So I hope through this entry I can share my experience with the Invisalign treatment for those of you who are waging the decision and hopefully inform you things that you may not have come across from other Invisalign blogs or sites.

I am 27 years old as of now and I currently reside in the industrial area of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. My Invisalign provider is Yap & Associates Dental Surgery, located in Bangsar, with Dr. Yap himself handling my case.

As of May 2010, I was officially under Invisalign treatment (it is September, 2010 right now); my Invisalign treatment is on bi-weekly basis, which means I switch to new set of aligner trays every two weeks, for each tray of aligner I progress, my teeth alignment is corrected by a little, by the end of the treatment, my teeth should be very well aligned.

For your information: all 4 of my wisdom teeth are not extracted, according to the X-rays they are slightly pushing against my molar teeth but the dentists said they should not be a problem as long as they are not causing infections, so I never did anything about my wisdom teeth.

First, of course you want to find the right orthodontist - keyword is orthodontist, try not to go for a dentist because an orthodontist and a dentist have different perspectives about going through the treatment. Well, I don't know what exactly, but orthodontists are specialized in teeth alignment procedures - whether it be traditional braces or Invisalign, I trust that they have better understandings and experiences of teeth alignment and teeth whitening, whereas a dentist is specialized in the overal dental health.

Not everyone is suitable for Invisalign, Invisalign is great for mild cases, but you never know until you really ask right? So, once you found your orthodontist, and after your orthodontist takes a good look at your teeth, and approves AND suggests Invisalign for you, then you will need to do two things:

A. You need to get X-rays done
B. You'll be doing a clay model of your current teeth alignment.

These two steps cost me about $100 and will only take you no more than 1 day if the orthodontic facility you choose from has an X ray equipment; I did my X ray in a public hospital and took me 1 hour in line and the actual X ray only took 20 minutes to receive.

Your orthodontist will then send your X rays and your teeth model together to the Invisalign HQ in San Jose, California, USA., there the specialists will evaluate and develop your personal, customized aligning process based on the X ray and teeth models they receive.

Upon evaluation, the total number of your Upper and Lower teeth aligners will be determined, usually the aligner is on bi-weekly basis, as I mentioned, it means you will need to change to a new set of aligner (both upper and lower teeth) every two weeks.

The higher the number of aligners you receive, the longer the treatment is going to take.

In my case, the total aligners I received are 22 sets, both upper and lower, which means if everything goes well, my treatment will be finished within 22 x 2 weeks = 44 weeks = 10 1/2 months. NOW THAT IS FREAKING FAST. (note that most Invisalign cases take about 1 year in average, really depends on the actual condition of your current teeth alignment, again, the messier it is, the longer it takes.)

So after about 2 weeks since your X rays and teeth models were submitted to the Invisalign HQ, your orthodontist should be getting ALL of your aligners and handing the first few sets to you, and then your orthodontist should be putting on Attachments for you (which I will talk about later) and there you begin wearing your first set, and the countdown has begun!

1. THE ATTACHMENTS

Depending on your case, your orthodontist will be putting on a number of "Attachments" on your teeth, these "Attachments" are very stirdy, cement-like materials in sizes of a rice that cemented onto the surface of your teeth and they act like locks for the aligner to hold onto your teeth very tightly. They will only be removed by the end of the treatment.

The attachments will be tooth colored to reduce their visabilities but I have a total of 9 attachments, 6 upper and 3 lower, if your attachments are placed on the back teeth then lucky you, but mine happened to be placed on my front teeth, so they are quite visible and uncomfortable. In the beginning, be prepared to cut your lips.

Attachments and the aligner are virtually invisible from pictures, here I have very large chunks of attachments cemented on almost all my front teeth. Can you see?
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Without a doubt, the attachments are one of the major downside of the Invisalign treatment, since they don't really mention it until after the whole evaluation process is done. BUT, comparing to the shiny, metallic braces that traditional braces offer, the attachments really are not bad at all - they are needed to hold onto your teeth and move, and they will be tooth colored, and even though you cut your lips in the beginning, you really do get used to them after a week or two.

2. SOME OF YOUR TEETH WILL PROBABLY BE SHAVED

Depending on your case, for mine, my teeth will be shaved off with about 0.5 mm to 1mm to create space for my teeth to move inward. These gaps will eventually close as your teeth move; again, this is something I did not expect, but when I think about it, it makes perfect sense as my teeth had a crowding problem.

A lot of folks out there complain about the pain and discomfort with Invisalign, and I find them to be unrealistic. When you decide to go with this treatment you should have a very clear understanding that your teeth will be moved and your bite will be corrected, it is impossible for the treatment to be entirely painless or not cause any discomfort.

In my case, the first 2 weeks or so while I was wearing the aligners, it wasn't painful to the point that I couldn't stand it, it just felt very uncomfortable wearing two pieces of plastic device that's correcting your teeth at all times, and occasionaly I get minor migraines due to the constant pressure the aligners are giving my teeth and jaw. You can resolve this problem simply by taking some pain killers.

In my case, the migraine was bothering me a bit and caused me to worry and wonder when it'd go away; and I had pretty bad lisps that affect my speech. However, by about the 3rd week or so, these problems were gone almost completely. You simply stop being so self-concious about the aligners in your mouth and move on with life.

2. No colored drinks and No eating while you wear your aligners.

You will be wearing your aligners for about 20 to 22 hours a day and you will only take them out when you are eating. You will need to floss and brush your teeth thoroughly EVERYTIME you finishe eating - that is if you are persistent and care about your oral hygiene.

For me, I get lazy from time to time and only floss when after eating major meals; sometimes for breakfast I just have yogurt so I only brush my teeth afterwards, to each his own but it's recommended that you floss everytime after you eat.

The only thing you are allowed to drink while wearing the aligners is Water. Any other drinks, especially sugar-added or color drinks like coffee or tea are strongly discouraged because sugar will deposit inside the aligner and may cause tooth decay; while colored drinks may cause discoloration to your aligners.

However, I do cheat by using straws sometimes when I feel the dire need of some iced coffee; as long as I'm sure the beverage does not contain any sugar, I use straws to drink, but still always brush my teeth afterwards.

As for smokers, the Invisalign booklet suggests smokers to avoid smoking while wearing the aligners since the smoke can stain and discolor the aligners. However, I am a smoker, and according to my experience, the smoke really doesn't cause serious discoloration at all, as long as you clean the aligners everday (I clean my aligner daily  when I shower), the discoloration is minimal and can't be noticed. I will post some pictures up later for comparison.

The good side about not being able to eat while you are wearing the aligners is that you will cut down a lot of snacking and sugary drinks - which can be a pretty good way to lose some excessive weights; however, some people just don't care for the hassle to take the aligners off for snacks; while some others tend to eat a whole lot more during regular meals.

3. Money


As expected, Invisalign is developed and currently patented by one single company - Align Technology Inc. based in San Jose, California, USA. Which means this product practically has zero competition in the market and is dominant over the invisible-braces market, as far as removable and invisible orthodontics devices are concerned.

Please expect to pay about 30 to 40% more than traditional braces; if you are outside of USA, then the cost will be even higher because of the distances or currency exchanges or whatnot.

In my case, my 22 aligners + guarantee satisfied final result cost me roughly US$5,000, whereas my orthodontist quoted me roughly $2,500 for traditional braces.

I am not sure if any insurance will apply for this treatment, but in my case I didn't have anything to use for this treatment so paid in full - of course, the payment terms should and can be negotiated with you and your orthodontists.

4. Risk of Losing or breaking the aligners

Although I will do all that I can to prevent that from happening, it still can happen. When the aligners come, they will only come with one copy of each set, which means if you lose or break any single set, your treatment will be delayed by roughly 2-4 weeks depending on how fast you'll be able to get a new replacement.

If you lose or break an aligner, you'll have to pay a certain amount of money, not sure how much, but the pain is that you'll need to wait for a new one; you'll need to go back one stage to your previous aligner until the new replacement arrives, which really sucks.

I don't worry too much about this issue though, because in the back of my mind it's $5,000 down the drain already and I want the quickest and best result, therefore I try my best to prevent this from happening by always carry my aligners and its protection case with me, whenever I head out.

5. Inconveniences (minor)

Not being able to eat anything or drink anything sugared or colored with the aligner on will mean that it's a little inconvenient to go around town and enjoy spontaneous foods and drinks; any meals will need to accompany a visit to the restroom to remove the aligners, then go back afterwards once the meal is finished. And you will always need to carry dental floss, toothbrush, and toothpaste.

But again, you get used to it really; the good side is that you will have spectacular oral hygine from now on.

6. Bad breath

If you are very self-concious about your breath, then you may need to take note that since you are wearing the aligner 24-7, a lot of bacteria will deposit within and make your breath smell bad, it's inevitable.

Typically speaking, one should expect roughly at least 2 years for traditional braces to fully correct your teeth and bite. Before I went committed to Invisalign, I had the mental preparation to go through the entire process for 2 years.

But as it turned out, my entire treatment will last only 10 1/2 months! Of course that's if nothing goes wrong during the treatment.

So far, I am now on Tray 8 (16 weeks of 44 weeks) and all of my aligners fit greatly.

So, this is definitely one of the greatest advange point I've considered versus going traditional braces.

Also, in my case, I did not need to remove any of my teeth piror to the treatment, which is a GREAT bonus for me, because 4 or 5 years back when I was being quoted by another orthodontist, I was told that I needed to remove all 4 of my wisdom teeth to create space. My teeth were shaved off slightly to create space instead, which is painless and fast and did not really affect your overall appearance at all.

2. Appearance

Needless to say, one of the primary reasons why people go for Invisalign is because it's virtually invisible unless people really pay attention to your teeth - those who had gone through orthodontic treatments will typcially notice it because they naturally pay more attention to people's teeth.

Depending on the attachments you have, some people may never know you are wearing the aligners at all; in my case, since my attachments are mostly on my front teeth, a lot of people notice them but due to politeness so far nobody had pointed them out to me just yet.

All in all, attachments or not, you will definitely look better than if you were in metallic braces.

3. Minimal pain and discomfort

For Invisalign, the most you get is discomfort, it may hurt a little bit but it's nothing more than a minor toothache - at least that's my experience; the first 2 or 3 weeks were most annoying, but I soon not even realize I was wearing the aligners after a while.

However, you do experience the "tightness" every two weeks when you switch to a new aligner, which really cause a little bit of soreness for the first 2 or 3 days.

4. Control

Sometimes wearing the aligners to attend a hot date or romantic dinner can be pretty un-doing, but in all reality, although you need to wear your aligner 20 to 22 hours a day, if you know you will have a romantic dinner or a hot date, you can really wager it and just take the aligner off for the duration of the date, or the entire day (though not recommended).