Invisalign braces for Teen

My first daughter had the usual metal block braces with coloured wires.

6 years later and my 2nd daughter needed braces and this time the Invisalign brand/concept is well established here in Pattaya.

She has been wearing them now for 4 months and they have been absolutely brilliant. She is age 13.

• Firstly the cost has to be addressed. Yes they are much more expensive than the metal block braces.  I think my first daughter's treatment cost about 60k baht and Invisalign are around 100k baht.
  But really if you can afford it then it is well worth it.  Why?
• Nearly all brace wearers will have movement once their braces are taken off. They are given retainers to wear at night to keep their teeth held into their new placement.  I know my daughter wasn't alone in losing, breaking and forgetting about the retainers!  
  My first daughter is now considering some new braces because 6 years after finishing with her metal block braces she can notice her teeth have shifted a lot.
  With Invisalign the plan is for your life time. At any time you can go and get some new ones very easily to push back any straying teeth.
  To get new metal block braces put in is more costly and more time.
• Metal braces are ugly to westerners.  I know that they are something of a status symbol to some Thais (they even have fake ones put in!), but metal 'train tracks' are not a great look - especially during those ultra self-conscious adolescent years. They also feel bulky in the mouth.
  Invisalign are clear and cannot be seen unless very up close. 
• Metal braces require monthly visits to the dentist to tighten up. This is painful and also boring/inconvenient.
  Invisalign you are given months worth of braces for you to change yourself when you feel your teeth have adjusted to that size.  This also means Invisalign are speedier because you go into the tighter brace when you are ready - not just when the monthly appointment comes around.

• You really need a great dentist for metal braces.  All the workmanship and professional decisions of how much to tighten and where to add more pressure is left to the dentist themselves.
  With Invisalign all the work is done for them.  They scan your teeth with a hand held 'wand'. The screen shows the image of your mouth and the dentist has to keep waving the wand around your mouth until all the purple colour bits are gone.  It's like a video game - and a really easy one at that!
  They then send off the scan to Invisalign (California) and they 3d print every weekly (or less) brace guard you will need in order to get the aligned smile you are going for. They number them so you know easily which stage you are at.
  For my daughter they have given her 36 brace guards and she will return to the dentist once she is on brace guard #32 to see how she is doing.
• During check-ups they once again wave the wand around and the scan shows which individual tooth is having the right amount of pressure on it and identifies any that aren't.  This is done via a colour code. The wand scans your teeth and the ensuing image on the screen comes up with a colour coded mouth showing how the progress is going. Thus once again it has very little to do with the dentists individual expert opnion.

Our dentist is really wonderful but we are also reassured that she is using technology to assist her orthodontist experience so that our daughter is getting the best solution to wonky teeth!

My daughter said the braces felt funny at first, but not painful. Most of her friends have the metal block braces and once a month they are a bit miserable after the tightening up.

If (like her sister) my daughter finds her teeth on the roam-around at age 21, 45 or whenever, she can simply find a dentist anywhere in the world and they will contact Invisalign who have her entire scans and orthodentist history.  She would just pay for a few new sets to put those teeth back in order.
As a woman I experienced my own teeth roaming around a bit during pregnancy! LOL

So all in all I would recommend Invisalign. It's a higher cost outlay but lasts a lifetime and is far less painful and inconvenient than the metal train tracks which I also had as a teen.  I don't miss those days!

Just want to add that our dentist is Dr Naam at Dental Square Pattaya 3rd Rd.