Hi,

I have been wearing Invisalign since late 2003. I had to wear 56 on the top teeth and 26 on the bottom. I am now at the tail end of things , at 52 on the top and have completed the bottom wear (am wearing a retainer at night for the bottom). So that is the background.

Now when I started with this all it was for gum problems. My teeth were not crooked but I did have them very close in back and it made flossing difficult and it was suggested I get traditonal or invisalign to help with my gum health. That has been achieved. I have very little bleeding now and what used to be an hour's appt at the dentist for scraping is barely a half hour. So I am pleased with that very much as this was the reason i got them in the first place.

I did have to have two teeth pulled before I got the aligners and those spaces are now gone and my bite has improved also...but the bite is not perfect. The otrhodontist had said that if at the end of it all there was fine tuning to do , he'd use more aligners but there might be a possibility that regular braces may be called for . He told me yesterday that is the case, but I do not have to do if I do not want to as for the most part everything looks good and the gums have improved...but he wants the bite more precise so that is why he suggests the regular braces for one to two years. Now two years after wearing the invisalign since 2003, seems like a long time!! And especially since my reason for getting them was to help my gums and that has been achieved. Cosmetically the bite thing is not noticeable. I am wondering if anyone else has been thru invisalign and then had to wear traditional braces? The orthodontist said a lot of people choose not to do it as they are satisfied as it is after the invisalign. I guess I am thinking that way, and the fact that my bite is not 100 percent perfect to me is not worth another 2 years with traditional braces. The Invisalign itself is very easy and I have had my ups and downs with tolerating them (sinus headaches are worse when I get a new tray to use), and other annoyances. So I can't imagine that having traditional ones would be easier to take!!

Thanks for any thoughts or advice.

rmc

Hi, I am actually in the process of getting braces..and then orthognathic surgery..I did ALOT of research on invisalign and on traditional braces, and I would never use invisalign. Traditional braces are used for the same amount of time generally as invisalign but after you are finished, everything is perfect. With invisalign most of the time you have to use it for the period of time and then you STILL have to use regular braces. So it's twice as long to achieve the same thing.

In your situation, I would say if you are happy with your bite, and there is no medical reason to wear the regular braces then I would leave it alone. I don't know if 1 to 2 more years of braces would be worth it to me just to achieve a minor difference.

HI,

Thanks for your response. I was prepared to wear traditional ones when I started out . But the reason my dentist recommended the Invisalign for me was that my gum situation was such that I needed to keep diligent and thorough with flossing and he knew that with regular braces it is harder flossing. So he felt that since I was a candidate anyway for Invisalign that it would be good for me as I could take them off to floss and keep up my regime.

I am happy with the way Invisalign has worked for me, not only for my gums which was the reason I was doing braces anyway but also fixing some minor imperfections in crowding. The only thing that is off right now still is the bite and as you mentioned I do not know if I want to go thru two years of traditional braces to change that or if it is worth it as it is so slight to me. And not what i went into it for to begin with.

Thanks so much for your input.

rmc