Have to decide, invisalign or braces

[Sallee]

I joined 2 years ago when I was originally planning to correct my bite/grinding issues, but life got in the way. Now I'm less concerned about a couple of things, and have been offered invisalign as a less effective, but effective enough alternative. Does anyone know enough to give me an opinion?

My issues stem from my right upper canine never having grown. Top front teeth have shifted over to fill the gap, and kind of sunk inwards, pushing my bottom jaw back and grinding the bottom front teeth. My midline is off by a whole tooth.

- top from teeth need to move sideways somewhat (though I couldn't care less about a perfect midline)
- top front teeth need to be pulled forwards to make them vertically straight, and up.
- bottom teeth/jaw to be pulled forwards with elastics in final part of treatment to reduce ensuing underbite.
-the space will be blocked either by onlays on my skinny incisor pegs, or by pushing the front teeth backwards after they're successfully up and forwards (reducing overbite that way if needed)

The other stuff doesn't impact my decision- a molar has to be rotated, either during braces or before invisalign, and a back molar with no downstairs partner that has dropped down a lot is coming out.

My ortho says he'll do invisalign if I really want him to. I'm 40 and in a visible/public field of work. But he is concerned about adequate vertical and lateral movement, as well as the amount of underbite correction that would be possible at the end. Also for that underbite correction he says my molar crown poses an issue with invisalign as it's slippery.

Anyone have enough experience with both to have an opinion? Thanks!

[cs2thecox]

Lingual braces?
They're basically invisible, but are as functional as conventional braces.
Yes, they interfere with your speech a bit at first, but it settles after a couple of weeks, and most people never notice (or are at least too polite to mention it!).

I didn't think I was a particularly bad case, but my ortho said I was too bad for Invisalign, so I went with full linguals. I had to speak in a massive business meeting literally the morning after having my braces fitted, and although I thought I sounded ridiculous, I survived, we didn't lose the deal, and genuinely no-one commented on my speech. It subsequently got loads better, and I've been doing conference speeches, seminar panels and after dinner speeches as well as all the normal meetings and presentations I have to do in my job... I think maybe two people have mentioned it and that's only because they have them too! (You hear it more when you know what to listen for.)

Not all orthos work with lingual braces though, so it may be worth a consult with someone who does.

Good luck with it!

[Sallee]

Lingual braces do sound good, aargh! My ortho doesn't do them. At this point I've gone through 3 full assessments with him (he was my 2nd opinion), plus I really like and trust him, free parking, and our kids go to school together... I don't think I've got the energy to find someone else!

In my mind I'm trying to decide if I'm going to be 'the nutritionist with braces' or 'mum with ok teeth that don't grind'

[Nozzelnut]

I haven't had anyone say anything negative about my braces; ceramics on top and metal on the bottom. You'll care more about them for the first few months than anyone else ever will. And after the newness wears off you'll forget you have them when you're in public.

My ortho suggested traditional braces over invisalign because he had better control over the tooth movement. I could have picked either course of treatment but went with traditional.

[ljms]

I had to decide between braces and Invisalign and went with braces (Damon). There were two factors in my decision.

The first was compliance. I know what I'm like and I'm certain that I wouldn't get the minimum 22 hours of wear in Invisalign each day. Try adding up the time it takes to eat, drink anything other that water, and brush your teeth. It really adds up!

The second was the end result. Invisalign wasn't going to reduce the depth of my bite as much as braces or straighten my teeth as well. After 16 months in Damons, my top incisors are straighter than they would have been after 24 months of Invisalign.

The other thing you might consider is cost. For me, braces were $2K cheaper than Invisalign and the treatment time is the same.