonded to my teeth, so I can't remove them. I have had several of my friends say "ewww! what's that" when they saw the hooks in my mouth. =(

I would just recommend getting braces - that way, if people see your teeth, they just think "oh- that guy/girl has got braces. that's pretty normal", whereas with invisaligns it's like "wait- what the [RS bleep] is wrong with that guy's mouth ... ?" then they'll stop talking, and just listen to you while staring at your mouth trying to figure out what is wrong. Honestly, after I got invisaligns, I was afraid to open my mouth AT ALL. This is my story at least. I do not recommend them. If I could go back, I would have just gotten braces. That way, I could've just opened my mouth and be like "hey! I have braces y'all!". Braces are understandable and normal, and until Invisalign steps up their game and sells me a product that is ACTUALLY LIKE WHAT THEY ADVERTISED, I will always be in favour of braces.