Dental Part 15
Remember dating? The early days were all smiles and perfection with the well-turned, best foot forward. But as always, that back foot inches into view and we are reminded that nobody is perfect. Bummer. Turns out Invisalign is not perfect either. So let’s have a look at the “back foot” so well informed decisions can be made. 
The orthodontist will explain prior to starting Invisalign that a “refinement” period may be required. A refinement is more appropriately described as another set of trays because your teeth did not follow instructions during the first set. Requiring a refinement is reasonably common and becomes more so when the desired orthodontic movement is complex. Since I had tremendous success for the first few months, it appeared that I would have only a minor refinement period.
Unfortunately, the wheels came off in the last few weeks when my front tooth dropped down. In addition other teeth did not move vertically or rotationally as expected. On the positive side, the lateral movement was excellent. Without lateral movement, there would have been no room to sort out overcrowding, the main problem with my bite.
Because the trays still fit very well on the back teeth, it was agreed that the best course of action was to finish the set, complete the lateral movement and then tidy up the vertical and rotational issues in a second set of trays. Would post the photo of my teeth but it is simply too unattractive in that selfie, horse teeth sort of way. This photo with the retainer on gives an idea of what happened to the front tooth.
Here is Invisalign’s “back foot” #1 and #2:
- Moving teeth can be an unpredictable business. It does not matter if you have the best orthodontist (I do), once your teeth loosen up and start moving, they may move the wrong way or get stubborn and stop moving. Everyone’s teeth loosen during Invisalign. They loosen exponentially when doing Wilckodontics so I suspect that the possibility of teeth going walk about is higher.
- Invisalign may have trouble “finishing” when notable rotational and vertical movement is necessary and it could take several sets of trays to achieve the desired result.
So let’s look at how the second set of trays went…