Has anyone had or know anyone who has had invisalign?

I have not had it done but the GF has at the qclinic london!

Yes it's amazing how it works. Little by little over about 18 months (or longer). Had to go up there once every 3 months and they give you differant set's to change every 4 weeks. She still has for for night usage so it holds them all in place for good. Think it cost us around £1800 all in. Wana know anymore then let me know!
 
MaX_PoWah said:
Apparently its quite normal for people who had some sort of treatment in there teens to have teeth moving about again in there twenties, it just depends where they end up i guess.
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Well the annoying thing for me was that they were absolutely fine, and never had anything treated in that respect, then suddenly decided to start shifting around ~19 and I'm 22 now. Stupid physiology :P.
 
Thats quite a long time, were hers quite bad?, some dentists describe some cases as more complicated even though they can be treated with invisalign and refer you to an orthadontist.

I have read some places are much cheaper, cambridge, coventry and London seem to keep coming up, it depends if it works out cheaper overall with the travelling, and how much influence the orthadontist / dentist has on the end result, the impression i get is yes it helps a bit in getting the moulds right to start with, but if it isnt working as predicted, its invisalign who work out whats going wrong and adapt it.
 
Update for everyone

Went to the free appointment at ideal dental care on Ecclesall Rd in Sheffield today, talked about it for a fair while, she agreed with orthoscenes previous comments that my case isn't that bad, but its all about where you want to end up and why your doing it.

We then started talking about the costs, its £2900 to start with, but this only includes the invisalign program and doesn't include whitening, retainers etc, which orthoscene provide in there £4100.

When you start looking at the costs of the things Orthoscene do within the £4100 it doesn't start to look too bad, retainers are up to £300, and whitening is £300, i know its not the £1200 difference, but some of that is simply because there an orthodontist and more specialized i guess.

They do interest free for 12 months, but over that they charge 7.9%, Orthoscene do 36 months 0%

She did say thats important to make sure your teeth are healthy before you start and that i might need a couple of small fillings.

Quite promising in general i would say.
 
MaX_PoWah said:
Yea it does seem a lot compared to £1000! I know thats 6 years ago, but where were you treated ? how many of the things did you have ?
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I was treated by a regular orthodontist at a place in High Wycombe called the Beauty Clinic. They were not called this when I first started seeing them and were just a regular clinic but changed names and premises half way through. They offered the treatment to me as an option and I took it.

I did not have any other kind of brace or retainer whilst on the treatment. I just wore the clear brace 24/7.

I think I had around 5 different braces. They took impressions, made me a new one and every couple of months that would happen until finally they decided I did not need anymore, stuck a wire round the back of my 4 front teeth which will be there for life and jobs a goodun.
 
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She mentioned fixed retainers like that and said she wasn't keen, there have been cases of them coming off and obviously you don't know, and stuff starts moving, it would be an option i would prefer i must say.

I will see what the other people say next week.
 
Remember being asked whether I wanted invisalign or normal braces when I had my teeth done about 5 years ago. The orthadontist steered me away from the invisalign saying that it was more expensive and also that it would take longer. Went for ceramic braces in the end, which weren't as obvious as the metal ones but still a pain in the ass. Think it cost about £2.5k by the end.

Also ended up with a permanent fixture in the form of a wire running behind the teeth. Anyone else got one of these? Quite glad it's there really as my wisdom teeth are pushing through now and would probably be messing up everything.
 
MaX_PoWah said:
She mentioned fixed retainers like that and said she wasn't keen, there have been cases of them coming off and obviously you don't know, and stuff starts moving, it would be an option i would prefer i must say.

I will see what the other people say next week.
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Sorry I'm not sure if you were responding to me. It was only the wire that is fixed and you can't see it at all, I can only just feel it when I run my tongue round the back of my teeth. The clear braces were not fixed.
 
Minxy said:
Sorry I'm not sure if you were responding to me. It was only the wire that is fixed and you can't see it at all, I can only just feel it when I run my tongue round the back of my teeth. The clear braces were not fixed.
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Yes i was responding to your comment, sorry, should have quoted it
 
MaX_PoWah said:
Thats quite a long time, were hers quite bad?, some dentists describe some cases as more complicated even though they can be treated with invisalign and refer you to an orthadontist.

I have read some places are much cheaper, cambridge, coventry and London seem to keep coming up, it depends if it works out cheaper overall with the travelling, and how much influence the orthadontist / dentist has on the end result, the impression i get is yes it helps a bit in getting the moulds right to start with, but if it isnt working as predicted, its invisalign who work out whats going wrong and adapt it.
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Yeah was a long time but it only moves your teeth at like 1mm at a time.

Everyone has different needs from invisalign. We got a local quote for the service at nearly 5k but when we found the qclinic in london doing it for £1600 we went for it! it's gone up to 2k now but still cheaper then most dentist as thats all they do there!

http://www.qclinic.co.uk/our_special_offers.html

oooohhhh just seen you can get lipo in your lunch hour!
 
martynbez said:
Yeah was a long time but it only moves your teeth at like 1mm at a time.

Everyone has different needs from invisalign. We got a local quote for the service at nearly 5k but when we found the qclinic in london doing it for £1600 we went for it! it's gone up to 2k now but still cheaper then most dentist as thats all they do there!

http://www.qclinic.co.uk/our_special_offers.html

oooohhhh just seen you can get lipo in your lunch hour!
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Its mega cheap that if it really includes everything! half of what its looking like they want around here!
 
My gf had invisalign braces recently. Flippin' fantastic they are. None of the mouth ulcer, uncomfortable, cheek getting stuck to your teeth, metal mouth bullcrap you get with traintracks.
 
I have had Invisalign and I'm glad i did it.

I was 24 when i started the treatment and was deperate not to wear metal braces at such an age. it took three years.

Firstly there are many cheaper alternatives now incl ClearStep which is essentially the same thing. I paid £5500 so you are getting a better price than me though.

The best thing about them is that you can take them out whenever you feel like it - I did not wear mine during the day even though i was told too - only at night and it worked fine.

Warning though - Invisialign or the similar treatments are NOT mean for severe crookedness!! they are for medium to minor misalignment.

The bottom line is that the benefits make it the only real alternative for those that do not want metal braces but they are not as good at the actual job as metal braces.

My teeth would be better if i had gone down the usual path but i never would have because the idea of spending every day for three years not wanting to open my mouth etc put me off.

You will be glad you did it but, if you have medium to severe teeth crowding then expect to be told by a responsible orthodontist that they are not suitable as indeed i was - but i actively serached for one that would do it and am happy i did.

one major issue i found with the treatment is that you are given , initially, a 3d image of what you will end up with - this was completely pefect and, as it turns out, BS for my case (quite bad overcrowding in my case - *may* not be the case for you :) )*). invisialign does not provide the strength (they're only specialist plastic) to move large rows of teeth so dont be going in and expecting miracles even if you are promised them - you will be signing a contract with a million get-out clauses.

You will be glad you did it though - my teeth arent perfect but they are much better now.

hope that helps :)
 
Cheers for that input mate, how did you get away without wearing them during the day then ? did the dentist realize ? did this ultimately add to the normal treatment time? they recommend 20 - 22 hours a day.

I am lucky i think that most of the problem i have are not crowding, its mainly problems with my front teeth and positioning of the lower teeth, there is potentially space for them to move into.

The first orthodontist i saw said due to my jaw structure (very few people are lucky enough to have a perfect bite apparently) traditional braces would most likely not help me.

Yea i think i would be glad to be just getting on with it, 70%+ better would be brilliant, very few people have perfect teeth but its pretty obvious mine are not at the moment.

Where did you have yours done? how did you end up at £5100? i am starting to realize its not so much about the invisalign treatment but everything else thats involved, retainers, whitening etc, i am sure when orthoscene say £4100 they mean that is all it will be, where as the one i saw the other day everything was extra but the initial cost was only £2900.
 
Do you have any photos of your teeth?

Surely you could just tell the other practice you dont want whitening, which will lower the cost? Or is this something you were looking at as well?
 
MaX_PoWah said:
Cheers for that input mate, how did you get away without wearing them during the day then ? did the dentist realize ? did this ultimately add to the normal treatment time? they recommend 20 - 22 hours a day.

I am lucky i think that most of the problem i have are not crowding, its mainly problems with my front teeth and positioning of the lower teeth, there is potentially space for them to move into.

The first orthodontist i saw said due to my jaw structure (very few people are lucky enough to have a perfect bite apparently) traditional braces would most likely not help me.

Yea i think i would be glad to be just getting on with it, 70%+ better would be brilliant, very few people have perfect teeth but its pretty obvious mine are not at the moment.

Where did you have yours done? how did you end up at £5100? i am starting to realize its not so much about the invisalign treatment but everything else thats involved, retainers, whitening etc, i am sure when orthoscene say £4100 they mean that is all it will be, where as the one i saw the other day everything was extra but the initial cost was only £2900.
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Hi There,

I wore them about 10 hours for every 24 - always at night. dentists say this to cover themselves. the thing about invisialign and similar treatments is that you cant really get out of step with the treatments as they are pre-moulded and each set is worn, in my case, for 2 weeks. this means that you will see how yur teeth should be progressing to a good degree just by looking the the remaining sets in your current group - then you go back to the ortho and, if needed, files down your teeth to make room before giving you the next set etc.

hmmm I'm clearly not an orthodontist but at least part of me would be a bit suspicious of an ortho that impled that metal braces would do a worse job than invisialign - he would make a lot more money from invisalign as a premium treatment you see - well that was the case in 2005. i dont know for sure though.

it cost £5500 because this type of treatment was newer then and this was before the copy cats (clearstep etc) and rather excellent alternatives were coming from America. its bound to be cheaper now.


The retainers should be part of your orthodontic treatment and contained within the cost as mine were but check on this - as for whitening - I have had semi-professional whitening done with Polar night (few years back) and i have used crest whitening along with Blanx toothpaste - both the latter offered the better path for white teeth for me.


edit: got mine done by a smaller Ortho practice in Belsize park, London. i looked into the london Smile clinic also but they wanted £7000. If id had the money i would have gone with them if im honest.

cheers,
 
Cheers for that imput mate! so where did you find out you could get away with 10 hours a day ? surely with the money you were spending you must have been concerned that 10 hours would not be enough ?

Looking into clearstep as well now, when you bring it up with the ones that use invisalign they dont seem to have much to say except that they havent been trained in it and that its essentially the same thing for about the same cost, i cant see how it wouldnt be cheaper when the labs are in the UK.

Went to see another place today "flint dental" in Sheffield on springbank road in sheffield (up abbeydale road)

Asked again for honest advice and an opinion on my situation, really helpful guy who saw me.

I discussed with him my concerns about the price etc, he says you do need to be careful that your getting a package that contains everything, also that flint dental was one of the first places in sheffield to offer invisalign.

He is going to send me a price as well as some treatment details in the post.
 
MaX_PoWah said:
Cheers for that imput mate! so where did you find out you could get away with 10 hours a day ? surely with the money you were spending you must have been concerned that 10 hours would not be enough ?

Looking into clearstep as well now, when you bring it up with the ones that use invisalign they dont seem to have much to say except that they havent been trained in it and that its essentially the same thing for about the same cost, i cant see how it wouldnt be cheaper when the labs are in the UK.

Went to see another place today "flint dental" in Sheffield on springbank road in sheffield (up abbeydale road)

Asked again for honest advice and an opinion on my situation, really helpful guy who saw me.

I discussed with him my concerns about the price etc, he says you do need to be careful that your getting a package that contains everything, also that flint dental was one of the first places in sheffield to offer invisalign.

He is going to send me a price as well as some treatment details in the post.
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To be honest I would not try and make you think i did not have reservations for the first month or so. Do I think you *should* wear them all the time? yes to be super safe but by time i was getting to the start of the second week on each 2 week set i felt no pressure at all on my teeth and often fel tlike proceeding to the next set (i never did as im not THAT reckless lol) the point being that once your teeth move to position the job is done and wearnign them for 10 hours got me the same reasults as wearing them for 24. But i think we both know the real reason is that it was a complete pain in my backside carrying around the fancy little invisalign case with god dribbled braces in them lol not to mention having to clean them constantly and take them out at meals - i mean i do wonder whether anyone really wears them all day its such a hassle.

I genuinely believe invisialign is cheaper now because of the competition of Clear step. the whole reaon i went with the independant ortho was because he could undercut the london smile clinic on invisialign pricing it was ridiculously expensive.

get 0% finance btw and DO NOT pay all the money up front. This should be a very much pas you go treatment because you may decide to tell the Ortho to get lost because its not going the way you want it.

Also remember that smaller ortho's are businessmen - they may be Doctors (kind of lol) but they want to sell you the product they have - if you sold apple laptops would you spend time telling someone about Windows laptops (even if you knew all about them)if you were unlikely to make money on it? mkaes no business sense.

in truth my guy wasn't as good as i would have hoped and i felt pressured to finish the treatment up as there is one BIG drawback to pre-moulded braces which i forgot to tell you - If the ortho does not get the set the way you want it it's a massive pain because you need to go back to the ortho via booking in a session, complain / explain then get your mouldings done (my guy always seemed make make book in a 5 min session, listne to me then book in the 20 mins remoulding - then id have to wait 2 weeks for the new set - one dodgy set can set the treatment back a month!! - extremely annoying - why couldnt he just book in the moulding after speaking with me on the phone grr)

re the right package - be prepared to READ the contract - it must allow for you to get your preferred result before treatment finishes - like i said - if you get the 3d graphic just ignore it. maybe youll get things liek that but its not a guanrantee.

cheers,
 
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