My Invisalign Blog

My Invisalign Braces Experience

How They Remove Invisalign Attachments Or Buttons…

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This week was another milestone in my treatment as it was time to remove my Invisalign attachments or buttons. I have now reached 30/34 on my first run of lower Invisalign braces (only 4 more to go!) and set 9/9 of my first run of Invisalign refinements on my upper arch- in other words, the first run of my upper refinements are now finished! To mark this momentous occasion I had a long appointment with my orthodontist to evaluate how my upper teeth are now looking, and also, joy of joy, to remove my upper Invisalign attachments.

For those of you as yet unfamiliar with all the details of Invisalign, attachments are small tooth coloured blobs of material that are glued or cemented onto teeth during Invisalign treatment. Their purpose is to provide additional “grip” for the aligners so that more difficult or complex tooth movements are possible. They can be used on any number of teeth, depending on the preferences of your Invisalign provider and what movements the teeth need to make. Some lucky people have none, some have a large number, I have 5. You can see some of mine in the picture below:

how to remove invisalign attachments

My orthodontist decides to Remove Invisalign Attachments

Throughout my treatment, whilst I haven’t enjoyed having attachments exactly, I have easily tolerated them to the point that not only didn’t I feel them in my mouth any more, I didn’t see them when I looked in the mirror either. So I was fairly relaxed about having them removed- I was happy to do it, but I wasn’t yearning for it exactly. In fact, given that they have been solidly attached to my teeth for the last 15 months and have endured all manner of brushing, tugging and scraping and still stayed resolutely attached, I was afraid that getting them off might be a minor ordeal.

So it was with a certain amount of trepidation that let I let my orthodontist lower me back in his dentist’s chair, one hand adjusting his medical face mask, the other brandishing a large, sinister looking dentist’s drill. My fear wasn’t allayed by him telling me, with only a little relish in his voice, that this was going to be noisy.

I don’t know whether you have ever had any fillings, but my teeth are riddled with them. So I am pretty familiar with the feeling of the dentist’s drill and the vibrations that go through your head as they buzz and scrape noisily through your teeth. This was what I was expecting with the removal of my attachments.

I am relieved and excited to report however, that it is really not that bad. Yes, there is a little of the same sensation of vibration as the attachment is drilled, but because it is on the outside of your tooth and the drill is not contacting with any of your tooth’s own structure, the vibrations do not travel through your head in the same way. Also, the removal of each attachment seemed to take no more that 15-20 seconds of drilling, compared to the 30 minutes to an hour that I have endured with some of my larger fillings, so although there was some vibration it had barely started before it finished. After the initial drilling was completed, my orthodontist switched to a smaller polisher and ran it across the tooth’s surface where the attachment had been, just to remove any last traces of the cement- and it was finished! The whole process of removing my attachments was over in less than five minutes start to finish.

As my orthodontist adjusted my chair back into the upright position and told me to rinse my mouth I was so surprised that it was over that I told him “well THAT was remarkably painless” to which he looked at me bemused, and replied “Well what did you expect?”
I didn’t really like to run him through the scenarios that had been coursing through my head prior to my appointment – if you google remove Invisalign attachments very little shows up, so I had filled in the details myself.

The attachments removed and my teeth in all their naked glory we were able to get onto the important business of discussing how my teeth look. Removing the attachments has altered the way they appear (see pics below) but hasn’t changed how I feel about what needs to be done. I told him all of my concerns (explained with pictures in my previous post about set 29 before and after pictures) about how the front tooth needed to rotate a little more and how I think the molars have been thrown into shadow.

He listened patiently, had a very thorough examination of my teeth from every angle, and then told me that he could see what I was talking about, that he agreed that my arch could be widened a little more by moving out my molars, and that we could look at it in the next refinement. He did caution that as my teeth have already moved so much that there was a limit to what could be done whilst still keeping my teeth in the jaw bone, but that he would do his best. One of the things (other than experience) that I think is so important to look for in an orthodontist is their willingness to listen to your opinion. I think I have been very, very fortunate with mine that not only is he willing to listen, he will happily rethink his approach if you tell him that you would prefer to do it another way.

how to remove invisalign attachments

Close Up No Attachments

Within my Invisalign contract I have the original run of aligners included, plus three runs of refinements. I have used one refinement correcting my upper arch whilst the bottoms were still completing their first run, so my orthodontist and I agreed that we would wait until I have finished my lower arch first run of aligners before we start the next set of refinements. That means that both arches can be tackled simultaneously in the same series of refinements. In the meantime, over the next eight weeks I will be wearing my upper aligner only at night whilst wearing the lower one for the usual 22 (ahem) hours a day for the next 10 weeks. According to my orthodontist this is the best compromise between keeping the upper aligner intact and still wearable whilst not letting my teeth relapse too much until the next series of aligners. All in all I am thrilled with how my teeth are now looking and excited to get them finished off. Roll on 10 weeks time.

Look no upper attachments- shame about the molars in shadow and the ugly crown at the front that needs replacing though…

Invisalign Braces Update: My teeth Aug 09

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11 days into 16/17 upper and 16/34 lower Invisalign and I must confess that I’m getting nervous. Don’t get me wrong, my teeth have moved. The difference from 6 months ago is almost unbelievable. The thing is though that they aren’t quite there. My uppers, which have only one set after this look great from the front- almost perfect, but from the side there is one particular area that I still don’t like.

My front right tooth that was twisted slightly at the beginning of all this still isn’t quite lined up how I would like it to be and the crown next to it still has a gap. Also, regular readers might remember that there was one area that my ortho and I disagreed on with one of my back molars.

He thought one tooth should come down and I thought another should go up to make them line up. Having almost completed the upper arch I am sticking to my guns! I think that tooth needs to go up, so that will be one of my refinements.

Here are pics of the teeth I am talking about. I’ll let you know if there is any improvement during the last set.

6th Set of Invisalign braces- A Silly Thing To Try And Treat With Invisalign!

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I chose my Orthodontist after a long and arduous search for the right Invisalign doctor. One of the factors that helped me to choose him was that he is a lecturer in orthodontics at a prestigious Australian University. It never crossed my mind though that I might become the basis for one of his lectures.

Invisalign Orthodontist Dr Brett Kerr

My Invisalign Orthodontist – Dr Brett Kerr

Apparently though, that is the case. I don’t mind that at all- as far as I am concerned if my teeth can help other orthodontists to improve their Invisalign technique I will be delighted. It is more the title of the lecture that bothers me. My orthodontist cheerily informed me yesterday that my teeth are the basis for a lecture he is giving next week, entitled…”Silly things to try and do with Invisalign braces” That makes me feel so, so much more confident! My only consolation is that he might need to provide an update to the students in the future, so perhaps this will encourage him to do his best work… How much do I wish I could be a fly on the wall and hear what he has to say!
Other than that, my 6 weekly visit was short and uneventful. I asked my query about flouride and he said that as we have flouridated water here now flouride probably isn’t necessary for most patients. However, in patients with large amounts of fillings (i.e. me) it can do no harm. He actually suggested a weekly flouride rinse. His only stipulation was that it should be a ph neutral one.
I picked up three more sets of Invisalign- sets 6, 7 and 8, and immediately put set 6 in. They are tight. For the first time since set 1 at the beginning of this process I actually felt I really had to take a painkiller. I should probably explain something here. I have Crohn’s disease which is an inflammatory stomach disorder. As a consequence I have a lot of stomach ulcers and try and avoid painkillers as much as possible.
When I do take them I try and stick to paracetamol. So I don’t take them lightly, taking one maybe 2 or 3 times a year (as opposed to 2 or 3 times a week like my husband!). Lots of people, I know, always pop a painkiller when they put in a new Invisalign tray in, but generally I haven’t found it necessary. This time though the pain became so much that I had the sense that it was going to give me a migraine, so I decided to preempt that. It seemed to work because by next morning they felt a lot better.
I have had the usual difficulties of removing them with the attachments, and have noticed that there is a tiny crack in the side of one of my molars on the bottom arch. I am ignoring this unless it gets worse as it doesn’t seem to be compromising the strength of the tray. I know that probably I should call my orthodontist, but I know that he will only have two options- to order a new tray, which I don’t want to wait for, or to push me forward a set, which I don’t want to do. So, I am going to try and wear these as long as I can of the two weeks. If they get weaker or snap I will, of course, call him.
I live in Australia, having emigrated here four years ago. Consequently all my family are still in the UK, and haven’t yet seen my Invisalign. They are all arriving next week, and I am particularly looking forward to the comments from my Mother In Law who utterly despises me and will no doubt have some interesting things to say about my braces-I’ll keep you posted!

Set 3 Invisalign braces-Invisalign attachments!

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Having just got my new Invisalign attachments (or Invisalign buttons as some people prefer to call them) I think my love affair with Invisalign braces may already be starting to wane.

I’m not sure what possessed me, but I scheduled my appointment to get my Invisalign attachments an hour after I was due to drop my 5 year old daughter off for her first ever day at school. By the time I had realised, it was too late to reschedule, unless I wanted to wait another 2 weeks for my next set, which I certainly didn’t.

So, I arrived at my appointment red eyed and sorry for myself after a morning of blubbing and was perhaps feeling a little more fragile than I might otherwise have been. You should probably bear that in mind when reading this account!

My teeth though, were in great shape. I had a quick chat with the ortho about the bleaching which we agreed had been reasonably successful. I mentioned that after 3 consecutive nights of use it had made my gums crack and bleed, which he said noone else had told him before, so maybe that is just me?

He had a quick look at tray 2 in my mouth, and examined the crack (read about that here). He could immediately see the problem, and upon examining the other aligners he had waiting for me we could see that some of them cover my stray lower tooth completely, and some just cover the top of it. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to give me any explanation other than the that the Invisalign robot was having an off day but he decided it was unnecessary to cover that tooth, and took all the future sets away and filed them down. There was also a small area that irritates part of my gum that I have had to file on my last two sets, and he filed that on all the future sets too which was a great relief.

By the time I got to this appointment, 4 weeks into my Invisalign treatment I could get my trays in and out almost without thinking about it. It wasn’t quite at the point where I could pop them out with my tongue as I have read some other people discuss, but it was certainly easy. I told my ortho this, and he chuckled and said “wait until we get these attachments on” with an evil glint in his eye, and what I thought might be a cackle under his breath…

attachments

Teeth With Invisalign Attachments (Invisalign buttons)

The Invisalign attachments or buttons are small clear ‘blobs” that are fixed to your teeth to give your aligners better grip on the tooth that they are attached to. They are, in my case, all oblong shaped, although apparently there are other possible shapes. Depending on the movement they are designed to help with, they can be put on either vertically or horizontally, and can go on different positions on each tooth to help create different movements. I have 5 attachments in total as you can see on my clincheck.

The process of putting them on began with my ortho showing me 2 sets of my third aligner. One of them was a template set, made of a much finer and softer plastic than the normal aligners, the other was the standard aligner for use after the attachments were fixed. The template aligner was fitted to my teeth to check for fit and was then removed again. The ortho then used some kind of powered drill to ‘rough up’ the surface of my tooth. It was a sensation not unlike sandpapering and not altogether pleasant. He then filled the attachment gaps in the template with some gel and reinserted it on to my teeth. The gel would be what ultimately would form the attachments, and was hardened by him shining a blue light on each one in turn in a way very similar to when you get a white filling.

The next bit was slightly fiddly as he then had to remove the template, which involved lots of pulling and the use of his dentists pick, but eventually it came out without the attachments or any of my teeth!

He then took what sounded like a drill and filed off any excess bits that had become attached to my teeth, and also smoothed around the attachments so that they would not irritate my mouth. This was the part that I REALLY didn’t enjoy. It was very similar to having your tooth drilled in preparation for a filling, and although I knew that they weren’t actually drilling into my tooth, it felt as if they were, and was almost bordering on painful. The only positive was that it was over relatively quickly. If you have a dentist or filling phobia it may be worthwhile having a stiff drink or a valium for this bit, it is the bit I have enjoyed least of the whole process thus far.

I was then ready to go! The orthodontist reinserted the softer template tray and told me to wear that one until the end of the day. His reasoning for this was that it can be extremely difficult to remove the trays the first day after attachments are put on. The template would therefore help to move the teeth a bit whilst still being flexible enough to allow it to be more easily removed. This would give me a chance to practice before inserting the normal one that evening. I’m not sure whether this is standard procedure from Invisalign, if not, all hail my ortho, as it seemed like a great idea!

Of course, when he said that the template would be easier to remove than the normal tray, he meant easier, not easy. It still took me about ten nail-breaking minutes to remove each aligner, and I began to seriously doubt whether I would actually ever be able eat again.

There is a moment when you reach a certain point of frustration trying to remove these things, when your fingers seem too big and clumsy to fit in your mouth, and you just want to scream. I spent most of the day like that with one of the aligners stuck half on and half off my teeth and my fingers down my throat. I was so panicky that I wondered whether I can do this or whether I will need an aligner hook. Apparently a lot of Invisalign patients swear by them although they are hard to get hold of in Australia.

I switched to the standard aligners that evening, and noticed two things. Firstly, that the Invisalign buttons make them WAY firmer- they certainly do increase the grip- and also that my ortho wasn’t kidding about how much more difficult they are to remove. Even a week on I am still struggling- not as much, but there is no sense of just ‘popping’ them in and out, it really is something of an ordeal. They are also so much tighter than set two, almost to the point of pain. The old cliche of be careful what you wish for certainly applies in this case.

Aesthetically, I am also not a great fan of Invisalign buttons. I was prepared to concede that Invisalign braces are fairly invisible when you don’t have attachments, but, I think the Invisalign attachments effectively double their visibility. The strange bumps on your teeth are way more noticeable than the extra glossiness that you get from the aligner. Of course, that being said, they are still a substantial improvement on even clear standard braces, just not truly invisible.

The only other thing I dislike is that when your aligners are out of your mouth the Invisalign attachments feel very rough inside your cheeks- it gives you sympathy for how people with standard braces must struggle. They also feel like food becomes easily caught on them.

Of course, having said all this, I still on balance feel that they will be worth it- if I do end up with great teeth at the end!

For those of you who might be interested there is a great video on youtube showing the attachment process. I think it was helpful to me to know what to expect.

I’ll let you be the judge of how visible my Invisalign attachments look:

Invisalign attachments with aligner in

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