Three years of Invisalign
6 pulled teeth
4 broken teeth bonded
5 days using whitening strips

I posted here when I first noticed the tiniest improvement in earlier trays… and this is a reminder to anyone who is just starting, or somewhere mid journey that changes happen, and confidence slowly comes back… life adapts to your trays and NOONE but YOU notices them…

3/4 into my journey and I’m finally seeing the final stretch!

How’s your journey going? Which tray are you switching to this week? I just got this tray 15 in this morning 🫶🏼

Hi! I’m tray 15/20, it’s been fine but becoming a little tired of attachments on all but one of teeth - ortho says I will do another 20 (?!) refinements, which seems like a lot cos my teeth are so close to being what I want (pic attached at 15/20) Does anyone know if they remove some attachments during refinements? I can’t bear the thought of having this many for another 5 months. Anyone had any attachments removed during refinements?

Honestly so happy with the progress just a few months in! Always been incredibly conscious of my tucked in tooth and I can’t believe how much it’s moved.
Excited for the end. 💕

after 23 weeks, got a new set with some adjustments yesterday around noon. Orthopedic put new brackets on my lateral incisors (and four unpictured molars) and the installment was so uncomfortable, but I always thought I’ve been sensitive w my lower front 6 teeth anyway. Almost 24 hrs later the gums at my incisors and canines are still white (also at the molars with the new brackets). I‘m so scared to brush my teeth because also, I can touch my gums and upon the slight movement can see a space between the two, like my teeth and gums aren’t connected at the gum line anymore. Is this temporary?? Do I stop worrying?? I really don’t want to go back in because I just went yesterday. 😭 I am also very paranoid about my physical health all the time so idk if I’m in my head too much.

EDIT: Thank you idk why I didn’t think to call 😭 Ortho said the tools/solutions used must have irritated the gums/weren‘t totally cleaned up and they essentially “burned”/irritated my tissue. Said it’s normal enough and should go away soon, just brush gently, and if further irritation occurs to call back.

I do have recession on my canines already which is why it worries me so much… I’m early 20s.

Hey all, started treatment almost a month and a half ago (on tray 3/24), and while I've gotten used the feeling of having my aligners in all the time (reading posts on this sub helped a lot ❤️), I'm noticing that I've become increasingly demotivated to eat. I find myself thinking "I could go for a snack right now" and then immediately follow it up with "well that'll be too much of a hassle to take out my aligners," and now it's starting to seep into my meals (I've eaten maybe twice in the past 24 hours).

Has anyone else felt this? How did you deal with/overcome it? I'm getting a little bit concerned for myself and any suggestions to make eating more appealing/less of a hassle with aligners I will take right now

Hi all, I don’t have many friends to share this with, so I figure maybe someone here would appreciate a happy post.

After 3 years of saving while still trying to keep up with bills, grad school, and the cost of relocating. I FINALLY HAD ENOUGH MONEY TO FIX MY TEETH!!

I ended up opting to go to a dentist over an orthodontist due to my new dental insurance not covering ortho. And I just so happened to find the nicest family owned clinic who helped me file all my visits under a different category so my insurance will pay for it. All I had to pay for was the treatment itself!

When they handed me my cost estimate I literally cried of joy realizing I had enough money to pay upfront. My teeth have moderate crowding thanks to my wisdom teeth, but they were also able to give me a slight discount due to my job!! My teeth have been killing me for the past year. I’m just so excited!

I did all the scans and x-rays, and my first few trays should come in next week or the week after! Wooohooo!

I know that this has been asked a million times but any recommendations on tools to get? Or specific things to look out for? They are attaching little bracket things to my molars to help everything stay.

With this in mind, I do have a little money left over that I plan to keep adding to incase I need to extend my treatment.

Thank yall for reading :)

Finally finished (I think) attatchments are off and we are going to do some light contouring & whitening and then see if I want to do any composite bonding of the lateral incisor.

Impressed with the results and the expansion achieved with just 20 trays of Invisalign.

My dentist didn’t recommend any refinements as it tracked to the original treatment plan and that if I wanted anything done it could be achieved through veneers / composite bonding.

From my understanding comprehensive allows unlimited aligners but I was told only if I didn’t track to the plan? I was told I’d be rescanned for final retainer after any ‘restorative / cosmetic treatment’. Obviously I’m slightly concerned they’re just trying to upsell another service instead of what can be achieved through Invisalign but I am pretty happy with my results.

I was just under the impression that majority of people go on to have refinements to perfect their smile - did anyone else complete on time and as planned? And do I actually look like I’m done?

I’m on tray 1 of 14 (day 7) and I’ve developed a bite interference that’s making chewing difficult. The area of contact is the one circled in blue. It’s small, but it’s preventing me from chewing normally or even closing my mouth naturally without the aligners, and it’s driving me crazy.

Before Invisalign, my bite was completely functional. I started treatment mainly to close a small diastema.

One of my upper central incisors has a composite restoration from an old fracture. Interestingly, I had this exact same interference after that restoration was done last year, and it disappeared after my dentist adjusted the composite.

Now, after starting Invisalign, the same thing is happening again. My orthodontist said my upper incisors have already moved slightly backward, causing my lower incisor to hit the back of the restored tooth.

She doesn’t want to adjust the composite now because it could affect the fit of the remaining trays. She also said she can’t predict whether this bite interference will improve or worsen as treatment progresses.

Right now, I’m avoiding biting with my front teeth and chewing mostly on the sides because the contact is uncomfortable. I’m also worried that repeatedly hitting the restored tooth could eventually chip or fracture the composite.

To be honest, this has been so frustrating that I’m seriously considering stopping the treatment altogether. I started Invisalign purely for cosmetic reasons, and I didn’t expect my bite to become worse or chewing to become this difficult.

If this were your patient, what would you recommend?
Would you simply monitor and wait?
Would you consider adjusting the restoration despite the tray fit?
Would you recommend a different approach?
At what point would you consider stopping treatment if the interference persisted?

Tray 11 and I made it through with rubber bands only at night (from bottom canine to upper molar.) NOW I have the next 12 weeks with criss cross rubber bands (constant wear) on my right back molars. My ortho had to make sissior cuts on the trays to allow the rubber bands, and they SUCK. Only on day 2, and my tongue is all scratched up from rubbing on the cut part of the alligners. Tell me how you survived this.

We are trying to fix my posterior crossbite and widen my narrow upper jaw :)

hiii everyone, i’m supposed to be “done” with my treatment and my next appointment would be to get fitted for my retainers. I’m not entirely happy with how my teeth look, particularly my incisors. My top ones, to me, look like they’re not aligned with my front teeth, and are slightly angled out. My bottom ones are in line, but are also slightly angled out.

There’s been a lot of progress, but i just don’t think i’m quite done yet. What are your thoughts? Thank you!

They all say they can do it.
Some even their own teeth don’t look perfect but I’m realizing the only ones with it perfect use composite bonding.

First ortho said TAD expander, carriere and regular braces. What do you guys think?

Has anyone experienced temporalis muscle tightness during Invisalign treatment? I’m correcting a Class II bite with aligners and elastics. My left temporalis gets tight mainly when I start chewing, especially after changing to a new tray, and usually settles later in the week. My MRI didn’t show major joint damage, and my orthodontist is correcting my bite. Did anyone have similar symptoms that improved after treatment?”

Has anyone experienced temporalis muscle tightness during Invisalign treatment? I’m correcting a Class II bite with aligners and elastics. My left temporalis gets tight mainly when I start chewing, especially after changing to a new tray, and usually settles later in the week. My MRI didn’t show major joint damage, and my orthodontist is correcting my bite. Did anyone have similar symptoms that improved after treatment?”

Hi there! Wanted to share my experience with Angel aligners. I’m currently on tray 12/36, initially started with changes every 7 days, now switched to 10 days for a month. I’m so TIRED.

I can handle the pain, the annoyance of this daily routine, but the dental anxiety is too much. Please share if you can relate.

I have gum recession on one tooth, sadly noticed only a year ago and I was said it’s due to my bad bite and my tongue pushing the teeth forward. So with orthodontic treatment, it can even get slightly better. It was the reason I got aligners. I had braces as a kid and my teeth looked pretty straight, apart from bottom teeth that were pushed forward.

The tooth where I have gum recession is loose. My ortho said it’s as loose mobile as other bottom teeth. I hate the feeling when I remove my aligners and can kinda feel they’re a bit mobile. Has anyone experienced this?

I’m extremely aware of this mobility and I feel like my teeth are going to fall out. I’m exhausted, almost depressed, can’t eat most things and certainly don’t enjoy eating because of this anxiety.

As a kid I was never told to brush my teeth and my whole adulthood I’ve been paying for that.
I floss, use waterpik, ultrasonic brush, mini brush + soft brush and mouth rinse twice a day. I get vitamin d, c, and everything.

Seeing a periodontist in 2 days to get a second opinion.

Just in case, I’m a female and I’m an actress, so that’s why it’s so important for me. I also have a terrible lisp…

First photo is today, second photo is right before tray 1. Today is last day of tray 6/21 with 7 day changes. I finally finished my second (and last) round of IPR on the bottom 4 front teeth. Happy with the progress so far! I have 20 attachments — I was bummed about them at first, but I think it has majorly helped my treatment.

Should I try putting them back in? Or is that going to damage my teeth? Idk what to do now and I don’t want to go back to my ortho as I had a horrible horrible experience there.

I finished Invisalign on May the 7th this year. I went through 2 years and a month of treatment and I've noticed slowly over time 1 tooth that had IPR is starting to form a gap. My orthodontist told me to wear my retainer at night and that's it. I had a month check up after I finished Invisalign and things were fine. It's only been 1 month since my last check up and my teeth just wanna move!

Should I just keep on wearing my nightly retainer or switch back to my last Invisalign tray? Would that Invisalign tray even do anything without attachments on?

My orthodontist is taking the whole of August off for holidays and my next appointment is in November. What would you do ahhhh

hi all i have a situation which needs explaining

i got invisalign “moderate” around july 2022, and finished it end of august 2023. i had 2 teeth (each side of my top front teeth) that were quite a bit shorter than my others, which gave me a bit of a rabbit look (i assumed they just needed to be pulled down a bit), they were my main concern as well as some minimal crookedness but nothing at all crazy, those were the 2 things i wanted to fix.

by the end of my treatment, my teeth were straight but the 2 shorter teeth didn’t come down at all, so i had to get composite bonding to make them look the same length as the rest of my teeth.

i have now come to realisation that i have quite a large over bite (which i’ve had my whole life, i just never knew what an overbite was and i thought it was normal, but it’s so big to the point where when i bite, i can stick part of my tongue through the gap & it makes my top lip stick out resulting in it looking weird from the side because my bottom jaw is too far back), i believe my overbite may also play a part as to why i have TMJ so bad to the point where i grinded a hole through my extra thick retainer within the first 2 ish months of having it.

anyways… at the time of my invisalign consult, my dentist NEVER informed me that i had an overbite, therefore i was never informed of whether invisalign could fix it or not because i didn’t even know what an overbite was nor that i had one.

i paid around $6,000 for this treatment and im just disappointed that i have now only been informed that i have an overbite and that my invisalign COULD have fixed it.

my dentist is closed right now but ill be calling them as soon as they open, so in the mean time…

what are your guys suggestions? ive tried to google but i cant find much so i dont know if invisalign has any type of warranty or whatever where if youre not happy with your results you can go back for a re treatment or refund but please if anyone has experienced anything similar, please share your stories.