2nd round Impression

So, traveled all the way to London for my 3.50pm appointment. Waited at the lounge for a further 30 minutes again (last time was also a half an hour wait!) before seeing my dentist.

I think the impression wasn't taken properly on the 1st time round for my lower arch, that's why I'm back again. The friendly receptionist (I think she's the best receptionist that a dental practice can have!) assured me that I would be receiving my aligners around mid November, so can definitely bring the aligners back to Taiwan to show Mum & Dad! They'll be amazed to see Invisalign aligners- nearly invisible braces!!

In the surgery room, the desk is full of Invisalign boxes for different patients- I am sure there were like 30 boxes! Guess the dentist is fully booked with just Invisalign treatments. I am not surprised, coz with an amazing offer of just £1500 for the full treatment, one would be insane not to take it up! (Normal price is around £3000!!)

So just looking forward to seeing the clincheck, which will be available to view in the next 7-10 days!

False Alarm

I was really happy to see a missed call from the Clinic as I thought they finally got the clincheck back for me to look at... Unfortunately it's a call asking me to go back to take further impressions... ARGHHHHH!!! I guess I won't be receiving my aligners before the end of this year!

Oh well, new fresh start for 2009 heh?

Invisalign Express

Align Technology (company of Invisalign) also offers Invisalign Express. Well, at first glance, I thought Invisalign Express is a quicker and more painful treatment than Invisalign. However, after doing some readings, Invisalign Express = Invisalign Mini! Basically it's for people who require little movement, mild crowding and mild to no rotation. It is a great system for rebound cases of people who had braces before. Since it's designed for mild problems only, treatment time is generally less than six months. And with less than 10 aligners, obviously it's a lot cheaper than the normal full Invisalign treatment. Here is an useful comparison table

Another interesting Invisalign Video

Teeth Strengthening is An Investment, Girls!

I was talking to my friends and telling them the 'big news' that I am having my teeth strengthened, everyone looked so surprised and asked 'why, your teeth are fine!'. I then had to explain to them about my over-jet upper arch and overcrowded lower arch, they were like 'that's nothing, look at my teeth....' and said to me having teeth straightened is too expensive, especially when the correction is minor.

Everyone knows that 1st impression counts and teeth are clearly important in making an impression. When meeting an opposite sex, first 2 things you notice are eyes and smiles. I don't think I have an unattractive smile, in fact, I think my smile is actually one of my best assets. But since it's one of my best assets, I'd like to perfect this asset! And is it really that expensive? I really don't think so, coz it'll last me a lifetime! Think about it, if I divide the cost of my Invisalign by 25 years (assuming some of my teeth will fall off anyway when I am old), I am really only spending under £100 a year on my teeth. Compare that to the amount of money that I spend on clothes, makeup or skin care, the cost is really minimal! It's even less than buying an annual subscription of contact lenses! Now thinking back, why did I take this long to get this done!? I must have not been thinking straight! LOL

Still another week or two til I have my Clincheck! I can't wait!!

Invisalign = Slimmer me!

First of all, I have to admit that I have a sweet tooth and I love snacking! But I guess this habit of mine is going to disappear after my Invisalign treatment. Why? Because you have to take out the aligners to snack, brush your teeth PLUS the aligners before putting them back in. As much as I love snacking, I would rather save a few hours a day from performing oral hygiene.

Is Invisalign worth it?

On this website, it shows 81% of Invisalign users think it's worth the money! Yoohoo- that's a really positive result, particularly Invisalign is pretty pricy comparing to other orthodontic treatments. :) We all know that Invisalign is not as effective in straightening teeth in more severe cases than the traditional metal braces, it's the 'nearly invisible' braces that we're paying for, not really the end results. (although end result is really important too, still, who would want to wear metal braces when they're like in their 20s?) I mean, even when you're in your teens, just imagine your first kiss with a mouth of full metal braces is quite a horrible thought. My dentist told me that invisalign would only correct 80% of my problem- I think I'll be happy with that! :)

I've gone through some bad reviews, here are some of the considerations that the Invisalign website and your orthodontist/dentist would happen not to tell you:

1. More prone to cavities- read the user experience.
Basically your teeth are covered by the plastic aligners all the time during your treatment so the salivia no longer can act as a cleansing agent for your teeth and helps prevent decay.

This is quite an understandable concern, especially for me as I'm already prone to decay (I have 13 decays in my mouth already!) and the dentist says that during the treatment, one should not have decays as it'd change the structure of the teeth, which led to the aligners not being able to fit properly.

2. Filing and shaving teeth to make rooms
"To start off what they don't tell you is that they put these clear bumps on your teeth to hook the trays on, then they don't tell you that they file your teeth to make your teeth move faster. I did NOT want my teeth filed, especially my upper. I said ok to filing my lower, my ortho ended up filing HUGE gap inbetween my upper two teeth!!! He also filed one tooth smaller that the other - you can't fix that, it not like a bad haircut that will grow back. It was terrible."

"Also my bite shifted and became very uncomfortable! For some reason they felt it neccessary to literally FILE teeth in between to make room for the teeth to move as well as to adjust my bite. "

I was a bit scared when I read it- coz I know filing/shaving teeth is definitely not what I want!

3. Having "buttons"/"bumps" on your teeth
In order to have the invisalign plastic aligners, the dentists would attach these white (scratchy) buttons to your teeth to catch/secure the aligners. The 'buttons' are supposed to match with the colour of your teeth enamel so they don't really show up! But my dentist didn't mention anything about these 'buttons'?! Nor did the video!

I can't wait for my appointment so I can view the clincheck and ask my dentist all these questions on my head.
Maybe I should read all the positive reviews about invisalign to calm myself down!