April 3, 2012

  • My experience with Invisalign so far: Tray 36

    Procrastinators, the leaders of tomorrow. Let’s get to it.

    BACKGROUND STORY:

    1 1/2 year ago I decided to improve my smile with Invisalign treatment and wanted to document my progress and report my experience and share with those who are interested or having second-thoughts about this treatment.

    You may find the original entry HERE.

    A little background about myself, I reside in the outskirt of Kuala Lumpur area,Malaysia, and the orthodontist who handles my case is:

    Yaps & Associates Dental Surgery

    Lot 1.02 Level 1, Menara Maulife

    Jalan Gelenggang , Damansara Heights

    50490 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Tel:  +603-20940005

    www.yapdental.com

    My principal concern is: Over jet, Over bite, and mild crowding. All four of my wisdom teeth are present, though not causing infections or affecting the treatment in any way. (I will have both upper wisdom teeth extracted some time in 2012 or 2013 because they are starting to cause discomfort now.)

    My initial diagnose came with 22 upper and lower cases, and the total cost for my case was roughly RM15, 000. (Roughly $5,000), no insurance covered – you’ll need to find out if your insurance can cover at your local orthodontist.

    Please expect 20-40% more expensive than traditional braces, this treatment is currently patented by one single company and therefore the market competition for them is practically zero, as far as invisible braces are concerned.


    UPDATE:

    Since my last (and only) Invisalign entry, dated September1st, 2010 at Tray #7, almost 1 1/2 year had passed and now I am on Tray 36, or more specifically, I am now on Tray 4 of my second Refinement Treatment.

    My original treatment consists of 22 sets of trays. As I’ve mentioned in the previous blog, if ALL WENT WELL, my initial treatment should perfectly align my teeth by the 22nd trays (which is 10 1/2 months in calculated time). However, like all things in life,sometimes the result isn’t as anticipated and you gotta just adapt, improvise, I-Ching, whatever man just roll with it.

    Upon the completion of the initial 22 sets of trays, my teeth already saw dramatic improvements and perfectly aligned, but then there were gaps in between my teeth that weren’t fully closed. For those of you who don’t know, these gaps were artificially shaved off during the treatment to create space for the teeth to move into alignment, these gaps were supposed to close up by the end of treatment, but for whatever reasons, they were still there and quite visible.

    This brought me to the second stage of the treatment: the Refinements. Basically the Refinement treatment is a “fix-up” alignment process to correct anything that wasn’t done according to the initial diagnosis. My Refinement treatment consists of 10 trays both upper and lower teeth. Luckily this time, my Refinement treatment required less Attachments on my teeth, which significantly reduced the discomfort and of course aesthetically looked better since less attachments were exposed.

    And so 10 trays of Refinement passed by in a flash, and my teeth were actually further aligned – I didn’t think you could align the teeth even more; but still the problem remained: there were still visible gaps between my teeth – albeit a lot smaller. With that, Dr. Yap offered to use traditional braces for the final correction, which I felt reluctant to because it’d defeat the purpose of going with Invisalign in the first place. Secondly, by then I was completely used to living with Invisalign and at this point it certainly does not bother me one bit to continue to wear the trays for another extension. Invisalign and I had become one.

    Since the Refinement hadn’t really closed up all the gaps created (albeit aligned my teeth), a second order of Refinement was placed. It is free of cost, since Invisalign guaranteed satisfactory results. And my Second Refinement came in with 12 trays, both upper and lower. This time, my attachments are further reduced to 1 on top and 3 at the bottom.

    Please beware that the more attachments you have on your teeth, the stronger the “pull” your aligner trays would be. And with little as 4 attachments for my Second Refinement, I hardly felt any discomfort at all (or maybe it’s because I am just really used to it).

    And as of now (April 4th, 2012), I am on Tray 4 of Second Refinement, and if we do a little math: 22 original trays + 10 Refinement trays+ 4 Second Refinement trays = 36th tray so far. So far the gaps are slowly closing; to be honest I am actually not entirely sure if this will be the final stage, though I certainly hope so.

    And here are some pictures of me during various stages since I began my treatment:

     

    PIC1: Oct. 2007 – before my treatment, and say hi to my boo Shadow Cheng!

     

    PIC 2: May 2010 – Treatment began, Tray #1

     

    PIC3: August 2010, 3 months into treatment

     

    PIC4: July 2012 – 1 year and 2 months into treatment. At this point my teeth are pretty much aligned, though there are still some gaps.

     

    PIC5: April 2012 – Gaps are further reduced, looking from far it is unnoticeable.

    8 more trays to go! (16 weeks = 4 months)

    Apologies for not having clearer pictures since my previous laptop drowned to death in coffee, I’ve lost most of my data and photos, so here are some I’ve downloaded from my Facebook. 

    I never took clearer pictures of my teeth at different stages because bottom line is – IT JUST WORKS, so I didn’t need  to reassure myself. And plus, Dr. Yap has all the professional, clear pictures taken, which I will eventually post up here when the entire treatment is concluded.


    ADDITIONAL NOTE

    I was reading my previous Invisalign entry and noticed that at the time of writing, I adhered religiously to all the cleaning procedures every time after meal. Every time I go out I’d carry a small sanitary bag with me that contains tooth brush, floss, toothpaste, and sometimes mouth wash. This isn’t true anymore. Somewhere during Tray 18-19 I think I got lazy and stopped being so careful and started just carrying my new best friend: the floss pick, instead of the whole gang. Nowadays if I’m on the go, I’d just use the floss pick to pick and floss my teeth after meal, followed by rinsing with water at the restaurant, then just slap that aligners back on. This isn’t recommended of course, but I just wanted to note that I hadn’t gotten any cavities by going with this method, though I do notice that there’re significantly more build-ups in the aligner trays going this way, stronger discolorations also, as the bacteria and food deposits are bedded in the trays.

    However, I did and have always adhere to the rule of wearing the aligners at least 20-22 hours a day. In the course of 1 1/2 year of this treatment I had only failed once – when I got piss-drunk and passed out for a night without the aligners on.

    Also, I’ve stopped carrying my Invsialign cases with me, instead when I’m out eating I always just rinse the aligners and wrap it with paper towels. As you would have guessed, I’ve almost lost my aligners multiple times. Sometimes you’re just so caught up with the conversation with your friends, and the waiters come in and clean the table along with my aligners.

    It’s a pretty “fun” I might add, to be able to dig through the trash cans of various restaurant kitchens and finally find my aligners. Girls probably won’t have this problem because you carry purses all the time, guys will have more difficult time to carry the bulky Aligner cases all the time. My advice, put it in your pocket.

    So I think that wraps it up… if you have any questions please let me know, I’ll be happy to help. Now let’s put a SMILE ON THAT FACE!

Comments (4)

  • hey, i was doing some research on invisialign in KL and came across your blog. thanks for all the details, they were very helpful. i assume that you’d have to visit the doctor regularly, the question is how often? i travel frequently and wonder if i can get it done. THANKS :)

  • @ac - Glad it helped. I am a frequent traveler too and it didn’t matter much. In the early stage you’ll probably have to visit every 4-8 weeks if the orthodontist need to shave your teeth to create gap. If you aren’t able to show up then you may simply delay the shaving process (thus changing to new sets of aligners).

    For my case, I had a focused visit period during my 10th aligner and 12th aligner, so I had to visit every 4 weeks, after that, every 1-2 months to check progress. I miss my appointment a few times due to traveling also (thus delayed changing to new aligner) but only by a week or so. Overall it’s not a big deal unless you are moving away extensively.

  • @IamJacky - 

    thanks :) i happen to be twnese too btw! considering getting it done in kl or tw. the cost seems around the same

  • @ac - Oh really? it’s cool to meet fellow Taiwanese here. Due to my work I stay in KL in long term basis so I had to get it done in KL. Besides the prices you should also consider the reputation of the orthodontists, how experienced they are etc., but I’m sure you’ve thought of them already considering the amount of money you’ll be paying. All the best!

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