Or at least sort of invisibly. I just started with the Invisalign system through a clinic here in Beijing. I stumbled across them while they were doing a promo event by the local Wal-Mart, so I got a discount for it. The current estimate for how long I’ll be in the things is a total of a year and a half, and I’m already almost a month into the treatment. So far, so good. Much better than the horrible experience I had with traditional metal braces (and with a horrible orthodontist who basically screwed up by teeth’s alignment).
Anyone else here go through this or something similar? What was the whole experience like for you?
My wife did Invisalign two years ago. Her initial plan was a year, but because she was really good at keeping them in for 22 hours a day or so, she finished up in about 8 months. At her mid-term checkup they said it was working so well that they accelerated the process; having her go to the next tray earlier. It was annoying to have to keep the trays in her mouth so much of the day, but they worked exactly as advertised.
Thanks for this. I can already tell there’s some improvement (i.e., movement). For one, it’s much easier to floss now than before. The royal pain 'twas before to floss is the main reason I didn’t floss so much (at all).
Same here. There’s no way I’d go through that crap again with the “headgear” and the awful metal wires.
I’ve been doing Invisalign for a year and a bit now - coming to the end soon. It was really pretty (literally) painless for me - apparently my teeth move easily. Number Two Daughter has just started, and she reports relative painlessness too.
Do you have to do the Dental Monitoring thing where you take a photo every week and you move on or not depending on what they see in the photo? They implemented this at our orthodontists some time between my start and the Smaller Girl’s start … and I’m kinda glad I didn’t have to do it because it’s a bit of a PITA to get the angles right. A bit micromanaging for my taste - though maybe I’d think differently if I’d had a harder time of it.
Looking forward to getting the bloody attachments off though. I had particular trouble with one on the inside that slipped out from under the aligner and cut up my tongue in my sleep - gone now, fortunately
The first set of aligners caused some serious pain and over those two weeks I bit the bullet and took a grand total of two Tylenol for it. I also did something I’ve never before done in my life: I bit my tongue the first night. I was not happy! When I told the orthodontist on the next visit, she thought it was hilarious because she’s never heard of someone never having bitten their tongue.
Not yet. I’m supposed to keep the things on when I eat, though. I tried it a few times and only with a couple of food items can I do that without it being unmanageable to consume the food. I told the orthodontist that during my last appointment; she said we’ll see how the teet are moving when I come in for my next appointment the first week of October. That’ll be interesting since that’s Golden Week here.
I’m moving to the next set of aligners around lunch-time today (I’m up, like an idiot, at two in the morning) so we’ll see if it’s lunch-time or dinner-time when it actually happens.
I’ve got a few attachments, only one of which is a little metal nubbin. That’s on the bottom left back tooth and is for an elastic which connects to a plastic nubbin that’s part of the upper aligner. The other attachments are little bumps.
See above about biting the tongue.
Seriously, so far, I’m quite happy with the experience. It’s far less painful than the crud I went through as a teenager, all for naught.
I failed to mention above the orthodontist is also going through the Invisalign treatment; she’s three years into it for her. On the consultation visit, my wife asked her if the things were really invisible. She answered, “Well, I’m wearing them now.” Of course they’re not really invisible, but we didn’t notice she had them on until she told us.
Well, I got back to Beijing as scheduled and the next day, I moved to the new aligners. They were pretty tight and a bit difficult to put on and take off. The orthodontist told me and showed me how to put the initial set on and take them off, but for the second and third sets, that was not really doable the way she showed. I can sort of do that, but there’s a bit of wiggling to get the things off. As the says roll by (moving to the next set every fortnight), the things are easier to put on and take off.
Also, it depends on what I’m chowing down on if I can eat with them covering my teeth. I’m sure it’s just me, but I don’t eat lunch at work so it’s a very short time out of the aligners for breakfast and dinner.
I checked online and a lot of people seem to have issues of the aligners getting cloudy or otherwise discolored. I’m not having that. But then I don’t eat or drink anything that would do that, I guess, nor do I smoke or use any tobacco products. My aligners are still crystal clear.
Oh, the orthodontist told me that as I move onto each new set, to keep the previous set in case I have to go back to those. My next appointment is tentatively on the first Friday of October. I say tentatively because that’s “Golden Week” here and I’m fairly certain nobody’s going to be at the clinic that day.
This last bit concerns the horrible experience I had as a teen with the metal braces. Well, before moving into the second set of aligners, I had to have one tooth extracted. What do you know! There was still metal on the back of the tooth. That had been left there for decades! What a terrible orthodontist that guy was.
I’m kind of surprised that they don’t want you to always take them out to eat food. My orthodontist (and all her assistants) is constantly repeating. “Don’t eat with them in. Please don’t eat with them in! Or drink! Unless it’s water” (I’ve been getting slack though - I’ll drink juice now too)
- gone now, fortunately