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My Invisalign Braces Experience

Top Ten Tips For How To Remove Invisalign Braces

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Need help on how to remove Invisalign braces? Read on:

I used to have beautiful fingernails before I started wearing Invisalign. They weren’t long and glamorous exactly, but they were long enough, healthy enough and manicured enough to look feminine and as if I at least took a little care of myself.

No more. Since I transferred back to full time wear of Invisalign removing my Invisalign braces has transformed my previously healthy looking nails into broken, torn, ragged shadows of their former selves. It ain’t pretty.

I must confess that over the last week things have become easier, but my first week back in full time aligners reminded me just how difficult it can be to remove aligners at the beginning of Invisalign. I remember the claustrophobic feeling of terror as I clawed at my mouth in a restaurant bathroom the very first week I ever wore them.

Fortunately, having been through all of this before I know that in a couple of weeks removing these things will be as easy as taking off a T shirt, so there isn’t quite the same level of fear this time around. However, I thought it might be helpful to new users to compile a list of tips for how to remove Invisalign. Please, please feel free to add more tips via the comments form. Alternatively, if you think I’ve got them wrong, please set me straight!

How To Remove Invisalign Braces – Top Tips:

  1. Make sure your mouth is warm.
    How To Remove Invisalign - glass of water with ice

    Make Sure Your Mouth Is Warm

    Trying to remove Invisalign after a very cold drink is harder. Don’t ask me why, but it’s true! Somehow the plastic feels less pliable. It also helps if your fingers and the inside of your mouth are drier. If possible, open your mouth for a few seconds before attempting to remove them. Yes you’ll look odd, but it’s worth it. (Don’t drink a warm drink with your aligners in to help though- it can distort them.)

  2. Start at the back.

    Start at the back and work forward

    Lift the aligners off the molars on each side first, then gradually work towards the front. Alternatively some people find that it is easier to work from one side of the mouth to the other. The wonkier the tooth, the harder that section of Invisalign are to remove. Start by lifting off the easier bits and get to those bits last. The same is true of areas with a lot of attachments. Tackle those bits last. In those areas hook your fingernails under the edge of the aligner and lift it up and over the attachment or difficult area.

  3. Try a paper towel.
    How To Remove Invisalign- pile of paper towels

    How To Remove Invisalign – Tip 3 Try A Paper Towel

    Lots of people find that thick paper towels increase the grip on the aligner. Taking either a paper towel or a piece of kitchen paper in your hand place it over the tooth, grasp the aligner firmly and pull off the molars. Do this also for the opposite side and finally the front section. Replace the towel as it gets damp. The increase in grip can sometimes make a huge difference.

  4. Try surgical gloves.
    How To Remove Invisalign - Image of latex gloves

    Image wikimedia

    Many Invisalign patients report that surgical gloves work the same way as paper towels to increase grip on aligners. Many dental assistants also swear by them apparently. In this case the thick rubber gloves that you use for cleaning your house won’t do the trick (urgh!) what you need is the very fine type that you buy in boxes of 50 or 100. These allow you to feel what you are doing, but still increase grip.

  5. Use an aligner hook.
    How To Remove Invisalign- image of an aligner hook

    An Aligner Hook

    Some lucky patients get these given to them by their Invisalign provider for removing Invisalign braces. However they are also available on Amazon here and here.  Looking similar to a crochet hook but designed specifically for removing clear braces they hook under the edge of the aligner and lift it away from the tooth. They are especially helpful for people with attachments when they are first fitted.

  6. Another implement:
    How to remove invisalign - an implement like tweezers can help. image of tweezers

    Not authorised by Invisalign!

    Before I even get started in this one I would like to point out that it is certainly not Invisalign approved and might well result in damage to your aligners. Other Invisalign users have however reported success with other implements such as crochet hooks and even the edge of a pair of tweezers. Bearing in mind that your Invisalign are expensive I would personally probably skip this method, but each to their own.

  7. Give it time:
    How To Remove Invisalign - Give It Time

    Wait Before Trying To Remove Invisalign

    One thing that people tell you constantly when you first get Invisalign is that removing Invisalign braces gets easier with time. Of course, when people told me this I used to secretly believe that I would be the one exception to this and my aligners would be difficult to remove forever. Of course, what I soon realised is that quite literally every hour counts. If you try to remove your new aligners very soon after they are inserted for the first time it will be very difficult. Waiting even an additional hour could make it much easier. If you are ravenous and desperate to eat I can understand that you may be cursing me on reading this tip, but if there is any way that you can, stopping and waiting a while could make your aligners much easier to remove.

  8. Change aligners in the evening:
    How to remove Invisalign - image of woman sleeping

    Change aligners last thing at night

    Similar to tip 7 for how to remove Invisalign, inserting your new aligners at night has two benefits. Firstly it means that you get to sleep through the stage when they feel tightest and most uncomfortable. Secondly, by morning your teeth will already have shifted and the aligners will therefore be easier to move. Popping them in last thing at night, accompanied by a mild painkiller is probably the way to go if you think they will cause you trouble.

  9. Speak to your orthodontist:
    How To Remove Invisalign Image of doctor or orthodontist

    Speak to your orthodontist or dentist

    Some orthodontists don’t put on the attachments until the third aligner. This allows you four weeks of perfecting your removal technique before the attachments are fitted. Once they go on it does become a lot harder, so this period of practice can be really helpful. Also, when your attachments go on ask whether you can wear the template for a day or two to get used to removing it before changing to the proper aligners. The template is softer and much, much easier to remove than a normal aligner. Also, I thought that it shifted the teeth a tiny bit too, so that also helps to make it easier when it comes to time to remove the actual aligners.

  10. Relax:
    How to remove invisalign - image of woman relaxing on a bed

    It’s easier if you relax!

    Remembering my first day in Invisalign I know that relaxing was a long way down a very long list of things that I wanted to do; a list that started with ‘Get these aligners out of my mouth and never, ever put them in again’. The truth is though that the feelings of panic and claustrophobia make the aligners much, much harder to remove. Taking a deep breath and trying to relax, even giving up and taking ten minutes before starting again can be the difference between success and failure.

Hopefully these tips will be helpful to someone else having difficulty removing Invisalign braces. As I said above if you have any other tips on how to remove Invisalign please feel free to share them via the comments section and I’ll update this page as and when necessary- thanks.



Invisalign Dentist Or Orthodontist? Which Is The Best Invisalign Provider?

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One of the topics that I get more questions about than any other on this blog is finding an Invisalign dentist or orthodontist. My own search for an Invisalign dentist or orthodontist took visits to several providers before I was able to find someone that I liked that was willing and able to treat me.

How To Remove Invisalign Image of Invisalign dentist or orthodontist

Invisalign dentist or orthodontist. Does it matter?

One of the things that surprises me the most when I am asked this is that many people don’t understand the difference between a dentist and an orthodontist. The easiest way to explain it is to compare it to doctors. A dentist is the equivalent of a GP. They do general dentistry; sometimes this includes some orthodontics. In many countries they aren’t allowed to call themselves orthodontists but get around this by using the word “orthodontics” or similar in their advertising. By comparison an orthodontist is like a specialist doctor such as a cardiologist, except that they specialise in the movement of teeth. In most countries orthodontists have done substantial additional study at university (often several years) and generally do nothing but orthodontic work in their practices.

invisalign inInvisalign is available through both dentists and orthodontists. Rather than having substantial orthodontic training, Invisalign providers are required to do an Invisalign course before they can offer Invisalign. It had never occurred to me to wonder exactly how extensive or otherwise this Invisalign training was.

Recently however, I was having a quick google to find some piece of Invisalign information or another and came across the following post from a dentist who is no longer offering Invisalign. To be honest, it terrified me.

As an avid reader of Invisalign forums I had known that Align (the makers of Invisalign) had been tightening up their systems to ensure that only more experienced providers of Invisalign kept offering it, but frankly what I read on the dentists blog terrified me.

For instance her assertion that she took a two day course to qualify in Invisalign and that:

“I graduated Temple dental in 2001 with little clue how to successfully and orthodontically move a tooth. Like most clinicians, I  learned little about orthodontics in dental school. Sure I bent some wires, took a gazillion alginates, uprighted some molars, and occasionally made an active or passive appliance. Requirements, however, were minimal and Ortho at Temple was always the ‘easy A.’”

must surely be a worry for people that are considering Invisalign through a general dentist.

Similarly I don’t know whether there is any truth in her statement:

“Invisalign approved nearly any case you sent. Even with unpredictable movements like extrusions, intrusions, rotations and difficult cases like open bites and cross-bites, Invisalign provided a successful clincheck. This of course was nonsense and after a few poor results, I quickly learned Invisalign’s limitations.”

but it certainly makes me glad that Align are tightening their policies. (incidentally, I wonder whether this blanket approval theory is still true; my orthodontist who is VERY experienced tells me that he gets cases refused regularly that he thinks he could treat)

All in all I think anyone who is interested in Invisalign should read this dentists post to make sure that they ask the right questions before choosing their provider.

As someone with a very complex case my preference for me is an orthodontist to do my treatment. However, I know that many, many people have had dentists do their Invisalign and they have done a fantastic job. The key to it seems to be that you absolutely have to ensure that your provider has experience of using Invisalign and lots of it and you should keep this foremost in your mind when choosing an Invisaling dentist or orthodontist. Fortunately, the Invisalign website ranks providers according to the number of cases they have undertaken recently. Still, it never hurts to ask the question yourself. I saw one provider who had not finished a single Invisalign case but was happy to take on my very complex issue. I would also point out that I think it is important to ask not only how many cases have been treated but also whether any cases similar to yours have been completed and how successful the results were. Ask to see before and after pictures where possible as these will tell you whether you would have been happy with the treatment.

Also, I think when deciding who to go with that it’s important to not just base your decision on what Invisalign costs from each provider. Certainly, if you have a very straightforward simple orthodontic issue you will probably find that you get a great result whoever does your treatment. If however, you have anything more complex you really need to consider who will be the best person to treat you. I know that many patients ring around hoping to get the best price- who doesn’t want to pay as little as possible? In more complex cases though, I think it is also vital that you take into account whether the cheapest provider is actually the best one for you in experience terms. Of course, that isn’t to say that more expensive means more experience- I often found the reverse to be true. Rather I just mean that experience should be just as, if not more, important than price in complex cases.

Invisalign Before And After : set 28 update Pictures

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A picture speaks a thousand words- you know the old cliche… so I thought I would confine this post mostly to pictures. These are photos of my teeth before I started treatment and after 28 sets of Invisalign braces. I have one more upper refinement before I have finished with this run and I have 6 more lowers before we attempt to move my stray tooth over. You can now see just how horrendous my upper crown looks (next to my front tooth on the left) having moved. Fortunately when my trays are in it hides it to a great extent… I will get it fixed as soon as I am otherwise happy with my upper arch.

It’s interesting looking at the pictures of my aligners themselves just how my upper arch has rounded out, and also how the bottom arch has moved forward on the right hand side, but not yet on the left (where we are making room for that stray tooth.)
Let me know if you have any comments. I will be returning to my orthodontist in a couple of weeks to discuss what else I would like done to my upper arch- any suggestions gratefully received! Of course, I will keep you updated with more Invisalign before and after pictures as I take them..

teeth before
teeth after
upper contrast
lower arch comparison 28

It’s slow progress, but I think (and hope) it’s worth it!

Set 26 Invisalign Braces – Happy New Year!

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I intended to follow the old English saying “start as you mean to go on” this year with my Invisalign Braces. So far, not so good.

In fact, not only did I pass midnight on New Year’s Eve without my braces in my mouth, I woke up with them on my bedside table on January the first. Not a great start.

This is actually a first for me. Although I am generally pretty poor in complying with the 22 hours a day Invisalign requirement (I average more like 20ish I think) I have never, ever left my aligners out overnight before! In fact, I’ve never even come close. Whilst I confess that I had consumed rather more alcohol than I might normally and that might have had something to do with it I am still amazed that I managed to go to bed and sleep the whole night (well, OK 1am to 9am!) without realising that something was missing. It took me less than 30 seconds to work out that my aligners weren’t in when I woke up, and a quick glance at my bedside table confirmed what I had suspected. Nonetheless despite my pounding head and the waves of nausea that let me know that I had drunk more than I have in many, many years I was still surprised that I had been drunk enough to forget my braces. I had thought that I was on autopilot these days when it comes to putting them in before bed. Obviously not!

I visited my orthodontist this week for my regular six weekly appointment and in a fit of raging guilt told him that I had a confession to make. He stood there, eyebrows raised expectantly with an expression I haven’t seen anybody wear since I left school, whilst I nervously weighed up whether or not to admit the whole sorry truth. However, I needn’t have worried. After admitting that I had left my braces out for a whole night he did nothing but snort, give a dismissive guffaw and tell me “That’s not a confession!” Apparently the girl in before me had left hers out for several days over Christmas and had to go back two aligners just to get them back in her mouth. So I picked the right time to confess I guess!

Despite me being so remiss all seems to be going reasonably well. I had 9 upper refinements (on top of my original 17 aligners) which consisted of 6 refinements and 3 over-corrections. I have now completed my first 6 refinements and I think there is still a little way to go before my teeth are absolutely finished on the top. My orthodontist told me that this is fairly standard; in fact most people who need refinements need to use the over-corrections. Over-corrections are given by Invisalign because those particular teeth proved stubborn to move the first time around and apparently they then usually remain resistant throughout treatment. For this reason he has told me to wear my next two upper over-corrections and he will then review my teeth again to see whether we are satisfied with the final positioning.

My bottom arch is now on aligner 26/34 and whilst I can see great progress my orthodontist is not convinced that there will be sufficient room after another 8 aligners to get my bottom wonky tooth (which you can see here on my clincheck) in to place. I am cautiously hopeful that he is wrong, but we shall see. If there isn’t enough room by number 34 we will have to do refinements (additional aligners) for the bottom row too. Funnily enough on my clincheck it always looked like there would be plenty of room long before the end and as my teeth seem to be tracking perfectly I am surprised that there isn’t. As my orthodontist has told me repeatedly the clincheck is only a guide, not gospel. Having read numerous other patients Invisalign stories I know that that is the truth. It seems that it doesn’t pay to get too wedded to the final result that the clincheck shows, it’s a useful estimate but nothing more.

There is no massive progress since the last Invisalign pictures that I posted ( you can see the highlights in the sidebar on the right) so I won’t post more now, but I’ll take more after these two over-correction uppers so you can give me your verdict on my upper arch. I think that I could do with a little more widening of my molars, but maybe the over-corrections will take care of that, we shall see. In the meantime I intend to try and make up for the misdemeanours of New Year’s Eve by being especially compliant in January. We shall see how long that lasts! At the very least I am happy that one year into treatment I am still loving my Invisalign.. Watch this space!

One Year In Invisalign Braces – Not There Yet!

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It occurred to me yesterday that it is almost exactly a year since I started wearing Invisalign and whilst I won’t be throwing the little plastic fellas a birthday party exactly, I thought it might be useful to reflect on how well the year has gone.

One year in Invisalign braces - image of fireworks.

One Year In Invisalign!

Firstly, have my teeth changed? Hell yes. When I look at that horrendous before picture in my right sidebar I’m not surprised that I never showed my teeth when I smiled. I’m actually just surprised that I left the house at all!
Not that I have perfect teeth now, in fact, I still have probably as long to go again, if not longer. But I’m happy with that because I can see that things are moving in the right direction.
So to reflect on the good things to have come out of this whole process:

  • My teeth look much, much better already. The thing that has made a particular difference in my opinion has been the widening of my upper arch. I knew that it needed to be done, I just didn’t know what a difference it would make.
  • The tooth whitening. This made an enormous visual change to my smile and I plan to do some more when I am finished and all of my attachments are off. It was also a great boost at the start of the treatment. I can highly recommend the nitewhite that I used with my trays.
  • My orthodontist is great, which is a huge relief. It was such a process to find a good orthodontist that I’m thrilled that it worked out so well.
  • Wearing my Invisalign isn’t painful in any way. Of course, there is some pressure and tenderness at the beginning of some trays but there is no rubbing and chafing, no sores, nothing. I expected this to be much worse than it is. I’m not sure what I expected exactly, but I think it involved ulcers, sores, waxes and many other horrors that I haven’t had to deal with.
  • My oral hygiene has dramatically improved. I feel guilty now if I only floss three times a day. I hope this carries on after treatment at least to some extent. It’s also gratifying to actually be able to get the floss between my teeth, it used to be an exercise in physical force just to get the stuff between my teeth and out again without it breaking. These days I don’t even think about it.
  • I just haven’t found wearing the things an ordeal. They aren’t that noticeable, they aren’t that inconvenient, they just aren’t very difficult. Such minor inconvenience for such a great result seems a pretty happy balance to me.

Of course, not every aspect of Invisalign wearing is rosy … off the top of my head these are the things that I don’t like about my braces:

  • I’m not as compliant in wearing my Invisalign I should be. I know that is my fault and not the fault of Invisalign but it still annoys me. Mainly it is just laziness and forgetfulness, less than admirable traits.  Still, it gives me something to add to my list of New Year’s Resolutions.
  • I forgot to get my attachments removed before my upper refinements and then I forgot to ask my orthodontist why we didn’t remove them. Of course, there may well be a sound orthodontic reason for it, but I don’t know it so it annoys me!
  • I keep losing the damn things. I’m sure if you’re a regular reader your pretty au fait with my inability to hold onto my Invisalign aligners, but honestly, in the next year I don’t want to go scrabbling through any more restaurant dustbins. Yes, it happened again last week. No, it wasn’t pretty.

On reflection, there isn’t really anything that I would change about my Invisalign decision. Of course, I am yet to see the end result and that might change my feelings, but at what I assume to be about the halfway point I am thrilled with how things are going.

On a final note I just wanted to say thank you to the 65,000 of you (yes really) that have read this blog over the last year. Your comments, helpful suggestions and support have been much appreciated.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Keep smiling…