Need new Invisalign retainers…..quoted £800!!

[TheGreatFairyRescue]

As title, I need new night time Invisalign retainers and I’ve just been quoted nearly £800 for new ones!! What the hell, my whole Invisalign treatment was only £3k!

That’s for 3 new sets, they won’t just sell me 1 replacement set, will only sell me the 3!

Has anyone else had this issue?

Has anyone used Retainer Xpress?

I’m panicking now as I don’t have a spare £800 at the moment!

I’ve used an online retainer website - can’t quite remember which one now.

it was very good. They send the moulds. You do the moulds at home, return them and they send your retainer in the post - cost me £50 a few years ago - it’s still going strong now about five years later of nightly use!

Ohhh, okay so it seemed to work for you? Was it easy to do the moulds? Maybe I’ll have a go at doing that then as their refusal to let me buy one set has really annoyed me. I just can’t afford it.

Are they just retainers to hold your teeth in place, or are they part of the treatment of moving your teeth?

If you just need a retainer to hold your teeth in place many orthodontists can rustle one up for a reasonable price - contact a different orthodontist to ask. Alternatively, you can have a small, permanent wire fitted behind your teeth to hold them in place. This means you don't need to remember to wear a retainer every night. This costs around £200 each for top and bottom arches.

They refused me just one set as well so I’m still using my manky stained aligner I’ve had for 5 years. I didn’t need a new one but thought cos I’d had it so long and it was now yellow that I may as well but no way am I paying what they wanted!

No, it’s just the night time retainer I need.

I did have a bar on both upper and lower but my upper one kept coming off and after a while my dentist just said it wasn’t worth putting back on. So I’ve now only got one on my lower teeth and it’s my upper nighttime retainer that has now got some damage/ started to crack at the bottom.

I rang round 2 other dentists this morning but neither did Invisalign, only other teeth straightening which I didn’t care about but they did and said they weren’t sure their orthodontists would want to touch my teeth as I’ve had work done by someone else etc which is all just pathetic as well. I said surely I shouldn’t be held to ransom with my current dentist for the rest of my life, what if they went bust?!

Anyway, just paid £100 for a set with retainer xpress, god knows if they’ll be any good but the moulds will be with me tomorrow and I should have the new retainers by Friday/ Monday. So we’ll see, it was worth a shot for £100! Otherwise I’ll have to ask if my current dentist can put my top bar back on and I’ll have to save over the following few months enough to fork out for new Invisalign retainers!

Oh I’m interested to know this as mine are as old as the hills, I’ve got the wire retainer but the overnight retains do go tight if I don’t wear them for a few days. I just don’t have the spare £££, my dentist quoted £500 for replacements

I’ll let you know how I get on with the retainer xpress experience, praying it works out!

So straight teeth are now a subscription too? 😭😭

2026 what a time to be alive

I’m just coming to the end of my Invisalign treatment and I am paying £385 for an extra 2 sets of retainers in addition to the 1 you get as standard part of the treatment. So £500 for 3 is about the same. My dentist isn’t cheap but I don’t want my teeth to move …

Weve agreed I won’t have the wire behind the teeth because then I can’t floss and I am not very consistent at using the interdental brushes so I’d like to keep the option of flossing.

My dentist said with the retainers to use 1 set for a year then try another set and see if they feel tighter (ie meaning the original set have loosened) and if they are switch to the 2nd set and if not carry on with the 1st set for a while and then try again. So the expectation is the retainers do get loose after a while and you’ll need to change sets.

i had braces as a teenager and at the end was sent away without retainers and my teeth went wonky again. I suppose at least we know now that retainers are needed to stop that happening.

I just paid £90 for new nighttime retainers (one set). Dentist used a 3d scanner - much more pleasant than moulds!

Same here! Wonky teeth after teenage braces. My wisdom teeth came through and shunted the whole lot out of place!

No planning for when wisdoms come through 🤦🏼‍♀️... perhaps they wrongly assumed I'd have them out

They always have been. I got braces as a teen and after a while stopped wearing my retainer - my teeth moved back. To keep them in position would have required buying new retainers.

(I know some people’s teeth stay after braces as a child, I guess it depends what kind of movement you have)

I got three sets of nighttime retainers included when I finished invisalign. Dentist said I
might need an additional set years down the line but didn’t say I’d need to buy a pack of three!

I'm really invested am in the same situation!

I could have written the OP. I contacted my ortho last week who did my invisalign and they quoted £650 for the retainers but I need to pay £150 for a consultation. I've just emailed another local ortho who advetises retainers from £70. We'll see.....

@TheGreatFairyRescue please keep us updated on how you get on with the postal retainers, I may go down this route too so I'd be very grateful.

Best of luck!

Oh this is interesting nice had my first retainers post Invisalign for about 11 months and I was wondering when to switch. Mostly though because my first ones are fairly rank looking. I’ve started to use a ultrasonic cleaner to clean them but I really dislike how stained they are no hope it’s because I was wearing them 22 hours a day for the first few months and did have the occasional cup of tea in them (what was I thinking). But also wonder if I’m just not cleaning them well enough.

all I found online is don’t change til they’re cracked.

i thought £500 for 3 pairs was standard / well advertised when you signed up though admittedly I though a set was supposed to last 3-5 years. To be honest tho maybe I’ll class them as a 1 year change and buy the £50 version when I’m done

Im
invested too. I got three sets included with my treatment which is coming up to 4 years ago and have been thinking I could do with a placement.

the whole thing is such a Swiss, they’re just 3s printed. They have a code on them. Invisalign could churn out a few sets for a couple of quid.

oh also my orthodontist wouldn’t put on a wire, he said they were poor for hygiene so he’s probs hoping I’ll need another whole treatment soon

Yeah it sucks. My Sparks cost £1,200 all in. For replacement retainers it’s £960 for a set of 3 (they won’t let you buy just one set either).

Thankfully I got 3 sets with my treatment. One has half gone missing though so I’m down to two sets.

@ButterYellowFlowers how long have you been on your first set?

@DeathBanana so youve got through 2 / 3 sets in 4 years? Did they break / get lost or did you decide to switch to a new one?

I lost half of my first set within about 2 months but the second set (really my first properly used set) I’m on year 3 of using. They hold up fine even if they look gross.

Call another dentist/orthodontist I saw quoted £90 with 3D scanning

I was advised the wire needs a lot of maintenance, will snap and need replacing and it’s cheaper just to be consistent with the retainers.

Nope, I had one fitted over 35 years ago and have never needed anything doing to it. No hygiene problems either, no gum disease or fillings whatsoever.

Well that’s good!
I was quoted £400 for the wire and £90 for retainers so it that swayed my choice too but I might reconsider and go back for one