Invisalign-- Poorer and in Need of Real Braces After Two Years

Just an update to show the "before" teeth. I started the whole thing because my bite was so off in the front I was chipping my front teeth, so it was braces or dentures, and I want to have my own teeth forever. I see above that I didn't remember the price of Invisalign correctly, I was off by $300.

It's September of 2015 and after nearly four years, I am done with the braces and have only four more months of daily retainer wear before I can wear retainers only at night. It's been a long haul.

To recap: I don't recommend that anyone see a dentist for orthodontics. Find reviews and carefully choose an orthodontist and let him decide which method will work best for your teeth.

The total price, all said and done is really scary. It was $5200 for Invisalign, which failed. It was $6000 for self-ligating braces. Add the additional $4800 for veneers (four front top incisors) and $400 for gingivectomy (so my gums match and my teeth look even) and subtract the $4500 that my insurance paid, and you still have enough for a good used car.

My veneers were done by Nicholas Papageorgiou DDS, PC in Ashburn, VA. I highly recommend him. He is very careful, and his staff are pleasant and thoughtful people. I highly recommend White Orthodontics in Sterling, VA as well, and I couldn't be more pleased with the results of the braces.

I am including the photos, and I hope they're in order when they appear.

If anyone has questions about the experience of getting braces put on or removed, or the process of getting veneers, leave me a comment. Neither experience involved pain, and the self-ligating braces move so slowly, they never made my teeth sore.

Prior to Invisalign, my teeth were crowded, I had a crossbite and overjet on my lower incisors, but my bite closed properly and I did not clench my teeth while sleeping. It's the clenching that caused the posterior open bite. Because I couldn't close my bite, my dentist referred me to an orthodontist after struggling to try to get Invisalign to try to make it right for me. After two years of Invisalign, my teeth sort of look straight, but there is still overjet in the lower incisors and the lower molars lean toward the inside of my mouth instead of going straight up and down.

The ceramic self-ligating braces are much more comfortable than Invisalign, which always made me feel like my teeth were suffocating and gave me terrible dry-mouth. I no longer wake up with cotton mouth and have to get a sip of water in the middle of the night. If I had it to do over, I'd have gone straight to an orthodontist for wire and bracket braces. If I had, I'd be done now, instead of contemplating going to my fortieth high school reunion in braces. (It won't stop me. People seem to deal with it fine.)