Sunday, January 29, 2012

INVISALIGN

Teeth are the one thing that I notice about people, and no im not materialistic but im one to look at mouths and make eye contact whenever I'm speaking to people, and a beautiful smile is something Im always going to remember! My teeth are OK as a child my parents used to always take me to the dentists, we had a horrid family dentist who I used to wish would fall off the side of a cliff. Unfortunately for me he never did.

I have some crooked bottom teeth which I would love to get fixed, they arent really noticeable but they are something that annoy me. Ive been doing some research into Invisalign and am intrigued.



When I look back to my teenage years a large number of kids had the metal braces and in my mind thats a teenage thing and I dont know if I could have metal braces now at my age, I would feel weird. So the fact that these are clear are a huge bonus. The not bonus side of this is the cost! Anywhere from $3500 to $5,000 + depending on how much work you need to do.

I have an amazing dentist now who I'll recommend to anyone without a second thought, so yell out if you're after one and Im going to have a consultation with him next week so see what work would be needed done and also costs. Call me stupid but at the moment I don't have private health insurance, so Im wanting to know who do you use, what do you get and how much does it cost you?
Also have you ever had invisalign, heard any bad stories?

14 comments:

  1. My friend had them done and it cost her 8-10 GRAND ! I think they are only for ones that need minor adjustments.. The girl that has does my spray tan is the girl that has them and her teeth are PERFECT and I never noticed she was wearing them! Let us know how you go as I have a gap in my tooth that I HATEEEE

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    1. Woops forgot to mention hers was on a payment plan. She said its totally affordable and her teeth look a million bucks ~

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  2. I had braces at age 21. Soon I got them on I met my husband! When they took them off I had the invisible moulds like the invisalign for a few years.

    My daughter has just had hers off and they cost around $6500 or so. The payment plan is around $500 every 3 months. Could be worse. She now has the clear invisalign moulds that she wears to bed. It was a worthwhile investment.

    Invisalign can only be used on certain types of cases and involve a whole set of different shaped moulds to use as your teeth move. Good luck:)

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    1. Thanks so much for this info! Is the $500 plan just relevant to you dentist?

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    2. I guess most places have a payment plan otherwise nobody would be able to afford them!

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  3. I had actually braces at like 20, because I was naughty and didn't use my retainer as a child. All I will say to you is that if you ever get any work done, BEG your dentist for an inbuilt retainer in the end. My dentist was hesitant to give me one and said it would just break. 3years on and they haven't broken once and my teeth haven't moved a tiny bit!

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  4. I had my braces on at 24-25. Paid for them myself. Orthodontists usually have very affordable payment plans. The biggest hit will be your deposit - Mine was around $1000 and then it was $400 per quarter.

    I recommend getting a couple of consultations with different orthos before you make your decision. I had three, and if I'd gone with my first one then they would have removed 3 of my front teeth! Something that really shouldn't be done, which I found out after a bit more research.

    Invisalign is probably the most expensive option and like others have said, its only good for some cases. I had a combination of metal and clear ceramic/plastic braces that you couldn't really see at all. That said, my case was pretty extreme so if you can afford it and Invisalign is good for you then go for it. My friend had Invisalign and she loved them - they did wonders for her teeth.

    Mine cost $5300 overall and now I just wear a retainer at night.

    I looked into the private health insurance option and it wasn't really worth it in the end. Most insurers have you wait 12 months before you can get orthodontic cover...so you're paying $80+ a month, for a year which is is $960 spent before you can even consider getting braces. Add to that the fact that the limits for orthodontic cover are quite minimal. The most any insurer offered was $2000 worth of treatment over the course of a lifetime. Most were around the $600-800 mark. You'd have to spend a lot of money and wait a year for very minimal benefits.
    The only way it would be financially feasible is if you needed the health insurance for other things and would use it quite a lot in that 12 months.

    Hope that's helped you some! Getting my teeth straightened was the best thing I ever did for myself and like you, I look at people's teeth all the time. Being able to smile with confidence is something that is highly underrated!
    :-D

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    1. Thankyou so much that was fantastic!! I always wondered if health insurance was rip off or not :s I'll let you know how I go on Friday!

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  5. My bff got Invisalign for something very, very minimal. I couldn't even see what she was trying to get fixed. She paid $6K I think (not 100% sure) and paid it in a few instalments, but it was definately more than $500/3 months.

    It hurt her a lot at the start and apparently you need to go back every 2-3 months at the beginning to get a new mould. Once she had 'finished', the invisalign hadn't done what she had wanted it to do. She had them re-fitted twice at no extra cost (apparently this was part of her plan) but it still didn't completely fix what she wanted.


    So I would say definately get a couple of consultations and if you decide to go forward with it, see what options there are if you get to the end of them and they haven't fixed what you wanted or didn't do what you expected.

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  6. I had my braces when I was 13 or whatever, and then again at 22 before our wedding. The second time around I had them on the inside of my top teeth (lingual braces) so they were hidden. It cost $4k to move a few teeth and so worth it!!

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    1. I agree the cost is worth having a smile that you're proud of! The second time around did it take as long to re-align you're teeth?

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    2. Oops, only just saw this. My teeth were straight within a month!!

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  7. I am the same as you, although I wanted Invisalign... so I went out and got health insurance, and I am waiting for my waiting period to be over.... then I am in... I like the hygienic part too.. Invisalign is a lot cleaner. x

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