Comments on: My Invisalign doesn’t work

By: sherry

sherry — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 00:43:47 +0000

If I could go back and change my decision to use Invisalign I would! I was referred to an orthodontist when I noticed that two lower incisors were becoming loose. He diagnosed me with occlusive trauma. I had braces as a child and, although my teeth were still pretty straight on top, my two center-most lower incisors had crowded and rotated a bit.

I was happy with the way my smile looked, but I was afraid I would lose these two teeth if I didn’t do something about it. Although I wasn’t happy about having braces again, my ortho assured me that I was such an easy case and could do Invisalign Express.

Well, I finished those 10 trays, and my bottom incisors still aren’t straight. My ortho says they are good enough, but one of them is still banging on an upper incisor when I chew. Also, none of my molars are in alignment, and I am pretty sure they were before I stared Invisalign.

Oh, and I also have small black triangles in between my six smile zone uppers! So, basically I spent $4,000 to mess up my smile. I wish I had just asked for regular braces because it would have been less expensive and I could have insisted these things be fixed before the braces came off.

Sadly, after having this bad experience and doing lots of Web searches, I have learned that I am not alone in regretting my Invisalign decision. I even completed a patient survey at Align Tech in which I said I thought their product was harmful, ineffective and misleading and that I would never recommend it to anyone.

I am now meeting with new orthodontists to try to figure out what to do next. They are assuring me that the reason my Invisalign experience turned out badly is because my doctor put me on Express when it wasn’t appropriate and he isn’t super experienced with Invisalign. My current ortho is only a preferred provider. The ones I am going to now are Premier and Elite providers.

But now that I am reading these other posts, I am again becoming fearful of Invisalign. Should I demand regular braces? All of these other orthos are saying I will get just as good results with Invisalign and that I don’t need regular braces.

I am really torn as to what to do and I don’t want to throw any more money away!

By: Emma

Emma — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 04:53:56 +0000

This forum is very interesting,

I am 22 live in Australia and am starting invisalign!

I have a fantastic dentist and my best friend is a dental assistant at a different dentist and they both are supporting me with invisalign.

Both have had happy invisalign customers and i am confident it will work for me!
I guess not everything will work for everyone, which is a shame.

I am on my second tray, i have 20, my dentist was upfront from the start and said it could take a while, i may need the refinement trays at the end, but he will work with me to get the result i want. So far the calculations are 40weeks !! im happy with that!!

I have seen my last tray and it is super straight, and if my teeth are supposed to fit into it at the end then it must obviously work!! I must admit when i start a new tray they are hard to fit on.. and i am in pain, but i had braces on the lower teeth and the pain is the same, i had 2 teeth out and 4 wisdom teeth and had a brace on the bottom to close the gaps… i did not want braces on the top! My mother has had braces and a lot of my friends, their teeth were fantasticly straight after, but had a lot of stain problems and found it hard to floss, were always in pain, had to wear wax, at 21 and single at the time i did not want to be walking around with wax on my braces as i smiled..

I think the fact that you have to only drink water is a great thing!!! water is extremely good for you and if invisalign stops you from wanting to drink bad drink choices then it clearly is a pro rather then a con!! if you are eliminating your snacks because you cant be bothered taking them out then that is definitely a pro as well, as they are probably snacks you dont really need!!!

i know my daily snacking has reduced since ive had my invisalign and my water intake has increased, which are healthier choices for me!

My best friend who is a dental assistant as seen about 50 patients with invisalign and she assures me it has worked for everyone of them.. the only minnor problems they had were with people not wearing them as much as they need to be, but they were all fixable ..

i say good luck to anyone with invisalign or braces and bad luck to the people it hasnt worked for… i hope you get an end result you are happy with …

By: JOY

JOY — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 21:13:12 +0000

Please excuse my English ( not my first language).
I started invisalign two years ago. My orthodontic which was named the “best invisalign orthodontic in Florida” told me that I was a candidate for invisalign since the only problem I had was the two front tooth croocked a liltle bit. He shaved my front tooth I believe a little too much to put it in plave and now after two years of treatment my front tooth are straight, but now I have a gap which I never had before. I feel so foustrated because he said my time has expired and I can’t get a refimen,t he suggested clear braces to close a gap that he made him self. $5000.00 I paid for invisalign. I honestly think most of these orthodontic no matter how good they are, they don’t know how to work with invisalign to well, I think is a rip off. I reather have my crooked tooth then a gap that looks from the side like if I’m missing a tooth. His name is Dr. Zambrano. In MIami. Do not do invisalign with this doctor.

By: Jen

Jen — Mon, 16 May 2011 16:59:39 +0000

I am an adult who wore my invisalign exactly as I was told. It has been 3 years later and my teeth are worse than they were before I began treatment. We have since moved and my children are both in braces and their orthodontist said that he will not do invisalign because a lot of times it will not correct the problem. Some teeth need to be moved up and down and invilsalign will not do that. I do not recommend this treatment.

By: bludoberman

bludoberman — Sun, 08 May 2011 03:26:44 +0000

I’m on tray 4 right now. I have very slight crowding on the lowers and an over jet on the upper. So far, I feel it’s working. I’m very good about keeping my trays in as much as possible. My question is….how will I know if Invisalign is truly working? I mean, I’m not concerned about the lower as the correction is minimal, but my over jet is substantial. My trays are difficult to snap in the first day, and the teeth are a bit tender through day 3, but after that, the trays are easy to pop in and out and I have no discomfort. If the treatment isn’t working, the trays would never snap in with ease, right? If the treatment is failing, my teeth wouldn’t be responding in this way, right?

By: Dana

Dana — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 20:25:42 +0000

I was told from my first visit with my ortho that my teeth were very moderately crowded on the bottom and it would only take 6-7 months to straighten. Then my 2nd visit was when the trays came in and she got me 25 trays(1 year to complete) 20 regular trays and 5 “overcorrective trays”. And then they put these NON-INVISABLE BUTTONS on my teeth(8 all together and ONE RIGHT ON MY FRONT TOOTH!) So now its not really invisalign anymore, its like wearing braces! Then my next visit after I started she tells me after I’m finished I have to wear the last aligner as a retainer for the next year(so really 2 years now, from when she initially sold me on only 6-7 months). Now I’m on my last aligner and she tells me my bottom tooth didn’t want to move and now I need a revision. I can tell you I was EXTREMELY efficient with wearing them 22-23hrs a day and only eating 3 meals a day(NO snacks) and ONLY water. So for those of you saying it works and the people that it didn’t work for weren’t really wearing them religiously are idiots. My ortho completely steered me wrong from the beginning just to make a sale on this product that costs $7K and she must make a nice fee off of that especially with all the appts you have to make to see them.

By: trey

trey — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 01:00:19 +0000

most of the issues of Invisalign not being effective are due to non-compliance from the patient.

By: dojo

dojo — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 12:34:49 +0000

I keep my fingers crossed

Keep up the good work, wear the trays as much as possible and you should be fine.

By: Mary Jackson

Mary Jackson — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 00:05:29 +0000

I hope the negative results I am reading on this page are due to non-compliance or something else. I am on my first trays. My dentist is very meticulous about checking my trays. I hope I have good results. I had two car wrecks within a year and teeth were a mess (broken under the gum line and also teeth shifted due to this front impact). Wish me well. I am already in the Invisalign loop.

By: Tony

Tony — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 16:26:49 +0000

I found my dentist through the 1-800-DENTIST referral service. He is Invisalign certified. I must say I regret using the service and listening to this dentist. I could have found an equally poor dentist using a phonebook or the Internet.

I wanted to fix the crowding that has occurred over the years on my bottom teeth. I asked for traditional braces but my dentist assured me that Invisalign is superior and I will achieve faster and better results using this method. Therefore I decided to go that route. I am on tray 8 out of 12 and still have seen NO changes. I do wear the trays throughout the day and of course at night when I got to bed. My bottom teeth look the same as when I began treatment. I am now thinking of going to another dentist and also suing this current dentist for my money back, since I paid $5000 for nothing.