Practicalities of using Invisalign
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Anonymous
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I'm considering Invisalign to straighten my jumbled front lower teeth. I've talked to my dentist and am going to have a consult with an orthodontist, but I am also curious about the day-to-day details of using this method, especially while working.
Does it take long to adjust to speaking with the aligners in? I'm starting a new job soon, so I'd hate to show up as a lisping or spitting dork. Do people tend to notice you're wearing the aligners? Do you feel like it affected your professional appearance? How hard was it adjust to not eating/drinking anything at all without first taking out the aligners and then brushing? I usually do best when I eat small frequent meals and I like to sip tea while I work, but I don't think I'm going to want to brush my teeth four times a day while at the office... Any other practical details and adjustments you had to make? (I couldn't decide if this was more medical or more appearance-related, so I went with Off-Topic...) |
Anonymous
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I wear Invisalign and it was quite an adjustment from the start. In order to prevent cavities (but you will most likely still get them), it is very very important to follow proper hygiene and suggested by the makers of Invisalign as well as your dentist.
Invisalign has done a great job with my teeth. I had moderate to severe crowing top and bottom, but IF I had to do it over again, I would probably choose traditional braces vs. Invisalign. I do think that Invisalign is somewhat limited in what in can do. The trays can also get stained and gross during the 2 weeks that you wear them. I soak mine in a denture cleaner in the a.m. and p.m. This has worked well for me. You cannot really drink anything other than water or maybe very very weak or watered down unsweetened tea when wearing the trays in your mouth. Anything else will stain them and it will look ugly. I did not have problems with lisp or problems with speech when I got them, not even at the beginning. People hardly notice that I wear them. They do limit your social life though in regards to going out for drinks etc. You should wear them at least 23 hours per day. Good luck! |
Anonymous
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I just started 2 weeks ago. No one noticed, even though I thought I was talking differently. The hardest part has been not snacking or sipping coffee/ tea throughout the day without removing them first and then brushing when finished. I hate that part. Plus optimum wear is 22 hours per day, so That only leaves 2 hrs for 3 meals plus coffee break or snack. I've almost given up on eating and drinking between meals for these reasons.
They are also pricy. But I can feel my teeth moving and this is much better than traditional braces. |
Anonymous
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I wore them years ago but I was wearing braces before so it was not as hard to adjust.
Anyway, I'm from a country where we learn to brush after every meal since K so it was no big deal. I did salivate a lot for a few weeks but it went away quick. Nobody noticed the aligners but I got lots of comments because I removed the braces 
Do the switch to drinking water before you get those suckers on. I had the habit of chewing gum and it was hard to let go. Now that all the treatment is done I don't care about it anymore. |
Anonymous
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My dentist recommended them too, so I am interested. How long do you wear them? Rest of your life, or just until the teeth get to where they need to go?
How expensive are we talking here? What's the ballpark cost? |
Anonymous
First off, invisalign was one of the best things I ever did for myself. So the adjustment and minor inconveniences were totally 100% worth it. It is not forever (well, you have to wear it at night forever, but not during the day forever). It did not take long to adjust to speaking with it. I had top only... I think if you are doing bottom only it won't impact you very much. No one ever noticed me wearing the aligners unless/until I showed them. I got out of the habit of brushing after each time I took the aligners out but it wasn't a huge deal to take them out to eat. I drank clear liquids with them in and toward the end of the two-weeks (you change them to new ones every two weeks) I would drink dark liquids like coke or beer with them in. You will get used to it pretty quickly and the treatments are not tha tlong - mine was a year and that was considered unusally long... and like I said... totally worth it. Good luck! |
Anonymous
You wear them until your teeth are straight and then you wear the final aligner at night, forever. The teeth move little by little so you get a new aligner every two weeks or so and switch them out as your bite progresses. You do have to go in frequently for quick checkups but after a few times my dentist just gave me like four sets and I came back every couple months for a check. |
Anonymous
| Wow, you wear something at night - forever? That sounds annoying to me. I have enough trouble remembering to wear my bite guard once in a while, let alone every night. |
Anonymous
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Go to a few different orthodontists, because they will have different treatment plans in mind. I went to three orthodontists. #1 said I could not be treated with Invisalign and quoted me $8k for metal braces plus the cost of surgical removal of 4 teeth. #2 and #3 were orthodontists I found through the Invisalign website and charged about the same price ($6900), but #3 would not correct my overbite.
I've been using it for 6 months now, and it is an adjustment at the beginning. It's completely invisible and you get used to having them in your mouth. I have attachments on some of my teeth as well as hooks for rubber bands (to correct the overbite). While you can't see any of it, it took me a while to get used to having all of this stuff in my mouth. Invisalign changes your bite a bit so you can't completely close your teeth, and they told me this will go away after treatment. My orthodontist suggests using antibacterial hand soap and a toothbrush to clean the aligners. I use the foaming antibacterial hand soap from Target and children's toothbrushes for cleaning. I keep toothpaste, floss, and cleaning + regular toothbrushes with me all the time, and keep extras of all of this at work. Also use a soft brush because you don't want to wear away your enamel, since you'll be brushing a lot. If you are social and go out to eat and drink, you'll have to make tradeoffs about wearing your aligners for a few hours less or drinking with them and rinsing frequently or whatever. It was a bigger adjustment than I was aware of and I was disappointed at first that the whole process wasn't as easy as it seemed in the Invisalign brochures and videos. But it's like any other routine- wearing contacts, taking medication, etc. that you just have to get used to. Depending on how much you need done, your ballpark range might be 4-7k, also depending on whether you go to an orthodontist in the city or further out in the suburbs. Like I said, I strongly suggest you go consultations at more than one office to get a feel for what the orthodontist can and will treat, and how. I was also told that my treatment would take 12-18 mos, and in the end it will be 27 mos. (My teeth aren't aesthetically that bad, but there is overcrowding that takes a while to fix..) Most orthodontists have a flat fee that they'll quote you at the consultation. |
Anonymous
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I just wanted to say thank you to the OP for starting this post and to all the PPs for sharing. I have bite alignment problems and Invisalign is one of the treatments I'm considering. I have my first consultation scheduled for next month.
Sounds like Invisalign might also help with my weight loss goals in that it will keep me from snacking between meals and will curtail my evening glass of red wine. Bonus! WRT wearing an appliance at night for the rest of you life, that is the current recommendation for all orthondontia treatments, not just Invisalign. If that had been the case 20 years ago and I had continued to wear my retainer, I might not need treatment again. |
Anonymous
I didn't find the aligners to be too much of an inconvenience and they did such a nice job with correcting my cross-bite. Nobody ever noticed that I was wearing them and I only lisped for the first couple days while wearing them as my mouth adjusted to them. I actually wore them on my wedding day! I'm strange but I actually kind of liked the slight pressured feeling in my mouth of the aligners as they shifted my teeth. The only downside was that my orthodontist never discussed with me, at the onset of treatment, that I would have to wear a retainer at night for the rest of my life so that my teeth wouldn't shift back. The retainer is super unsexy and does cause me to lisp...my husband loves to make fun of me, wearing it 
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Anonymous
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I had braces for five years (as an adult) - I had a couple of surgeries on my jaw, so they were on for an exceptionally long time. After that, I wore a clear plastic retainer, which looks just like an invisalign retainer, full time for a year. Same care/restrictions as an invisalign retainer.
If I had to do it again, I would still go with the traditional braces. I found wearing the clear retainer to be really cumbersome - I hated having to remember to take it out before going on a business lunch, for example. Or, I'd forget and would have to excuse myself as soon as the meal came. (Also, a lunch that takes an hour takes up a good chunk of your retainer-free time). It was annoying to go to parties, too, where food was presented over the course of a couple of hours (or having to refuse passed appetizers and whatnot). I also eat frequently - usually 5 times a day. I like to linger over my coffee in the morning, and couldn't do it with the retainer in. At the end of the day, I ended up not wearing it nearly as much as I should have. |
Anonymous
| My husband wore them for 1.5 or 2 years. You can't tell at all that they're being worn. I think he did have to get used to not eating/drinking all day long and brushing after you eat every time. I think he had a lot less pain with each adjustment as opposed to traditional braces. We went on 2 major overseas trips while he had them and I think he was far enough along that the ortho said he would be ok to only wear them at night while on travel (and then he wore that particular set for 4 weeks as opposed to 2). |
Anonymous
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Invisalign veteran (it did wonders for my smile!). I was told not to use denture cleaner because it can be very abrasive and scratch the plastic (making the retainers look dirty). Retainer Brite is better.
http://www.dentakit.com/rebr1yesu.html The retainers hurt worse in the beginning, so hang in there if you have pain for the first couple of retainers. It gets better. Like the other posters, I, too, will wear a retainer at night forever. Just remember to pop out your Invisalign retainer before you sit down to eat. I remember quite a few times when I had to slip into the ladies room because I was in a restaurant and forgot to remove it. Good luck! |
Anonymous
| I'm also almost done with invisaligner, and have been really pleased with the results. One thing that surprised me however is that I've had to go to the dentist every 6 weeks or so for quick progress review visits. Each visit is less than 30 minutes, but the number of trips to the dentist's office has been high. |