Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi all. I'm new here but would love your advice. I'm a 30+ year old woman and am almost finished my Invisalign treatment. My Invisalign was recommended by my general dentist because my teeth were getting more and more crowded. This same dentist (we'll call her dentist #1) has been the only professional I have been seeing all along - there has been no orthodontist involved.
Things seemed to be going well but I have started taking my kids to a different dentist (dentist #2) that utilizes functional orthodontics. This dentist has given my kids ALF appliances and dental risers to correct overbites. She seemed knowledgeable about TMD, bruxism and apnea so I went to her for a consult. She basically told me that I have a class ll malocclusion (I'm sure I've had this all along but other dentists I've seen have never said it was a problem). She said she would have passed me along to her orthodontist coworker to correct my bite before using Invisalign to straighten teeth as the overbite is probably the cause of my grinding and maybe the reason for my snoring. From what I gather, my jaw is the right size - it's just set too far back. My jaw is recessed and set to the left when I bite on my back teeth.
I'm upset that I have spent $4500.00 on Invisalign treatment that has done nothing to correct my bite. I've always been fine with the way my teeth looked - I didn't do invisalign to make my teeth pretty - I have only wanted to have good functionality. I'm upset that (until dentist #2) no dentist has ever told me that I had a malocclusion that could be corrected. Dentist #2 said that to correct it with her and her orthodontist it would probably cost another $6000.00.
So I guess my question is this - are there any more economical ways to correct this now? Dentist #2 showed me that if I push my jaw forward my teeth line up perfectly. Problem is that my back teeth don't meet then - there's a space between my upper molars and my lower molars. How can I correct my bite and help my top and bottom molars erupt to meet each other? How do I go about finding a good local orthodontist that won't rob me? I'm just sad that I'm still at square one after spending all this $ and time on my current Invisalign treatment :( Thanks for your advice!

entrancedboar91 well....I'm kind of in a similar situation. I went myself as a grown adult and purchased invisalign. My ortho let me know my teeth were perfect for invisalign since i didn't need any extreme movement...but i did it because i wanted a perfectly straight smile ( i had a few crooked teeth in front) I was told my treatment would be a year...but we ended up having to do a revision for another 8 months to try to get my teeth to move from straight on top of each other. Didn't work. (my top and bottom teeth hit almost directly on top of each other with a slight underbite) So i decided i was willing to do the surgery...my surgeon showed me that invisalign had perfectly placed my teeth where they needed to be...just a few millimeters off so when he showed me my own impressions and moved the top forward a little all of my teeth hit perfectly. I guess sometimes they are able to get most of the work done but pushing a whole jaw of teeth a few millimeters in a certain direction isn't the easiest thing...which is why most of us are here on this forum! We've all had some sort of orthodontics but it just isnt enough. I do however find it odd you have never in your life been told of any type of jaw issues or bite problems! I mean maybe it's something to think about if you are looking for a good perfect bite. I'm not sure if your insurance covers orthognathic surgery but luckily i have kaiser and it does. And i don't have any orthodontics left on my dental insurance to pay for any other kind of braces...that would probably still leave me in the same situation! For a while i felt like i was way too old to think about surgery...im turning 29 this year and ive lived with this bite/face/profile for this long...but my surgeon let me know how important it is. He said tooth loss, cavities, breakage, gum issues, tmj, wearing down of teeth...the list went on...and i guess when i really think about it...if i plan to live until im 80...this is worth it! plus i hate the dentist!!! I guess i would tell you to do your research, decide what you are looking for and what you think is best for you. You could go the braces route...but you arent guaranteed to get the bite you are looking for. You could go the surgery route which is a given but also a big deal with a lot of recovery, or you can just say screw it and live with the bite you have! This forum is a heap of info! Ive been on it for 3 months now and i'm still finding more info on everything. my surgery is in 2 1/2 weeks!

EntrancedBoar91 wrote: She said she would have passed me along to her orthodontist coworker to correct my bite before using Invisalign to straighten teeth as the overbite is probably the cause of my grinding and maybe the reason for my snoring.

Dentist #2 said that to correct it with her and her orthodontist it would probably cost another $6000.00. So I guess my question is this - are there any more economical ways to correct this now?

I would recommend that you get treated by an ortho and not a general dentist for your entire treatment. I also recommend you use fixed braces for the whole thing rather than partly braces and partly Invisalign. I imagine that would cost less too.

If you want price comparisons consult with some other orthos. They may come up with different treatment plans too, so it's worth it for that reason (considering it's such an important decision).

Ugh, I feel for you. I first consulted with a general dentist in my regular practice who offers Invisalign. She told me my case was very straightforward one and I would only need about 8-10 months in Invisalign to correct my moderate crowding. I was all excited and ready to sign up, but luckily that little voice in the back of my head suggesting a second opinion won out.

I then went to talk to an orthodontist who is an Invisalign Elite provider and while he agreed that I would be an Invisalign candidate he noted that I had a class II malocclusion and asked if I'd be willing to start my treatment with 3-6 months of Carriere distalizer treatment to correct the bite, THEN move into Invisalign to straighten everything out. I asked him why no one in my 30+ years of dental care had ever mentioned the malocclusion and he said that it's not something that general dentists are trained to evaluate for. Needless to say, I went with the orthodontist and his plan. I'm about a year total into treatment at this point (am in Invisalign now, tray 17 out of 44), with at least another year to go, and while the experience has had its share of ups and downs, I'm very glad I chose to go with him. The process is slower, but I know the end result will be functional and not just pretty, as you said.

I can only imagine how frustrated you must be having gone through one round already and finding out that it didn't do what you wanted. All I can suggest is to write down exactly what you want out of this and then make a bunch of consultation appointments with orthodontists in your area (hopefully you can get some word-of-mouth recommendations to know where to start). Generally consultations are free and then you can get a bunch of different opinions on recommended courses of treatment and the associated costs and make your plan from there. Wishing you the best of luck!

Yeah, any licensed dentist that spends a couple of days in a hotel conference room can be "qualified" to dispense Invisilign, and the Invisilign folks don't turn away any case a dentist sends it; Invisilign relies on the dispensing dentist to make that call, despite the fact that most of them have never received the training to allow them to make that decision properly.

Few board-certified orthodontists are going to "rob" you; they aren't all perfect, but the vast majority of them will do a better job than pretty much any general dentist. Not for nothing do orthodontists have to go through years of additional training before receiving their certification.

Thanks so much for your responses. I wish I had known enough to seek out an orthodontist in the first place... Oh well. You live and you learn. Is it really bad to just leave the malocclusion the way it is? My husband and I are having a hard time justifying spending more $ on further treatment after paying for the invisalign. It's not cheap...