Anyone Have Experience with Invisalign Braces?

I wore Invisalign braces several years ago. My teeth were not that bad to begin. I would not recommend them for a 12 year old, even a very responsible one. They must be worn at all times except for when you are eating. That will be hard while she is at school. She will have to brush her teeth after lunch to put them back on. Also, I often had people ask me if I was wearing clear braces even though they are suppose to be invisible. I wish I would have gone with traditional braces as I was not 100% pleased with the end result.

that's exactly what we paid for my son's braces, but he had a weird issue with a tooth growing haywire through his upper palate that had to be dragged down with a little chain that was attached to the upper braces.
no foolin'.
my brother did invisalign a couple of years ago as an adult. he already had nice teeth but he wanted the gap closed. he's very good looking and kind of vain<G>. they worked great, but what a PITA. i don't think i'd expect a tween to be diligent about never eating without taking them out, and remembering to replace them.
khairete
S.

I'll give you my considered opinion of Invisilign Teen braces. My son had them, starting in 11th grade. He was finished with them before he graduated. His teeth look great and it was a lot less painful than regular braces.

My younger son turned out not to need braces. Terrific! BUT, would I have had Invisilign Teen braces for him? No.

The reason is that he wasn't mature enough to handle them properly. He would have taken them out and "forgotten" to put them back in (they need to be worn 23 hours a day.) He would have lost them when he took them out. It would have been a little bit of a battle with me trying to get him to comply.

I don't think that it's the right choice for younger kids, and your daughter is even younger than my younger son was.

Have you looked into the Damon System? That's what I was originally looking for because you don't have to go in as often, and the Damon System is supposed to be a lot less painful than regular braces, which I was really interested in for my older son. But it turned out that the Invisilign Teen was also an option, so we chose that.

The orthodontist I chose was because he actually teaches other orthodontists how to use the Damon System. I knew if he taught other dentists, he must be good. He was a good dentist at everything.

Good luck with your decision. I do hope you'll think twice about the Invisilign Teen option...

I can't speak to pros or cons on Invisalign. I wore traditional braces years ago for about 2 years and it was not fun but doable. I paid around $4000.

Currently we choose to not have dental insurance because I feel it's a rip off when you figure all the premiums based on what they actually cover. They cover 50% if basics meaning no porcelain crowns, etc.

We keep a running balance with our dentist paid in cash and when we go our cost is deducted from the balance. We do get a cash discount with this process.

Most Dr's and Dentists don't advertise cash discounts so ask.

Prime example... I needed another MRI on my ankle last week. The overall costs was $2500 , I was told if I use insurance that portion would be $1350. I just blurted out what if I pay cash? I was told $400. You bet I did not file insurance and I paid $400. Either way, our company covers medical so I was covered by our family business and avoided an insurance claim .

Just ask!!! Good luck

My 16 yo daughter just got done treatment. Her top teeth were perfect and she had mild crowding on the bottom which was why we hesitated to get her braces. 3 of the orthodontist quoted us prices between $5200-6000. The fourth orthodontist I took her had the highest Invisalign rating (the other orthodontist had the second highest rating). In any event he charged us $3800)

My youngest daughter started with Invisalign at 10 1/2 yo. She has never lost a tray. (My oldest never lost a tray either). She should be done treatment in 6 months. EDIT- We payed $5200 for her Invisalign.

Both my girls highly recommend Invisalign. Fyi...even with traditional braces, kids are suppose to brush their teeth after eating, even at school.

If I were you I would shop around and see if you can get a better price. We don't have insurance either.

I did invisalign about 2 yrs ago. I would not rec them. They are small and get lost VERY easily. If you have a dog...You cannot leave them on a table. I went out for tea. I forgot my case. I wrapped it in a napkin. I tossed it in the garbage !!! The COST is outrageous for plastic made in MEXICO!

They hurt !!! Each week you get a new set and it's hard to put them in !
It's not like the commercial.

My teeth have yellowed, too. I was offered bleaching, but, my gums were too sensitive.

I hated them.

If you decide to get them, make sure you like the health care provider and that s/he has yrs of experience doing them.

My gum got burned pretty badly.

If it's a short experience---It should be ok. Mine was less than a year, but, I disliked the experience !

The dr told me the plastic was made in USA. The boxes said Mexico.
I was livid.

My six, now seven year old has/had a cross-bite and needed her upper palate expanded and when we saw the x-rays discovered she had three teeth getting ready to come in through the roof of her mouth.

Stage one: palate expander (butterfly) and braces for the top front teeth to get them all in aligned...$2800.

Stage two will be to align her bottom teeth because she is missing a permanent tooth...no quote yet but I can't imagine it will be more than all the extensive work on her upper mouth...

I am thinking it will be about $5000 total. So yes, $7000 does seem a bit much but we are using traditional braces.

Get a second opinion...our orthodontist gives free consultations.

My oldest is in braces right now, and the cost you're looking at is what it costs in Northern CA, yes. My daughter will be in braces for about 2 years, and the cost is $6500. That includes a retainer when she's done.

That being said, I'd want to know if your daughter has no over- or under-bite at all, and if her teeth are perfectly aligned top and bottom already. (In other words, all you're needing to do is minor straightening.) I say this because I had invisalign in my young 20s, and it didn't correct my bite to the degree that traditional braces would have, and my teeth are not perfectly centered top and bottom (the midline is a bit off - not noticeably, but it has led to my teeth wanting to go back to being crooked).

Because of that, I didn't even consider invisalign for my daughter. We just went with the traditional metal-mouth braces, going for perfectly aligned teeth that will hopefully stay straight for a lifetime. It's only 2 years, and she can't lose them or take them off for too long a time. She's already a year into it, and hasn't had any major problems. We did have to get her a mouth guard for night time (the braces were causing some sores on the inside of her lips, which has completely resolved with the mouth guards).

Yeah it seems high.
See another orthodontist and get a second opinion.
Invisalign is usually way more expensive (like double the cost) than regular braces.
You have to be very good with wearing them when you are suppose to - some kids would not do that and this would stretch out the treatment to be longer than it needs to be.
At the orthodontist we went to, all his Invisalign patients were adults - he wouldn't do it for kids/teens.
The plates are invisible - and VERY easy to lose, forget them on a lunch tray after lunch, etc.
Moving teeth around hurts - doesn't matter how you move them - when an adjustment is made, you're going to ache for a few days.
Get over feeling that one method over another will be less painful - it works out to be pretty much the same.

Also - you know how Invisalign works, right?
They gradually push your teeth into place and this is done by getting new plates every 8 or so weeks and wearing them and repeating the process until teeth are in final position - and then you wear the final set as retainers more or less forever (this will go to only over night eventually like after 6 months to a year after treatment is finished).

Regular braces are more likely to keep her honest about how/when she wears them - she'll still be on the honor system with wearing rubber bands.

I had 7 years of braces - it was misery - had to have 8 adult teeth pulled so the remaining teeth would fit (this was before expanders were invented) so I know what you mean and how you feel about them.
But a lot has changed over the years.
Our son had braces for only 2 years - he finished in 6th grade - he's in 10th grade now and still wears a retainer at night.
It was not nearly so difficult for him as it was for me.

So get another evaluation and see if you can find a more reasonable price for braces.
Our son's cost about $3500.

I wore braces as an adult. The regular kind. I went two rounds with two different orthodontists lasting a total of ten years (age 30-40). The first one used small wires twisted around the brackets to hold the adjusting wire in place. Hurt like hell after every adjustment and I always had sores in my mouth from wire sticks. The second orthodontist used some sort of elastic bands to hold the wires onto the metal brackets. The elastics come in fun colors too. The adjustments were almost painless and no more sores.
All three of my sons went through this process with me. The two that were lucky enough to have ortho # two never had a complaint other than mild soreness after an adjustment. I have friends who have used the Invisalign braces with not so great success. They said their kids lost/misplaced/damaged plates requiring replacements (more than the allowed #) or didn't wear them enough to do the job they needed to do. If I had to do it over again and Invisalign was an option (it wasn't before), I would still go with the tried and true metal braces. Just my two cents

Our boys braces each cost $5000 and their teeth were both really bad. $7000 seems pretty high. I wouldn't do the Invisalign, especially if the traditional ones cost the same. My boys were both about 11-13 when they had them and never had any problems.

My daughter is 15 and a couple years ago had braces ONLY on her top 4 front teeth. It cost $1800 and she had them on not even 6 months. She wanted them too, so does my son who just turned 12 and can't wait to get them. lol So I guess for a full mouth of braces, $6800 seems right. Good luck.

My 13 yr old son will be done with his invisalign next month (he had them for 1yr) then just have to wear it as a retainer for approx. 1 yr. He had minor crowding issues, no jaw alignment issues. Our ortho offered regular braces for $5400 or the invisalign for $4300. My son wanted the regular braces as he was worried about losing them and brushing his teeth after eating. We felt the lower cost and ease of invisalign outweighed the metal braces. He's never lost a set, his case is like his phone, always in his pocket. In the beginning there was some reminding necessary in the morning to make sure he had his case and to put them back in after meals, but within a few weeks he didn't need us to remind him. The brushing the teeth after a meal was difficult to enforce, we compromised with a bottle of mouthwash in the backpack for after lunch and then he'd come home and brush his teeth after school (or so he says). He's seen the dentist twice for regular appt and hasn't had any cavities. The biggest issue we've experienced is his playing with them in his mouth, clacking them together and doing tricks with them -it's annoying to listen to and see! He's in band and initially took them out when playing, but got used to them and wears then when playing now. He's glad now we pushed him into the invisaligners. I'd do it again but I do think it requires the childs buy in.

I have been looking into the cost of braces for my girls. My dental insurance doesn't cover braces. I think I might geta discount but cannot count on that. I looked into both conventional and Damon braces. Damon braces and lesson the amount of time you have to have them in and are not as noticable because the brackets are smaller. The cost difference is about $500 to $1000 depending on where you go. So far I have found that it will be about $4000-$4800 for braces, unless there is a major issue found during their evaluation.

My 17 year old is looking at Invisalign. My older son (20) had traditional braces but he had some heavy orthodontic goals. They were trying to move his jaw. He started treatment before Invisalign really came on the scene too.

My 17 yr-old has lots of allergies, and the main concern that I had with Invisalign is having that plastic material so close to his sinus cavity. Apparently some people have experienced problems (not necessarily allergy issues though). The FDA sent a warning letter to Invisalign back in 2010 but according to my orthodontist this is not a huge issue. She let my son take a sample and wear it for a week to see if he would react and he did not.

http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetter...

The cost sounds comparable to what we were quoted.

The difficulty, for my older son, with traditional braces consisted of pitting on the enamel of certain teeth. It's really hard to keep your teeth clean with braces but if you use a water pick it's easier.

At least with Invisalign you can pop them out to brush. But you do have to be very disciplined and wear them at least 22 hours per day (double check that with your orthodontist).

I would ask your orthodontist if she has had anyone in her practice have allergic, throat or sinus problems due to Invisalign.

Good luck with your decision! We need to do something soon ourselves.

My husband and I both had traditional braces. My older child also had metal braces. Invisaligns were new on the market and much more expensive. Looking back, I don't know how diligent she would have been about keeping the trays in so I think it was a good decision.

Younger child required the Phase 1, Phase 2 treatment. Phase 1 had metal brackets on some teeth so she understood what metal braces felt like. When it came time for Phase 2, she opted for Invisaligns. By now, the cost was comparable to traditional braces. She's super responsible so we left it up to her. She also is in band and was worried about playing her instrument with metal braces.

Some things to consider that weren't mentioned in previous posts:

- Fewer Ortho visits. We only went about every 3 months with Invisaligns. Our Ortho would give us several months worth of trays with instructions to change them every 2 weeks. We were told if we lost a tray to call them and depending on the timing, they might move her into the next tray a little early. Traditional braces visits are about every 6-8 weeks.

- Invisaligns were explained to me as imagine 2 people are moving a very heavy box. If you both push or both pull, it moves fairly well. If you have one person pushing while the other person is pulling, it moves more efficiently. Invisaligns push and pull at the same time.

- You cannot eat or drink anything besides water with Invisaligns in. As others mentioned, it meant carrying around a case or napkin to stash the aligners in while you ate. You are supposed to brush afterwards which isn't always convenient. My daughter was good about rinsing her mouth but didn't carry a toothbrush. Don't tell our Ortho :)

- You can't chew gum with Invisaligns in.

- They get misplaced. We have had a couple of episodes of having to raid the trash can for the napkin bundle of aligners. At home, we designated a dish on the kitchen counter for her to put them into. She's a creature of habit so they were always either in her mouth or in the dish. It made it easy for us to remind her when we'd see them in the dish.

- Cost. We paid roughly $4500- $5000 per child for their orthodontic treatment. They both went to the same Ortho but were in treatment 3 years apart. Phase 1 was a separate cost (approx $2500). We are outside Sacramento. I've seen deals on Groupon before. If you're willing to drive a bit, I bet you'll find someone cheaper.

One thing to ask you Ortho is if you opt for Invisalign treatment and your child isn't following instructions and wearing them, what is his cost for putting her into metal braces? Is there an additional cost?

We are at the last 2 weeks of our Invisalign treatment and my daughter is ready to be done. I'm finding she isn't wearing the trays as often as she used to. I think it was a good choice for us and would probably make the same choices again.