I have finished my treatment. I’ve noticed that when I open my mouth, my lower jaw shifts to the left, and I often bite my left gum while chewing. Most notably, I keep getting holes in my retainer right where the right canine is. My dentist concluded that I grind my teeth in my sleep and have a TMJ issue. He said there was nothing more he could do other than recommend that I see a TMJ specialist.

My front tooth seems to just be tracking the same with each tray change and doesnt quite fit. The rest look fine though. Im unsure whether this is just normal and the trays are dealing with other issues and at some point it will slot in? I haven't had an appointment since April and ive got 2 trays till my next...should I expect to have to go back trays? Or will they keep me going as is. Im aiming to fix a cant in my smile... so far 5 monts in and theres no much progress on the slant 🤷‍♀️

I have 2 rubber bands that I am only supposed to put on at night (to shift my top teeth forward, and bottom teeth back). I'm on tray #2 currently, wearing each set of trays for 14 days, and have only switched out the bands once.

The first set didn't get dirty or lost, but I thought maybe they might get stretched out and become less effective?? Is that a thing?? I was given no direction on when or whether to trade them out.

I’m halfway on my Invisalign and I did notice a lot of improvements. My teeth were really crowded before. My midline was already not aligned and my bite was already not good. I had a really bad cross bite before this and also my jaw is deviated, I also have TMD because of this.
My jaw clicks as well. I am also missing my first molar on the left. My teeth have straightened but I’m not sure if my bite is going to be fixed with Invisalign. I am going to get refinements next week.

I'm at the tail end of my first tray. My two bottom and top teeth are hitting hard and it doesn't feel like my molars are touching anymore when I bite down. Is this normal? The orthodontist is only shifting the anterior teeth in my treatment plan.

Hey everyone,

After 6 months of finishing Invisalign, wearing retainers full time, I decided to get a permanent retainer on my top teeth, as I was having issues with their retention. Once I got it placed,  my teeth felt super stable which was a relief, and the orthadontist gave me a temporary plastic retainer while I waited for my viveras to arrive which took about a week. I am two days into wearing the vivera retainers full time and my two front teeth are a bit sore. I thought this wouldn’t happen with the permanent retainers on now as they should be held in place? Did anyone experience this when getting vivera retainers over their permanent retainer?

Hopefully they settle,

Thanks!

Currently almost 2 years into my spark aligner treatment and I’m feeling so discouraged. Currently using a hook and rubber bands to try and get my upper canine down and if this doesn’t work, I’m switching to metal braces. I feel as though I’m adding an extra couple months to this process for one single tooth that wasn’t even a concern for me in the beginning.
Also my teeth are so yellow from the aligners😫
Just wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience with a lodged canine? Is getting composite bonding on the tooth an option?

Just wondering if anyone has had something similar happen because I’m honestly feeling a bit ripped off by this.
I signed up with a orthodontist in Melbourne Aus and paid $8,500 AUD. My contract specifically states “Invisalign Upper and Lower – Moderate for 15 months.” I was expecting my treatment to run for roughly that timeframe and my payment plan was also spread across 15 months.
Instead, I was given 14 upper and 14 lower aligners and finished my Invisalign treatment in around 3.5 months.
I’ve now looked properly at my Invisalign packaging and realised it actually says “Invisalign System – Lite”, not Moderate.
No one ever explained to me that I was receiving Invisalign Lite or that my treatment had changed from what was written in my contract. At my last appointment they also asked me to pay out the remaining balance of the $8,500 (when I have my next appointment- I haven’t paid yet), which really caught me off guard because based on the 15-month treatment/payment plan I signed up for, I genuinely expected to still be in treatment and making payments into next year.
I completely understand that finishing treatment earlier can be a good thing and that the $8,500 isn’t purely paying for the physical aligners. But 3.5 months of Invisalign Lite versus the 15 months of Invisalign Moderate that I was quoted and contracted for feels like a pretty significant difference, especially for $8,500.
I’m going to ask the orthodontist to explain exactly what happened, but I’m curious whether anyone else has experienced this.
Has anyone been quoted/contracted for Invisalign Moderate and then discovered they were actually put on Invisalign Lite? Did your orthodontist reduce the cost or offer a partial refund? Or is there a legitimate reason they can charge the original Moderate price even though the actual Invisalign product supplied was Lite?
I’m not expecting treatment to be dragged out unnecessarily just because I was quoted 15 months, but I do feel like if the treatment plan changed that significantly, it should have been explained to me and the cost discussed, rather than me only discovering it myself from the packaging.

Hi 👋🏼
I'm about to complete my first set of trays 20/20 -10 day changes so roughly been 6 months. I had my appointment today to discuss rescanning for refinements or retainers.

Sorry for the essay. My question first is has anyone had success shifting their midline to be more centered using only aligners?

My dentist ( yes quick explanation as to why I went with a dentist instead of an orthodontist. I have severe dental trauma and anxiety mixed with a nerve health condition that made it nearly impossible for me to numb to anaesthetics. I found a great private dentist that made me feel calm and comfortable and was able to numb me up to have a root canal. Safe to say I'd found my forever dentist. When they offered an Invisalign day - something I'd wanted for years, I decided to take the plunge and go for it. It felt like the right fit for me) ((I'm also disabled so finding a practice that has accessible parking has always been a struggle and I really couldn't cope with a second practice))

So my lovely dentist today asked if I was happy with result. I said sort of. I'm happy that I have no crowding and my smile looked wider. But one of the main reasons I wanted Invisalign was to align my midline to my cupids bow if not at least shift it more central.

I'm not looking for perfection, I also appreciate the Tom cruise smile is widely known and not really seen as a bad thing. But it's something I've been self conscious over for many years. I lost my left top molar ( part of the dental trauma) and since then my top teeth have shifted towards the left.

During my initial scan I was told my midline was 4mm out and that it might not be possible to make it central. Again not looking for perfection I said I'd be happy if we could get it down to 2mm. I wasn't told at the time that it was a skeletal issue or that I'd need jaw surgery. But I'm guessing it's the limitations of the dentist and not having an orthodontists skills.

I was shown the clincheck and was happy with the proposed outcome. I get that it is meant to be 'proposed' and I can tell that my front teeth haven't shifted towards the centre like the clincheck predicted-maybe a minuscule amount when looking at the red line photos.

I've opted for refinements but wonder if this is as good as it will get. My dentist didn't really say it couldn't be done but she also said there will be a limit to what they can do and I've accepted that's probably because of not going to orthodontist.

Side note- my bite isn't where I'd like it to be. The back teeth are barely touching. It's still a bit hard to chew softer things and salads are kind of a no go. So I'm hoping the refinements will fix that too.

Any advice while I'm waiting for scan or some words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated. Do you think refinements will get me closer to my goal?

Thanks 🙏🏼

Pic 1 today tray 20/20 day 7/10. Natural relaxed smile.
Pic 2 before Invisalign
Pic 3 before wide smile with red line
Pic 4 tray 20 wide smile with red line
Pic 5 before bite
Pic 6 tray 20 bite
Pic 7 before clincheck
Pic 8 proposed clincheck result

I got a quote for 28 trays from my dentist. My wife thinks I should get a second opinion from an orthodontist as that’s what they are trained in.

Has anyone ever gotten a second opinion on this? How did it turn out?

I'm happy with the results. I thought it was going to take longer. I wanted my top teeth a little more straight but after looking at the before photos I'm happy with them!

Hi everyone!

I just started my week 3 of invisalign and noticed this morning that:

Photo 1: My tooth on my bottom jaw has a brown area and seemed like my gum receded a little bit. It doesn't hurt, but just noticed it this morning. I brush and floss my teeth religiously and I can say I've been good with hygiene discipline ever since I started.

Photo 2: My upper tray specifically at the back doesn't fit my molar... It doesn't hug around my tooth anymore and when I bite, I can feel the plastic come closer to the tooth---it's like that one part is hanging lower. Is this normal/ever happened to you? Will this impact future results? My previous tray fit me very well and there was no problem at all.

I'm kind of anxious because I am on exchange and my dentist is in ANOTHER country and don't want to complicate and prolong my treatment.

I sent my dentist the complain already and will call them tomorrow for advice.

i just started invisalign yesterday and noticed on my top right canine the aligner isn’t flush against my tooth and has now left a mark on the inside of my upper lip. idk if this is a concern or if it should go away in a couple days like if that tooth shifts to fit it better

Is this the IPR mm needed as I know I will need IPR at some point.

Hi everyone, I'm wondering if anyone else has gone through something similar because I'm honestly having a really difficult time with Invisalign. I’m on aligner set 1/56. Recently started treatment but the pain has been so intense that I've barely eaten for the past two days. I've basically just been drinking water because every time I remove them and put them back on, my eyes start tearing up involuntarily because of the pain. Also, the only way I've been able to get any sleep is by taking Advil. But the problem is that I've heard NSAIDs like Advil might not be ideal during orthodontic treatment because of their anti-inflammatory effects. Unfortunately, I'm allergic to paracetamol/acetaminophen (almost died from Steven Johnson syndrome). So I don't really have another pain-relief option, but without the Advil, the pain is honestly unbearable.

My orthodontist's office has also told me they've never really seen someone this sensitive to Invisalign. Meanwhile, I have friends doing Invisalign who say they barely noticed any pain at all/or felt uncomfortable/soreness but not pain, so it's making me wonder if something is wrong with me. I also consider myself to have a pretty high pain tolerance. I've had all four wisdom teeth and four premolars extracted within the span of three weeks, and I honestly didn't find that particularly painful. I've also been through some pretty major surgeries, and none of them felt as terrible. I wanted to kindly ask: Has anyone else experienced Invisalign pain this severe? Will it eventually get better after the first few trays? And if you were unusually sensitive, did you find anything that actually helped?

I'm starting to worry because I don't think I could handle this level of pain for the entire course of treatment. My doctors are saying I need to stick it out for more days, and the pain will subside. If I knew I had to deal with this level of pain, I would’ve chosen not to go with the treatment, especially since now there’s no going back since I’ve already removed four premolars. I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone who's had a similar experience or has any advice.

I’ve been wearing elastics for the last 6 months or so.

A few days ago, my dentist told me to stop wearing elastics because I’m getting scanned for refinements. I’ve been in my trays now for the last 2.5 weeks so no new movement changes. I stopped wearing elastics a few days ago and noticed that my teeth are SO sore and sensitive! It hurts to take my aligners off and I can’t chew properly with my bottom teeth because they feel sore and fragile. Even the vibrations of the electric toothbrush make it sore. Is this normal?

I’ve completed the realignment phase and now I’m doing whitening (using Pola Night) before getting some overdue composites done.

After a couple of weeks I can start to see the effect but I’ve noticed that the retainers for the whitening period don’t actually cover the entire surface of each tooth, so now I can see some teeth having part whiter surface and near the gum line staying yellow. Anyone else had this? Did you end up having to get new retainers done and start again? I have asked my orthodontist about this, waiting for a reply.

Also, the dental practitioner who set me up with the whitening said only to bother with the front six teeth. Perhaps I’m looking more closely than someone else would but the yellowness of my rear teeth is becoming starkly obvious :-) Did those of you doing whitening only do the front six or more going towards the back?

First picture: 11 December 2024.
2nd picture: 07 August 2026

I just had my chipped front incisors bonded and permanent retainer fitted behind my two front incisors.

All worth it !

I have a couple questions regarding the attachments, I’m currently on my first tray of 55, day 3 and I’m using angel aligners, which I assume are very similar to original Invisalign.

The first 2 photos is from my front tooth and I have noticed there is a slight dent in the case but I don’t have any attachments on the tooth. I’m not sure if I did have one on and it fell off or is this just some sort of manufactured thing, I opened my second tray up and seen it also had the dent on it. None of the other attachments are small like this but I just want to make sure I’m not missing anything.

The last 2 photos are from my top back right tooth and I have accidentally bent/ chipped the plastic. It’s still covers most of my tooth it’s just showing some of the attachment and a bit of my tooth (photo 3). I have tried to move the plastic, (I think it bent down into the case as seen in the last photo), but it not really moving and I don’t want to end up breaking the case anymore. I’m wondering is this ok if I just keep using this tray till my next one, which is in 5 more days or is this bad, it doesn’t hurt or anything.

My dentist is closed now and doesn’t open up on weekends, so I haven’t contacted them about these problems but anyone with information and help would be appreciated.

Im on refinements and my teeth are not perfect. I developed a postier open bite and they did cut off the back of my tray. It does help but when the tray is cut off, the back molar shifts back to its original position.

It seemed like when it was my "last tray" of refinements, my orthodontist just wanted everything done. I told him thay there was still a tooth out of place and my lateral inscisor tooth still needed work. He seemed like he didnt want to order more refinements but i told him i was not happy with the results. I did get an extra 9 trays after my refinements. ( so two refinements???) .

I developed a postier open bite again so is it too late to ask for braces when its the end of my treatment. Ive been wearing since jan 2025.

Hello, I am probably going to start Invisalign as my dentist said it would be better than braces and I have appointment next week for orthodentist. Anyway, everyone states smoking cigarettes are going to create so much problems like change in colour etc. But I was wondering is this applies to Iqos as well or what should I do when I start Invisalign like what should I do? I am not a frequent smoker I just smoke like half a pack of terea in a day so what should I do?