Teeth Straightening
Discussion
nitsypee said:
carreauchompeur said:
My teeth are not quite as perfect as they were when the treatment finished, however the orthodontist says that they will "settle" in a certain way. My first retainer lasted 5 years, now on my second one. Only need to wear it a couple of nights a week now to keep them as they should be.
Re the retainer - can I ask how much (roughly) a replacement retainer costs? And is it worth having a "spare" retainer for when/if your current one breaks? Or just have another one made when the old one breaks?I don't want to hijack the thread, but this seems like a good place to ask. Is 40-something too late to get my teeth re-aligned? I seem to remember NHS only treat children and I'm looking at getting a private dentist anyway, getting one that can do orthodontic work might not be a bad idea.
Does it all have to be done in 1 sequence, or can you take a break between each fitting (as finance allows)? I doubt I could afford invisalign, but I can put up with conventional metalwork for 6 months - a year no problem. A bank / credit loan isn't really an option as I am self employed and work is very irregular at the moment.
Does it all have to be done in 1 sequence, or can you take a break between each fitting (as finance allows)? I doubt I could afford invisalign, but I can put up with conventional metalwork for 6 months - a year no problem. A bank / credit loan isn't really an option as I am self employed and work is very irregular at the moment.
Opara said:
After doing some more research it seems that outside of conventional braces there is Invisalign,Inman and "6 Month Smile" treatments.Has anyone got first hand knowledge of these?
As I said above, I've had Invisalign and I'm really happy with the results (still receiving treatment though!). You might want to speak to a dentist rather than asking online as you might not be suitable for all treatments. I originally wanted the Inman Aligner however it wasn't suitable for correcting my teeth.Zad said:
Does it all have to be done in 1 sequence, or can you take a break between each fitting (as finance allows)? I doubt I could afford invisalign, but I can put up with conventional metalwork for 6 months - a year no problem. A bank / credit loan isn't really an option as I am self employed and work is very irregular at the moment.
I wouldn't necessarily discount Invisalign. With my dentist, I can pay when I want over the course of the treatment and there was no set amount to pay each time nor was any interest charged. It's been nearly two years (I had quite a complex case - I don't think it normally takes so long!) so theoretically I could have paid it in instalments over this time frame if I'd have wanted to. I went back every 6-8 weeks on average to pick up new retainers, check the fittings and get attachments put on my teeth. This was flexible so as long as you continue to wear the last retainers you are given, you can wait a few weeks longer before getting the next set of retainers, and therefore put off payment if you needed to. Obviously this will depend on the dentist though as I don't know if this sort of loose payment scheme is the norm or not.It's also worth checking what comes with the package - for me, I've had two lots of 'tweaks' over and above the original set of retainers, a chipped tooth fixed, two hygienist appointments, a year's worth of whitening (would have been for the full term however I was pregnant so couldn't whiten), and night-time end-of-treatment retainers all included in the original price I was quoted. I also know that my dentist was a lot cheaper than others - my friend was looking at having Invisalign done and they wanted 30% more than what I was charged.
Opara said:
Invisalign does look pretty impressive, would you agree that it's near invisable and does it affect your voice?
It's pretty near invisible. Most people couldn't tell when I was wearing my braces - even when I had attachments on my teeth - although they did tend to give me a very slight lisp. Gassing Station | Health Matters | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff