Can’t decide whether to get Invisalign

[invisalignyesorno]

I’m going round in circles on this.

My top teeth are fairly straight although not perfect and the bottom ones are a bit crooked. I’ve been looking into Invisalign and have gone as far as getting the scans and clincheck but now have cold feet.

It should be a relatively short treatment (6 months ish) and I’ve saved the money but I’m just so worried I’m going to feel self conscious! I’d have attachments on some of the front teeth so they’d definitely be visible and I just think it would bother me so much and make me really shy about talking/laughing in front of people!

I’m not worried about the practical side as I’m not really much of a snacker anyway and already only eat meals a couple of times a day but I just can’t get past how strange it must be to have plastic in your mouth all the time.

Was anyone else in the same position and did you go ahead? Are you glad you did? I’m just so undecided.

(I was just at a kids party making small talk for two hours and all I could think was whether I’d have felt really awkward doing that with Invisalign - and also noticing that having slightly crooked teeth is actually normal…)

They are really, really not noticeable! I had mine in for 18 months and people didn't know. Even ones talking directly to my face.

You do get used to having them in., because it's all the time (apart from when eating and brushing teeth, of course!) The weird bit is when they come off and your teeth feel tiny and weird...

Did you have attachments on your front teeth? When I see photos online I feel like that makes them very noticeable. Without the attachments they do seem far closer to being “invisible”!

Yes, I did! Lots of them. My teeth were really crooked, top and bottom. Trust me when I say they are really not noticeable.

I had attachments, and yeah, they are noticeable. I can see them in pictures that were taken of me at the time. But I had a very very crooked overlapping front tooth that was much much more visible in pictures and I hated it! And it made it impossible to properly clean the back of it.

Mine was also a fairly short treatment, I think about 6 months. I’d had braces as a teen and didn’t wear my retainer so there was space, it was just moving the teeth back to how my original braces had put them. I don’t regret it at all, but I really really hated my smile!

In terms of it being strange having plastic in your mouth all the time - at first they feel massive and bulky and you have a lot of spit.. but after a couple of days they feel normal.

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences. The thing is I actually like my current smile and don’t feel self conscious of it. It’s not perfect but it’s ok. I’m going to see if I can post a photo!

It’s my bottom teeth that bother me most and I notice them when I’ve seen videos of myself talking etc…but when I’ve had consultations they’re not keen to just do the bottom and I can see it’s logical to do both together but I am still not sure if it’s the right thing to do.

Edited to add - my bite looks odd in the second photo but that’s just because of how I’m holding my teeth for the photo.

Just be aware that they do collect saliva and you end up constantly wanting to slurp it out 🤢 well I did anyway. Also the edges can be sharp and need filing with an emery board. With hindsight I probably would have gone for classic traintracks but it did work and I had very crooked teeth. I has lots of attachments and found them very spiky when my aligners were off, but they are not off for long so it’s tolerable.

Are the attachments also very visible with the aligners off?

What I’m thinking is if I took the aligners out for social events / big meetings (and I really don’t have many of these so it wouldn’t be often!!) would that solve the issue or would I still feel just as self conscious of the attachments

Ooh, your top ones look great. My teeth actually started out straight, but have been moving over the decades and become much more crooked, so I wanted to stop that, before I could chew my own chin. I was very self conscious about them.

I did need to file the edges with an emery board, like @switchoffplease - some sets were worse than others. The attachments were spiky, I think that was the worse bit of the whole process.

They’re not perfect - apparently they flare out a bit (although only 3mm so not that much) and they’re not actually 100% straight but you can’t really tell unless you look very close and examine them which I guess people are not usually doing!

Problem is my current provider only wants to do the top and bottom together and the plan involves attachments on the top as well and I’m just not sure if that’s something I want to do.

I have already been for two other consultations but ruled those out for other reasons. I could go for yet another as my friend went to a very good orthodontist but I’m starting to wonder if I can be bothered!

Mini hijack - Can I ask those who’ve had it done, do you need to wear a retainer at night forever afterwards ? Or do something else to stop the teeth slipping back to where they were?

I have crowded bottom teeth and one slightly twisted top tooth and wouldn’t mind sorting them out but only if it was “once it’s done it’s done”. Don’t really want to have to have retainers forever.

I’m not who you asked as I haven’t done it yet 😉 But I’ve been to three different consultations and read a lot on FB and Reddit and it seems pretty unanimous that you do need to wear the retainers at night forever…

I actually know someone IRL who didn’t and she says her teeth moved back.

😕 thought so. Would drive me mad I think.

You have to have aligners on both the top and bottom teeth to ensure they move together and are aligned properly at the end of the treatment. Or something along those lines 😂 I asked the question when I was looking into Invisalign.

As it was I wasn't suitable as my teeth needed to move so much, so ended up with a fixed brace. I opted for white brackets but still had a silver wire. I was incredibly conscious of them at first but I was really surprised at how many people didn't notice I had a brace. My friend had Invisalign fitted around the same time and they weren't really that obvious.

Go for it!

I've had a fixed retainer fitted at the top and bottom but also need to wear a removeable retainer at night. My orthodontist has said after around a year I can move to wearing the removeable retainer for 2-3 nights a week and did say the fixed retainers could come out at some point if I had any issues with them breaking.

You won’t be taking them out for social events apart from to eat and drink: they have to be worn for 20-22 hours per day.
People said mine were not noticeable.
Honestly, no one looks at us as much as we think they do.

I do fancy them but the thought of swallowing loads of micro plastics is putting me off…?

Oh I know, and the vast majority of the time this would be ok - I don’t have a particularly exciting social life and not that many events to go to! I fully plan to wear them 22 hours a day the majority of the time, I do know from reading online though that some people do admit to taking them out for important meetings/big events…

It could lengthen the treatment time if left out too long regularly.

I think it’s worth it. I only had to wear mine for 4 months and I could put up with the annoying elements for that amount of time, I am so confident in my smile and it was something I hated before.

I do wear a retainer at night.

I did take them out a couple of times for special occasions and or when I had to talk a lot - I found some trays were bad for effecting my speech.

i got it in a package with composite bonding and whitening at the end, this seems standard in my area but it really added to the overall treatment

You do have to wear retainers at night, because they will start to move again if not kept in check. Some people's teeth move faster than others - my DH had his done before me and his teeth don't move as much as mine do. We're all individual.

I believe you pretty much always have to do top and bottom otherwise your bite can end up being off.

If you like your smile and aren’t self-conscious about it, I probably wouldn’t bother. It’s a lot of money, faff, and retainers for life. For me it was totally worth it, but I HATED my smile and tried to hide it, avoid pictures, it was all I could see in any pictures of myself.

Will you be using an Orthodontist to supervise your Invisalign treatment?

I don't mean to imply they move a lot, just that the retainer feels a bit tight when I put them in at night. DH has the same.

I've not long finished mine - just over a year. Only one person noticed that I had the trays in and that was because she had thought about having it done.

I never got used to the attachments, hated the way they felt on my teeth. It was so nice having them removed!

I find it so surprising when people say nobody noticed because when I see photos online, if people have attachments at the front I do think it’s very noticeable. I noticed a shop assistant had them the other day because she had attachments on all her front teeth, I also noticed them on a friend of a friend recently when I met him for the first time.

BUT if I think back six months or so when I first started considering Invisalign, I don’t remember ever once noticing that anyone had them!! So I’m sure I’m probably only noticing them now because I’m considering it myself and constantly looking at people’s teeth…