Invisalign/Braces

[Oblivia]

Hi all. I wanted to make this thread to talk with others about their woes and triumphs with orthodontia, because right now I'm pretty annoyed with the whole process and would love to connect with others who are sharing the struggle. I'm currently doing Invisalign after having braces as a kid, and despite my teeth being "perfect" just after having the initial braces removed and wearing my retainers exactly as instructed, my front bottom teeth all uniformly moved off to the right so my bite no longer lined up correctly, and my bottom right K9 tooth ended up bumping against the upper K9. I switched to Invisalign after initially opting for the white ceramic braces, but I had those removed after a month because, as it turns out, wire braces are a LOT more tolerable as a 10 year old and I was over the constant food particle picking and taking eight years to floss.

I'm on my first series of aligners (of a probable two) right now, and I'll be switching to number 16 of 28 later tonight. I switch every 7 days. The first couple days after using a new aligner is so annoying and uncomfortable, and every time I take out the things to clean them I feel like my teeth are going to pop out of my skull.

Anyway, any other adults here walking down the path of orthodontics for the second time? Or any teens/adults going through it for the first time? Tell me your stories!

 

[Darkesque_]

Hey, Oblivia! I am 14 years old, and I have braces! I have had my braces for 3 years. Two days ago, I had them tightened...I can't stand the tightening! I am super scared, because when they cut of the excess wire in the back of my mouth, I am super scared that they are going to cut my mouth. Also, flossing is a pain in the backside! I dislike having to stand there, insert the threader, and floss FOR EVERY TOOTH! But, I want to have beautiful teeth.

I am going to have retainers after I get my braces off, and I am not very stoked on having them. I am heavily involved in band, and I have a friend who is a sophomore, and she had braces and currently has a retainer. Every time we had marching band practice, she had to take out the retainer. I am scared that when I play, my teeth are going to go back to the way they were before braces. I don't want to put my family through a $4,000 journey again. I don't want my teeth to hurt for 3 more years. I am definitely going to talk to my orthodontist about my concerns about playing an instrument and having a retainer.

Wow! It felt good to take that off my chest! I wish you luck, Oblivia, and anyone else who has braces/retainers/Invisalign! I hope your teeth turn out more beautiful than the pictures show!

 

[Shellzilla_515]

I'm heading down the path for getting my teeth straightened for the first time. The journey started well over a year ago. To begin, my bottom right canine teeth was sticking out like crazy, it was time to get it straightened. But before I even got to fit the braces on, I had to wear a retainer in order to create space for my teeth. It lasted for a few months and brushing my teeth and flossing was very time consuming. For the retainer I was talking about, there was this mechanic where I had to turn at least one click every night. I didn't know exactly what it does but it felt like it was pushing back my teeth to create more space for my canine tooth. My bottom teeth is only treated and I'll get into those details later.

So fast forward months later, I finally moved on to having my braces fitted. The process of getting it on was rough and felt painful after it was done. At least I had a free choice of colours. I probably went through at least five different ones! On top of that, I have to make a visit every two weeks to adjust the wiring of my braces. That means that every time I was getting some relief from my teeth, it would come back again due to those adjustments. Many weeks passed by and me and my orthodontist weren't exactly getting the results we wanted. My canine tooth was getting pushed back in, but not by enough. So now a small spring had to be placed between one of my teeth and the canine tooth. Giving it a few more weeks and there was more progress being made. Just to let you know, there were a few hiccups along the way where my braces would snap off my teeth, elastic would break, or the wire would come loose.

After almost a year of having braces on my bottom teeth, it was time to take it off and my orthodontist finally cleaned my teeth and finish it off by putting a simple wire at the back to keep it in place. It was looking all good until one day, it fell off my teeth. I told my orthodontist immediately and said that my canine tooth was very slowly shifting back out. Moreover, I'm still a teen meaning that my bones are still soft and can be easily moved compared to adults. Because of this, my orthodontist decided to give me a plastic retainer that can be easily removed (think of it as invisalign, but much less tighter). They also put a small patch of filling on my canine tooth to apply pressure and keep it in place. That is where I am right now, wearing my plastic retainer for five months now. My next appointment is on March which is two months away (and the release of New Horizons!) so they'll see how it looks then. A month ago, I was told by my orthodontist that I can wear my plastic retainer overnight and not 24/7. It's a long journey, but I'm determined to get through!

So I'll start mentioning my upper teeth now. For this whole time, only my bottom teeth has been treated. The reason why my upper teeth is being treated with braces because my upper right canine tooth (ugh, my canine teeth are giving me a hard time), is actually hidden away in my gums. It's still there but in order to properly treat my upper teeth, I had to get it surgically removed, and I haven't done so unfortunately because it's really expensive. Since I couldn't get it surgically removed, my upper teeth has been left intact for quite a while now.

My orthodontist is really nice, so I'm doing my part to make things easier for the both of us. And can you tell me more about Invisalign, please? I'm usually skeptical on things that have been highly rated in T.V. advevrtisements.

 

[Corndoggy]

ive had 2 sets of braces and have been going to the same orthodontist sinc ei was 8 or 9, im now 20. Recently i had to have my wisdom teeth removed and i couldn't wear my clear retainers for a month and a half due to the consequestal jaw problems following the surgery (mostly good now though). in the last month i have been to the ortho 4 times, had 4 molds taken and 2 different lots of new retainers maken, as they had messed up the first lot. im now back to a wire retainer in order to tame my overbite (for the past 2 nights my teeth have been aching, due to the pain of being pushed on again (the metal retainers are a lot stronger then the plastic ones). At this point im just super tired, as i was told i would be done around the age of 20, and its looking like i will be stuck wearing retainers for a long while. However in saying that, my teeth were absolutely atrocious as a child (i recently resaw photos) and i'm glad my mum insisted i get them; i will put up with these retainers for her

 

[seliph]

i had braces for 2+ years (along with some doodad that was supposed to to "fix" my jaw which i'll get into later) as a teen and it sucked so much. my front teeth are fine since i got a permanent retainer but the insides of my cheeks are like ripped to shreds and my back teeth got all funky again - they're still pretty aligned but some of them are like, outwardly-diagonal facing. i'm partially wondering if it's my wisdom teeth coming in but i haven't felt any pain from them so ?????

i also now have an overbite despite whatever that device from hell they stuck in my mouth was supposed to do, it's not bad appearance-wise but my top back teeth and bottom back teeth can't touch each other and sometimes it drives me up the wall. little did i know it also makes having tinnitus infinitely worse so i'm likely going to have to get jaw realignment surgery at some point.

dental workers really be like

 

[Oblivia]

-snip-

Wow, 3 years... I don't know that I could do it. I had the wire braces for only 10 months as a kid and can vividly remember the discomfort after having them tightened. Hang in there!

Also, I can promise you that your teeth won't shift back if you remove your retainer during band practice. In most cases, you're recommended to wear your retainer from 18-22 hours per day, so as long as you're diligent with putting them back in after you're done you'll be good.

-snip-

This sounds like quite the ordeal! Sounds like you're describing an expander? I'm glad you're working with an orthodontist you're comfortable with, and I'm sure the end result will be worth it.

As for Invisalign, it's a series of clear plastic trays, or "aligners" that you can remove, and overall it's a more modern system than wire braces with more predictable results. You have a series of attachments on certain teeth that the aligners click into (I have four total), and you change the aligners every 1-2 weeks, depending on your treatment plan. You're correct in that they have TV commercials, but it's nothing like the Smile Direct Club-type systems where you're essentially on your own; you work with a dentist for the entire process and they work with Invisalign to customize your treatment plan. I see my orthodontist every 6 weeks for progress checks. Overall, I vastly prefer my Invisalign to standard braces - the one large caveat is that they're about $2k more and I'm paying for the entire thing out of pocket.

If you're curious, this is one of my older aligners! You can see where my attachments are by the little protrusions.

Spoiler: Number 14 of 28

Don't mind the weird number of molars. Had to get a couple of them pulled prior to the first round of braces to prevent crowding.

-snip-

Ah geez, I hope for your sake it all works out this time around! I had two different sets of retainers as a kid: the pink plastic thing with a wire on the front of my teeth, and later I had the clear plastic ones that I wore to bed, even into adulthood. They can definitely be a pain, so I feel you on that. -_-

-snip-

Oh man, I feel in cases like this it's so, so important to find a dentist who actually knows what the hell they're doing. I went to a local dental school for my first round of braces and worked with a student, and the entire reason my bottom teeth all shifted over despite still being "straight" was because they gave me the plastic retainers that only covered my front teeth, rather than the full tray which would have also covered the molars and prevented this. Granted there was a staff dentist overseeing everything, but I remember him coming in for literally five seconds at the end of each appointment and saying "looks good!" while not actually thoroughly checking me over. My little kid brain pegged his age somewhere around 125, so maybe he was just tired and crotchety.

Re: wisdom teeth, it sounds like it could definitely be what's happening. Sometimes there's a sideways impaction which sounds like it would be painful, but most people don't experience any pain and don't realize there's a problem until their teeth start shifting around out of nowhere. I'd say it'd be worth an x-ray at least!

And hey, no shame in doing braces again if your teeth didn't turn out the way you hoped! I felt ridiculous at first but now I'm in the groove, despite usually being the oldest patient in the office by ~20 years.

 

[Midoriya]

Yeah, I had braces when I was younger and when I got them off, my teeth moved. For about half a year to a year, back in 2018-2019, I had to wear Invisalign trays until my teeth were fixed again. Now I just wear retainers, except I don’t wear them often enough because my bottom teeth are moving a bit again. Though that’s more a lack of caring on my part than anything else, I need to make a better effort to wear my retainers more so I don’t have to go through all of this a third time (which by that point, I would have to pay for myself). In fact, I think I’m going to go brush my teeth and put them in right now.

 

[Oblivia]

Yeah, I had braces when I was younger and when I got them off, my teeth moved. For about half a year to a year, back in 2018-2019, I had to wear Invisalign trays until my teeth were fixed again. Now I just wear retainers, except I don?t wear them often enough because my bottom teeth are moving a bit again. Though that?s more a lack of caring on my part than anything else, I need to make a better effort to wear my retainers more so I don?t have to go through all of this a third time (which by that point, I would have to pay for myself). In fact, I think I?m going to go brush my teeth and put them in right now.

Yes, putting in your retainer right now is a great idea! I definitely understand how annoying and uncomfortable they can be and how appealing it is to pass on wearing them, but maybe try for every other night or even every night if you don't want to wear them during the day. Your situation sounds like mine with the bottom teeth. I don't know why the little guys are so intent on moving while the bigger guys upstairs stayed put, but when this is all over with I'm going to get legitimate retainers that actually hold ALL my teeth in place. Hard pass on doing this a 3rd time.

 

[Oldcatlady]

i had braces when i was younger, not sure for how long probably 3-4 years? i have a crooked underbite so the dentist told me that even after i'm done treatment i need to get surgery to align my teeth cause they can only straighten my teeth, not completely align it. i also had to use this weird face mask thing on my face every night

Spoiler: facemask

they also said my mouth is too small so they had to manually stretch my mouth with a machine every visit and that was the most painful thing ever... i remember crying so much over it

anyway i had to move to another city before the treatment was done so they took my braces off and gave me retainers and told me to get surgery after i turn 18 cause your teeth dont move much anymore at that age. at that point my teeth were straight just not aligned. i wore my retainers everyday till they broke 2 years later and just never bothered getting new ones. haven't worn any retainers in 5 years so my teeth are crooked again and it's 15k down the drain :')
but it's just so much work i don't even care i dont wanna go through it again. like no one cares about teeth that much i don't think they're that bad my mouth is just slightly crooked.

 

[Oblivia]

-snip-

Ugh, the mouth stretching you mention sounds god-awful. I'm sorry you had to go through such an ordeal. I totally agree with your reasoning behind not wanting to go through it again, and I read that teeth merely being crooked isn't a big deal and any changes are usually just for aesthetic reasons, so I'd probably pass too if I were in your situation and had already sunk so much cash into it. The only reason I opted to go through this a second time is because I could tell my bottom K9 tooth was getting kinda ground down by the constant impact with the top, and biting down to chew was becoming uncomfortable. I figured eventually the health of the tooth itself would be compromised if I didn't have it fixed, and since the thought of losing teeth terrifies me beyond belied I figured it was best to just go for it.

 

[hamster]

i sucked my thumb until i was 6 so my teeth were pushed forward and i had a gap between my front teeth and they stuck out too much. firstly i was given clip on braces when i was like 10 which i had to wear every night i remember them making my teeth hurt so bad i dont really remember how long i had to have them maybe like a year

a year or 2 later i was given these braces that were huge, they were also clip on but i had to wear them at all times and they were designed to push my jaw back and i absolutely hated it looked like my mouth was full of food all the time. they started to make my jaw crack and ache which made me addicted to cracking my jaw because it would relief the ache a bit (but then would make it a lot worse)told the dentist about it once and he was just like ?nah dont worry about it when your braces are off itll go away? never did and i still have this weird addiction of cracking my jaw 5 years later. i was given the option of surgery and looking back i wish i took it although i still probably wouldnt cus surgery on your jaw idk wouldnt be nice

had to wear that for like 2 years? then was given regular braces for another 2 years. they started off fine but by the middle/end the wires were stabbing my gums all the time and it was always uncomfortable and my orthodontist was pretty annoying, intrusive and she was always late so id have to wait for hours for her it completely put me off and when i decided to take them off (she didnt really want me to but to me my teeth were straight) i was given a retainer and i LOST it within the first few months. a little gap has come back to my teeth overtime and a little crooked bit on the bottom came back. still annoys me but at least they look nowhere near as bad as before. need to make an appointment soon about it cus i dont want them to revert back to the way they were and it makes me worried. overall i hated the experience and would not do it again

 

[Soigne]

hello, yes, adult with ceramic braces here. as a child, the decision was unfortunately left up to me by both my dentist & my parents as to whether i would get braces or not. my upper canine teeth were both impacted, so in order to get braces i would have had to have surgery... try asking any 10 year old whether they want to go under the knife. so i said no.

fast forward to my sophomore year in college & i'm extremely depressed and i literally never smile because i hate the way my teeth look. i booked an appointment with a different dentist & they recommended a free consult with an orthodontist. now that i'm older, i figured i could handle the oral surgery. i mean, it wasn't that big of a deal honestly. but at the age of 10, there was no way you could convince me to do that.

i've had my braces for 18 months now and i'm almost finished with them. i had an appointment a week or two ago & was told that the only thing remaining for my treatment (other than retainers) was to close a small gap between one of my canine teeth. hopefully within the next month or two i will be getting them removed & starting the retainment portion of treatment! i've been told that the retainers i'll be given are plastic, much like invisalign. here's hoping they come off my teeth before i have my thesis presentation/graduation in the upcoming months.

 

[Princess Mipha]

I had braces in for about 4 years.. that were some really painful years, lol.
I was really impressed of how much they straightened my teeth, I don't have perfect ones at all, but still SO much better than what they use to be. Anyways.. turned out that the doctor wanted to keep them in for a lot longer, even though every other doctor we visited said it's not useful. Well.. my doctor just wanted the money! We should've done some research, because online we were reading lots of reviews like that. So.. I got mine finally out (she wasn't friendly when doing that.. she ripped out a part of my flesh on the top of my mouth, which is kinda like a small dent now in my mouth, and jeeeeez that was painful and bloody. She didn't care at all though and just told me in a annoyed voice to stop moving) and was supposed to wear the removable stuff, which I did for the first few weeks but then I honestly gave up, couldn't handle the incredible pain anymore. To this day I don't have any problems with my teeth, so I don't mind. She also refused to give us the paper so we could get back the 1.400? from the health insurance, because apparently I was forced to come for 5 more years every 3 months for a checkup, which I couldn't do as I moved to another country during that time.. she never even mentioned it before. Well, luckily my Dad really know how to get what he has the rights for and he made a big scene until she finally accepted on giving us that paper.

So long story short: It was the most painful thing in my life, especially getting them removed, since she ripped out the flesh. She then tried to "scam" us and yeah.. I'm in one way happy that my teeth are way less bad looking now, but also sad because it was such an awful experience.

Also: A old friend of mine had her braces in for.. OVER 10 years!!! I have no clue why and even when I asked her she couldn't explain it. I'd guess she had a doctor as well that was using some dumb excuses to make them pay for as long as possible.

 

[moonbyu]

hiya! i dont have braces but i might get them soon. what should i expect?

 

[idiotdoomspiral]

i think when i was around 12-14 i got braces for about two years or something. the first year was all good until they started tightening them like crazy. the wires would pop out and cut my gums, sometimes it was my fault for doing something like chewing gum but other times it just happened when i ate food i was told was fine to eat. i couldnt stand them and kept tearing them out as much as i could before my next visit. after the treatment was done they said it wasnt perfect because of what i did lol but my front teeth are perfectly normal now, my back ones are still not straight and are crowded but its not like anyone is gonna see them much. didnt have to wear retainers for some reason. ive been having problems with my jaw after treatment which has been going on for a couple of years, sounds exactly like tmd since its that joint thats giving me problems, might be related to the braces but might not be

 

[Limon]

I had braces in middle school. The metal wires kept poking into my gums, so wearing braces annoyed the heck out of me. I wish my mom forced me to keep them on because my teeth got messed up all over again. Invisalign is something I want to try someday, but I'm worried about the price.

 

[oath2order]

I had braces in middle school and they were horrible. But my teeth are straight.

 

[Alienfish]

Nope, never got them (braces) as a kid unfortunately. Looking back I wish I would have gotten them because my teeth look ugly as hell and I definitely don't like smiling with my mouth open. Like, I can chew properly and my bite is alright but yeah they ain't be lookin cool.

Also tbf all cousins and friends who had them looked like really cool in them... basically why I wanted them as well lol.

 

[joey ^_^]

i've had braces for seven years now and i'm in my early twenties :') most of my friends from high school have already moved on to retainers and i'm mad jealous because i don't want to have to keep going to the dentist every month. high key feel like my dentist is frustrated that my bite keeps opening because i keep biting my lip when i'm anxious (which is... very often i am so sorry mrs dentist) but she has been very patient and i appreciate her.

when i was in grade school, all of my classmates wanted braces because they would make you prettier or something? plus a lot of our cool upperclassmen had them! so i was really excited to get them in high school because it would mean i was more mature and also (supposedly) about to get prettier. don't really remember a lot of the specifics of those first few years aside from having a hard time eating stuff every once in a while?

did NOT like the part where i had to get my wisdom teeth removed because the dentist surgeon guy my regular dentist referred me to said my mouth was too small for them to just pull it out so he had to drill it into little pieces and i was but a wee fifteen year old and it scared the heck out of me and i was crying the whole time and the nurse there was just wiping my tears away gosh. this was like,, two weeks after i got the other tooth removed but it was in a convenient enough place that the guy didn't have to drill so i was super surprised when he had to for the other tooth. -4/10 would not recommend and also i was not a fan of having a big hole in my mouth and the antiseptic thingy tasted bad but also the texture of the gums is like,,, weird and interesting? like,, probably i wasn't supposed to poke it with my tongue so often but it was just so intriguing like wow ))

also my least favourite part of going to the dentist is when they have to make molds of your teeth so they put the metal thing with the cold goop (technical term) in your mouth and hold it there for a minute skldfjslkdfj

kind of personal but i get into depressive slumps every once in a while and it makes it hard to want to take care of myself but eventually i realized that all the hard work my dentist puts into aligning my teeth will go to waste if i let my teeth rot so even on really bad days i try my best to brush at the very least.

also i vaguely remember wearing a retainer before high school for a few years (maybe three or so years before the braces) and then one day i just didn't put them back on and my dentist never mentioned it so like ?\_(ツ)_/?

my mom also had braces but then she went into med school and realized she wouldn't have time to maintain them so she told her dentist to have them taken off asap and honestly i sometimes wish i could do that too

 

[dizzy bone]

I had braces from when I was 12 to 15ish? Then I had to wear nightly retainers all throughout high school. The years I had braces were really tough. My teeth were such a mess and the pain of tightening them was unbearable. I was in a football team as a kid and I often had to skip out because the pain was too distracting and I couldn’t do headers properly because it made my teeth hurt so much lol :’D I was also the only unfortunate kid in my group of friends who needed braces while most of my friends had perfect teeth so I always felt like I was going through the struggle alone. Thankfully, I was out of them by high school and only needed nightly retainers. I wore them religiously because I was so worried they would shift. I even took them to school and wore them during breaks LOL.

My top teeth are fine now, but I’ve always had “inner braces” (lingual braces) on my bottom teeth that I was advised not to take out because they would move again eventually. So I’ve had these pretty much since I was a kid. It’s like a very thin wire attached with a clear looking glue thing so it’s barely even visible, unlike metal braces or even most metal lingual braces. It’s annoying because I need to get maintenance on them every year but I no longer live in the country where I got my teeth fixed, and a lot of the dentists where I live now don’t feel comfortable fixing these because they might make a mistake and un-do my progress or something, idk. thankfully I haven’t had a lot of problems with the wires popping out so I’m able to get routine cleaning on them and that’s it. I literally do not remember a time when my tongue didn’t scrape against the bottom wires. I often press my tongue against my bottom teeth when I’m nervous, so sometimes I still get cut from it :’(