What was your experience with Invisilign?

March 13, 2010 9:07 PM

Tell me about your experience with Invisilign - was it good/bad, did it work?

While some mefi questions touched on Invisilign, I didn't find the info I was looking for and am hoping the hive mind can share with me your experiences with invisilign. specifically, did it work? did your teeth stay intact (did you wear a retainer once you were done?) or do they shift back into their previous crooked places? Did you get cavities? Were the aligners hard to remove? Please share any advice and anecdotes from your experience in using invisilign.

posted by dmbfan93 to Grab Bag (5 answers total)

Best answer: It works. I still have a retainer but mine looks just like invisalign trays, not the wire kind. I only wear it at night so it's not a big deal.

It took longer than they said it would and it's a pain in the ass: you can't eat with them in and they are in essentially 24/7 (obviously you take them out for meals). You don't realize how annoying this is until someone brings in food to work to share and you can't have any. Speech will be messed up at first but you will get used to it. You can't chew gum. They hurt for the first day or two when you start a new tray. The doc will probably need to file between your teeth to make room for adjustments (it's essentially a piece of tiny sandpaper) which is disconcerting at first.

I have not had regular wire braces but someone I know has had both and say invisalign is much less painful and annoying.

The results are great but it is not an experience I wish to repeat.
posted by chairface at 9:58 PM on March 13, 2010

I didn't use it but my husband did and he had a very good experience, especially compared to regular braces. It took a while (about 24 months) but the clear plastic retainers were practically impossible to see which was important to him. They worked and were not super uncomfortable, except for the first night with a new one. (He primarily wore his at night.) There has been no noticeable drift back, but it's only been about a year. He experienced no cavities during this time, but did comment that the weird spacing that they do to your teeth to prepare them was uncomfortable. He said that sometimes it was tough to get the aligners out after the first night wearing them but you kind of get the hang of where to grab them to be able to get a good enough grip to pry it out. The system was very good at figuring out how to stage the aligners so that they weren't really painful and the one time it was too much to tolerate, the orthodontist just made him a less extreme one, it is all included in the original cost. Suggestion-it's expensive enough, if you have flex spending at work, use it.
posted by supercapitalist at 10:12 PM on March 13, 2010

I'm on my second tray of what's supposed to be a year's worth, but after talking to other people I expect to have it go at least a little longer. You can read my blog entry (link is in my profile) about what it was like the day I got them in, but I will say the second tray was much less painful than the first.

Eating is kind of a pain in the ass, because it has to be planned for. I use the stopwatch on my iPhone to make sure I'm staying within the allotted two hour window I have each day. People keep saying 'I loved having them because I couldn't snack and I lost a few pounds!' but I have blood sugar issues so it's kind of a drawback for me.

People *really* don't notice them unless you point them out. Even the woman waxing my eyebrows on Friday -- she was right in my face -- didn't see them.

Also, I grind my teeth pretty severely, enough so that I've chewed through nightguards before. Because I have invisalign on top and bottom, I haven't chewed through anything (plastic v plastic) and for whatever reason I'm not waking up with bruxisn-related pain.

So, you know, I'm only three weeks in, but so far, so good. Maybe I'll feel differently in six months, but for now I'm happy.
posted by sugarfish at 10:14 PM on March 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Oh, and as far as the aligners being tough to remove: not really. Each will have its own little sweet spot that you'll find you can get your fingernail under. You'll likely get attachments, which are lumps of filling material on several teeth that hold the trays in. You learn pretty quickly how to pull on the flexible trays to get them out. When you put them back on, they just click over the attachments.
posted by sugarfish at 10:18 PM on March 13, 2010

I'm at the very end of my invisaligns (like 1 tray left before the retainer!!). What was supposed to be nine months turned into over two years and my teeth are still not perfect. I've been through three readjustments and could've gone through one more except I've decided just to have my two front teeth bonded together and give up on the one last stubborn crooked tooth. They do look much better than what I started out with though. I had one tooth that was supposed to be pulled down and turned slightly, but despite multiple tries and multiple attachments, it did not work. At all. I had another tooth that was turned almost completely sideways and it is pretty much back to normal. So I guess it depends on the tooth.

In terms of shifting back - my teeth are super stubborn, so if I have a try out for even a few hours, they move back and I can feel the tightness when I put it back in. This was especially so with the gap between my teeth (which is why I finally just had them bonded together).

To answer the rest of your questions, no I did not get cavities, and the aligners are easy to remove once you get the hang of it.
posted by echo0720 at 7:45 AM on March 14, 2010