Metal Mouth Message Board

I'm getting ready to start treatment (Dentist says trays will be in about 2 weeks) and am getting married in September (6 short months away!). I had originally decided on Invisalign in December and had my impressions done before Christmas but something happened at Invisalign and it took them 3 months to get my clincheck back! So finally I'm almost ready to start treatment. My dentist only told me I would have 28 trays but didn't specify the amount of uppers and lowers and my clincheck thing showed my teeth will have button things on them but luckily not on my 2 front teeth (although most of the others ones will).

My questions are first off will teeth be at a bad place in September where they will look worse than they do now? I've always heard of traditional braces putting your teeth through alll kinds of weird changes to get the final result and sometimes people mid-treatment having big gaps and rotated teeth. It this the case with Invisalign or do most of you find your teeth to look better all the time? Do you think I will be able to tell a positive difference by September even though my treatment will last much longer after that?

My next and most important concern is my wedding day. No matter what anyone says about the buttons not being noticable, I simply can't have them on my teeth for that day. I spoke to my dentist and she said that she had never done it before but that she would see me a few days before my wedding and take them off. She said that I could go without the trays for the ceremony and reception and that I should be fine but that I would need to come back in on Monday (weddings on saturday) and have them put back on. Problem is, I'm leaving for my honeymoon Sunday and there's no way for me to see her before I go. do you think I will be okay just wearing aligners for the week I am on vacation with no buttons?

Thanks and sorry so long!

Hi Julie,

First of all congratulation of your wedding!

How exciting! And also congrats on getting Invisalign, I know for me it's something I wish I had done years ago.

So to answer some of your question (from my experience that is )

<quote> My questions are first off will teeth be at a bad place in September where they will look worse than they do now? Do you think I will be able to tell a positive difference by September even though my treatment will last much longer after that? <quote>

Everyone's teeth are different but I think my teeth were definitely looking better 6 months into treatment. I have 55 uppers (yup 55) so 6 months in really isn’t that far along - also during that time my molars where doing most of the movement - but I still noticed a difference and I was certainly happy. There's such little movement from tray to tray which is a good thing but if you're like the rest of us here you'll be in the mirror ever chance you get making note of every movement of every tooth.

<quote> My next and most important concern is my wedding day. No matter what anyone says about the buttons not being noticable, I simply can't have them on my teeth for that day. <quote>

Sounds like you already have you mind set on this one but I'll give you my 2 cents anyways Im sure this all depends on your ortho and your tooth color ect... but for me I have fairly white teeth and my ortho and his assistant were able to match the color of the buttons exactly. I have 4 buttons on top, 2 each on either of my front teeth (canines and the premolars, I believe...) Anyways when they were first put in I felt like I had these huge cement blocks on my teeth and thought OMG I look like a freak. Of course no one noticed them unless I had them practically stick there head inside my mouth to look. Also for me, I have noticed that overtime the bumps wear down (my guess is from removing and re-inserting the trays over and over again) so there are no squared or hard edges (my buttons rectangular) and honestly they are just not noticeable.

Also just a side thought - If you are using a professional photographer for your wedding it’s amazing what they can do it touch up pictures, I saw a pic once of a bride with braces and the guy photoshoped them out, you would have never known...

<quote> She said that I could go without the trays for the ceremony and reception and that I should be fine ... do you think I will be okay just wearing aligners for the week I am on vacation with no buttons? <quote>

Again I'll give you my 2 cents but take in mind Im not an Ortho and your Ortho knows best.

Anyways, I was a guest/the wedding coordinator at a friends wedding
last June and I lost my upper aligner the night before the wedding at about midnight. There was no time to get to the Ortho the next day because I had to get going at 6:00am to get everything set for the wedding and I was 3 hours. So I had no aligners in the night before the wedding day of the wedding I left 1st thing Monday went straight to the Ortho the next morning b/c I was due for a new set that day anyways. Long story short, teeth really move fast, I learned that when I put in that new aligner, OUCH!

It sounds like you wont have your out nearly that long if your only going to have them out for the ceremony and reception so you'll probably be just fine but I would try to keep them as long a you can right before and pop them right back in right after, just so you don’t run into problems afterwards.

I think wearing the aligners without attachments would be better than not wearing them at all, not sure how it would or wouldn’t affect the treatment though...

Sorry this was so long winded just trying to help out with what I can and give some insight from my experience so far.

Congrats Again and Best of Luck!

Waitingtosmile,

Thanks so much for all the advice and don't worry about being long-winded, your post was about the same length as mine! I hope your right about the movement in the first 6 months, I'd love to see an improvement in my smile since thats part of the reason I started this whole thing in December, so I could look my best not only on my Wedding day but also for the rest of my life.

Again, thanks for the reply.

How exciting to be getting married! I wish that I had done this before I got married (3 years ago).

I have been wearing my Invisalign for 3 weeks now and my husband and I definitely see movement already (I checked with him just to make sure that I wasn't just imagining). Pretty much only my front teeth are moving and I am on 2/17 uppers and 2/19 lowers. I have one attachment on top on a canine and two on the lower which are not visible when I smile but are on both the left and right side 1st pre-molar.

Depending on the locations of your attachments, you may decide that it is not worth the hassle to slow down or regress in your treatment by having the attachments taken off. The most painful thing that my ortho has done was not IPR amazingly; but it was when they had to remove the glue for attachments that fell off!

If I were getting married in September, I would just keep my attachments and aligners in on the big day because I am completely comfortable with them now and want to make sure that I get the most out of the treatment the first time around. But, really it is up to you and is based on your specific situation. If my attachments were on teeth that were more visible, I would definitely see where you were coming from.

The best way to figure out if your teeth will be in a bad place in September is to calculate out what tray number you would be on at your wedding day and then ask to see the frame for that tray on the ClinCheck.

One other consideration is that the aligners are made all at once. So, even if the attachments are not on your teeth, there will be space for the attachments in the actual aligners. I just can't help but think that the bumps in the aligners would be much more visible without having the attachments on the teeth but could be wrong.

Best of luck in whatever you decide!

Well, I got my invisalign trays about 8 weeks before my wedding (which was last oct; so I was on tray 4 of 18, now only 3 to go yay! but I digress
I had 4 buttons on my bottom teeth and 2 on top; one on each side, not the front teeth but those on the front 'side' (incisor? sorry, don't know the name!). Anyways, I was also worried about them being visible (even though, as most people say, no one can see them, even my husband says he can't see them unless he's RIGHT in front of them) ANYWAYS, I spoke with my dentist and she told me she would take them out no problem and put them back after I returned from my honeymoon. So they were supposed to be out for a planned total of 3 weeks. (I did not wear my aligners at all the day of the wedding, and did my best to wear them most of my honeymoon although there were many times when I didn't, because of that, which we had factored in, I wore that set of aligners for one extra week). When I returned from my honeymoon and went back to the dentist, she said that the aligners seemed to be doing just fine without the attachments and it didn't seem like I even needed them (they are just there for added retention) so she actually didn't put them back. So yes, my aligners do have the extra space for the attachments but there is no actual attachment there. Hasn't seem to have affected anything.

Good luck!

PS - even after 8 weeks I had already noticed a slight improvement! and btw, I have also worried about the 'will they look worse before they look better' question, and I have to say that in my case, at every stage they have looked better!

gs, you are right on! So glad someone has been where I am! Glad to hear that not wearing the attachments didn't mess with your progress any. Thanks so much!

I am a wedding photographer and wear Invisalign. I asked my ortho to remove my attachments before my wedding because I would hate to have my own photographer have to Photoshop every single picture where I'm smiling. Think of all the detail around your teeth/mouth/lips...to have to very specifically correct each tooth?!?! I also wouldn't want my photographer to have to worry about angles to not see the attachments. My ortho said it would be my wedding present to remove mine for my wedding (she's a sweetie).

You can see the attachments if they're in the front, and if you're paying a decent photographer, they will be visible in some of your photos. Mine are on all 4 canines and I have another one beside top left canine. So VERY visible. People look at my mouth all the time when I'm wearing my trays, it's quite distracting. They do notice, they just don't say anything. That's not a big deal in itself, but it is a big deal to have pointy things jutting from your teeth in photos of an occasion you paid thousands of dollars for. Worth the delay in treatment in every respect.

Don't assume photographers wouldn't mind having to do all that extra work. That's a very specific request and worthy of charging a separate fee for. I can't imagine how time consuming that would be! Photoshop is extremely labor intensive; it's not a matter of pushing a button and having a magically corrected photo pop out the other end. You have to be very skilled at it - and skilled labour is worth $$$. If they offer to do it for free as a wedding present for you, then consider yourself lucky.

Get them removed. Delay treatment by a couple weeks, but have photos and a wedding day that you wont be self-conscious about.

Best of luck to anyone reading this for advice in the future!

Hi

I am new to this board, i got my Invisalign on Wednesday so im on day 4 of my 1st tray. I have been gien 21U and 21L which takes me to roughly 10.5months and i am getting married in 7 months.

I am too worrying about having attachments on my front teeth which are badly skewed. Maybe the lightining will be good to me and you wont notice them as much!

Good luck