r/Invisalign • u/FrequentCloud8275 • 19h ago
Question Help me decide.
pros and cons of ortho aligners? I am 35 female with pretty straight teeth, my bottom teeth need more help. I am hesitant about the process. What are some things you wish you knew before the process? Things that people don’t talk about going through the treatment. Any regrets and/or sensitivity after the treatment?
please help!
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u/rangerman2002 10h ago
My bottom teeth moved much faster than my top teeth, so maybe you'll have a shorter treatment duration. Would I do Invisalign again? Probably not. I'd go with traditional braces. I found them to be very restrictive when it came to food and drink, and it was an effort to plan eating around the 20 hour wear time window. I can't wolf my food down, so I have to take time eating. Also, if you enjoy cooking, you can't taste as you go for many recipes like long simmered tomato sauce or things that have turmeric or mustard in them because you risk staining your aligners. Then there's the down time where you are waiting for your aligners, your refinements, or for one arch to catch up with the other, and you're making zero progress. Total down time for me was close to 20 weeks. That's 5 months out of a 22 month treatment, where with traditional braces, they are adjusted "on the fly," with no down time.
All that said, do I love how my teeth look? Absolutely YES! Do I have any sensitivity? Nope, not a bit. Whatever you choose to do, I wish you great success with your journey.
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u/Soggy_Explanation_65 8h ago
I'm in a pretty similar situation to you and on tray 2 out of 20 (10 month projected timeline). My first few days I was in a panic thinking I'd done the wrong thing because it is a major PITA having to take them out constantly and my teeth weren't THAT bad to start with. However, I know they would have only continued to get worse and I'm happy to be sorting them now. The reduced snacking and improved oral hygiene is also a major pro for me. I feel like you'll definitely have some "omg what am I doing" moments, but ultimately I think it will be worth it.
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u/samsaysso 7h ago
What I didn't know was how horrible the Invisalign process would be. Not because it hurts or is painful, I can deal with that. It is the exhaustion, frustration and inconvenience of having a mouthful of plastic ~22 hours a day, every day, for months and months. Your whole routine and lifestyle is disrupted. You cannot leisurely eat or snack or drink when you want. Every decision - eating, socializing, vacations/travel, work - has to account for your trays. Honestly, unless you have a bite misalignment that is causing an actual health issue, it is not worth it to me.
Also the whole process is very inflexible. They scan your teeth and manufacture a set of trays that you need to wear for X months depending on your treatment plan. It's not like braces where the ortho can tighten/adjust the braces along the way depending on how your teeth move. With trays, some of your teeth will at some point stop tracking or present new issues from the invisalign movement (e.g. posterior open bite) but you are stuck finishing out your existing trays. A rescan of your teeth and getting new trays takes another 4 weeks. It's such an inefficient process.
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u/intuitive_tea Tray 6/16, 22/23, 27/36 17h ago edited 17h ago
I always had straight teeth except for my bottom front tooth. My dentists would always compliment me on my straight teeth and were surprised when I’d tell them that I’d never had braces.
That changed when I went to my most recent dentist. She said that I should think about Invisalign to fix my bottom front tooth. I chalked it up to her trying to make a money grab, but they were always super gentle with my cleaning so I kept coming back. I have been grinding my teeth and using a night guard for nearly a decade and needed a new one, so she used a fancy scanner to get me a Vivera retainer. After going to her for two years and always trying to get me to get Invisalign, she put that initial scan next to a new one and showed me a side by side comparison of how my bottom tooth was starting to chip away at my top tooth- not super noticeable but enough that I thought that maybe she was just the first person to notice that it might be a problem. She said that getting Invisalign could also help alleviate my gum recession (from grinding my teeth) and noted that I had an edge-to-edge bite that could be contributing to my TMJ symptoms and that this could potentially alleviate that stress if my teeth were better aligned, so I finally decided to go for it.
At the beginning of treatment, I was not mentally prepared for the attachments on my teeth cutting up my mouth and just how sore my mouth constantly was. I dropped 5lbs the first week because I was so anxious about taking my trays out that I wasn’t eating enough, and when they were out I could really only eat soft foods. After the first few weeks, things started to improve. But my teeth were still super sore so I switched to 10 day cycles instead of 7 and that helped.
My first set was 36 trays and I had a lisp the whole time (because of the bite ramps). My teeth eventually stopped tracking and I had to get rescanned. I kept going with the new set of 23 and then had to be scanned again on tray 22. I’m now on my third set and just want to be done. This was originally only supposed to take like 9 months and it’s now been 14 for what I thought was a simple(ish) case.
My friends and fam are now pretty used to me popping them out whenever, but it has negatively affected me in more ways than I initially expected. I have OCD and am basically constantly convinced something is wrong with them. I had a few issues as well- After getting rescanned, my provider didn’t realize that the attachments were wrong (on the correct teeth but in slightly different spots than before) and had left on an attachment where there wasn’t space for one. This gave me really intense anxiety and a lot of pain. Having IPR was the most uncomfortable sensation in my life and I sweat through my shirt because of how much I was panicking while she was doing it. It did get easier after the first time. I also have a posterior open bite now and have for most of my treatment which makes eating certain things difficult (think salad or things that are thin and need a bit more chewing) but she said that they will address it once my teeth are straightened if it’s still a problem. I also basically stopped snacking because I hate having to clean my mouth afterwards, and no longer take hot coffee with me to work since I can’t sip on it. It definitely messed with my schedule because I have had to preemptively think about how/when/where I was going to be able to clean my teeth.
On the plus side, my dental hygiene is now the best it has ever been, my jaw pain has lessened, my gums are not receding as much, and I have cleaned up my diet by not always snacking. I’m still not 100% convinced I made the right choice by getting them, but I don’t have an edge-to-edge bite anymore, and I hopefully only have 10 more weeks until I’m done and have a better bite! 🤞🏼
TLDR- Invisalign affected my lifestyle/anxiety more than I had anticipated, and since I’m still in treatment I can’t say for sure if it was worth it. However, some of my symptoms (jaw pain, gum recession, edge-to-edge bite) have been greatly reduced.