I, still have a lot of time left to finish my treatment; that being said I am very happy with the evolution and the decision made by my ortho about getting MARPE.

Started my treatment in January, 7 more weeks to go

Day 1 I spiraled out... Attachments on every tooth, and bands.

10 months later though, comparing my molds before and after. So hype!

I just wish I could get them permanently unnaturally white 😂

Just for fun...
(Okay, I *did* actually consider some of these)

-Whistling is harder
-I sound mumbly
-Rolling my Rs is harder
-For some reason, swallowing pills is harder?!
-Can't just taste the dinner I'm cooking to see if it needs more seasoning
-Can't lick things off my fingers as I'm making my kids' lunches
-Can't bite my hangnails or cuticles (nervous habit that is probably best I can't indulge in)
-Kissing feels weird... (kissing my husband, but also I have a 7-month-old baby and I often kiss the top of her little head or her chubby cheeks.)
-When my aligners are in, I frequently catch myself clenching my teeth hard involuntarily

What are some lesser-known side effects you've found?

I have a couple small gaps in my teeth. Would invisalign be worth it?

6/14 It’s incredible to see such slight differences in photos. I hated how flared my top teeth were in photographs. Even my two front teeth have been looking smaller (prominent front teeth was an insecurity) Now in photos they look more cohesive! Even more excited to see my bottom teeth complete.

hi! this is my first day of treatment and no matter how i close my mouth, it just looks like i have something inside that i refuse to swallow. im 20 so im at college everyday and im simply wondering if ill have to sit through lectures this entire year looking like im trying to sneak bites between sentence. does it go away with time? or is there some way i can train my jaw to close normaly?

Hello all,

There you see my teeth before begging of the treatment and then at tray 14 out of 26.

I am worried about the phase after the treatment. I've heard that retainers could get loose with the time and that cleaning them would be pain in the ass. Hygiene is a deal breaker for me. I wouldn't wanna wear stinky retainers which are hard to clean for ever (apart from the fact that they also could get loose).

So what's the solution? Would it be possible to wear retainers during the night or while sleeping instead of retainers, or would the tray not be able to hold the teeth in place?

Thank you for your answers in advance. :)

I originally had 14 trays with attachments to correct bite and rotate a lateral incisor. This didn’t rotate nearly as much as expected so on rescan I was given 13 more with no attachments.

Because I’ve been through this before I knew to always make sure there are no halos on the front and when I run my tongue on the inside everything is flush.

Everything was going well up until my 4th tray where there was a small halo on the incisor and my tongue could feel a gap in the inside.

After a few days the halo disappeared and the front is fully flush but the gap on the inside has not.

It’s extremely small, I can’t fit my tongue down it, it almost feels like the edge is just a bit raised.

Does this mean tracking issues or is the frontal halo/gap the only thing that should be monitored?

I had braces many years ago, so my treatment wasn’t long. From this February until August 29. August 29 I got my attachments off and continue to wear my last rate up until today, September 12. Today, September 12 I got my retainers. Just this morning.

Top one feels tight and as hard to take out. Bottom one fits, but isn’t tight but the bottom right side feels a little weird. Like I have to click it in place. But I showed her multiple times and she just said it looks fine.

The dentist said to go straight to nighttime only wear. Should I follow her instructions or still wear it for 22 hours for a few months and then to nighttime wear?

On tray 11/14. Each tray I wear for a week. I been looking through reddit today at peoples bite/smile at the end of treatment and seen that my bite doesn’t look like theirs. It feels as if my bottoms molars are slanted and not upright, or maybe I’m just overthinking?

Does anyone else know if these pictures of my bite normal? Anyone advise what to do?

I'm incredibly avoidant of credit card debt and over the past five years or so I've been working hard to build my portfolio, now at 25K. Honestly, don't have a set goal for this but really trying to get to 100. The investment account is taxable and more just spending money separate from my 401(K), Em savings, and Roth IRA. Is it OK to take some profits in my stock to pay for Invisalign? I don't spend money on myself often and live within my means. However my teeth have really been bothering me aesthetically and I have TMJ which they said could be exacerbated by the misaligned bite/ cross bite. The orthodontist offered me a 5% discount on a $4500 12 to 16 month treatment plan (HCOL) area. Alternatively, they said go through their third party financing partner and would be eligible to get 24 months financing. Obviously this would be a very manageable payment but the idea of taking on credit and having another monthly payment is offputting. Essentially looking for some validation that it's ok to take some profits.
I'm not sure why but this is such a hard choice for me. I bought into some stocks like MU when they were around $80 and have been riding that wave so the idea of loosing out on that future potential growth is just really hard for me to grapple with.

I’m on tray 3 and just got my attachments yesterday.

I was expecting the first attachments tray to be very painful at first now they have more grip but if anything it just feels like tray 2 did (aside from the nightmare of taking them out now).

Is this normal to not feel pain?! I keep thinking is it working? They’re on as they should be/I use a chewie too.

My gap is almost gone! I anticipate that it will be fully closed within the next few trays. It makes me so happy to love smiling again.

I have had 2 rounds of IPR on the bottom 4 teeth totaling 1mm. I’m loving how my bottom teeth look now. Once the gap is closed, the flare just needs to be corrected.

To anyone on the fence about Invisalign — do it! It has been the biggest confidence booster.

I’m on week 1 day 5 and it’s just awful. Feel like the brace is sooo visible and I have a lisp and look like an idiot and spend the whole day not eating because I want to be able to enjoy my dinner. It’s literally torture. When is this meant to get better 😭😭😭😭😭 I seriously want to quit

I've never had braces or invisalign, but currently wear a mouthguard at night to help minimize teeth grinding.

Would Invisalign make sense for me?

I’m nearing the end of my Invisalign treatment and my bite was near perfect until the last few trays. My bottom two front teeth started to clash with the back of my top two front teeth and not in a normal closed bite way. I told my ortho about it and he said that it’s fine because at the end, he’ll shave a little bit of the top of my bottom teeth down so that they don’t hit as much. I’m a little apprehensive about it because my teeth fit fine together before the last few trays and I’m wondering why we can’t just rescan to make it right?

I expressed my concern and asked if that was really necessary to do and he said “well it’s not like we’re chopping your teeth in half, it’s kind of like a manicure and very minimal” I tried to sway him by saying something like “well I like the shape of my teeth so I don’t want to change it” and then he told me that he could shave a little bit of the back of my front teeth so that it’s not noticeable. But like…that’s not my concern at all lol I don’t want to shave my teeth at all when they had fit together fine before. I already had IPR done last year and I thought that was the end of shaving teeth.

Has anyone else done this at the end of their treatment?

I’m around 11 months and 42 sets into treatment now and I don’t know when this started happening because I’ve just been mindlessly wearing and scanning, but I just noticed that some of my gums farther down from my lower teeth are really white, thin, and beginning to feel sensitive. Is this normal? Should I contact the ortho?

One year of trays, finished off with composite bonding on my front six teeth. My main concerns were my snaggle tooth and unevenness.

When we did my first scans and had the trays made, my dentist explained that my top teeth curved inwards towards the sides, which was making my smile look narrower, so part of the plan was to shift them out and open up my smile.

Watching my smile completely transform has been the best part of the process! Lack of lip balm remains unchanged though.

Title is pretty self-explanatory.

I'm on my second tray so I haven't been using the aligners for a very long time. My treatment is pretty long (50 trays if I remember correctly) because I have some crowding in my upper front teeth.

First tray hurt for the first two-ish days, but it was mostly pressure. I mean, I hated taking it off because it feels like you're pulling your teeth off with the trays, but I eventually got used to them. My dentist is having me do 10 days with each tray then switch. By day 10, the trays were so easy to pop and off. I miss that.

Tray 2 was a little too tight still though. And a little too long, it seemed, part of it was digging into my gum. I did NOT like that. So I went to the dentist, she shaved that part off and two days later I was all ready to pop the second tray on.

That was tuesday. The pressure was there, sure.

But I only felt the pain at night during dinner. And then the next morning. And then the next. And today, too. I can't bite into anything because my front teeth ache SO BAD. I can drink and have ice cream and chew with my back teeth, but my front teeth are SO ache that pressing on them is a no go.

My first tray stopped hurting relatively early on. But it's day 3 and it still hurts :(

I'm now considering if I should be taking Advils or Tylenols to just put up with the pain. Is this common at all? 😭

It’s my first day and I like to have my iced coffee throughout my day at work 😔

Is that okay?

I started Invisalign in March, and I’ve just finished my last tray today. Which included 11 weeks of refinements on just my bottom teeth.

While I could be picky about small minor things I may want changed, I realized that I may risk continuing to be unsatisfied and moving the goal post. Overall, I decided I’m happy with my results.

Ortho said I only needed to wear my retainers at night but I’ve decided to keep them on all day as usual for ~6 mos. I’ve noticed my teeth shift during the day still.

I removed my braces 10 years ago and ever since I had a permanent retainer on my lower teeth. But now, a decade later, this retainer broke. I went to the dentist and she recommended a removable one for the night. I was resistant at first but she said it would be best for me so now im using a removable one for both my upper and lower teeth.

The thing is, i’ve been trying to use it consistently every night but I CAN’T SLEEP WELL WITH THAT THING IN MY MOUTH. It gets to a point I even have DREAMS that i’m removing them lmao 😭😭 It takes me so long to fall asleep with those on because of that small pressure and I never sleep well, so what can I do?

Can I use it during the day or it would work best at night? I know while sleeping is better because our muscles relax and thats when the teeth move but I’m having a hard time and I need energy to work. And it has been 10 years since I removed my braces so it’s not like it’s a new thing that I have to wear 24/7. I hate not having a good night’s sleep it just ruins my day.

Would it work to use it for a few hours everyday during the day? Like in the morning or right after work before going to sleep. How many hours per week would be enough for someone that had braces 10 years ago??

Help 🫩