My understanding is that the clear plastic things don't work as quickly or solve as many problems.

I have one of them for my retainer, which is quite a bit nicer than the plastic and wire retainers of old.

Of course, this was like 13 years ago, so I'm sure times have changed.

I guess I'm just older than I thought. :)

Yeah, I'm not sure about braces now. I do hear ads for that invisalign product, or something close to that. So that's probably what's being used now.

Was curious and googled it, Invisalign has some limitations (mentioned in "Not ideal for") like moving teeth vertically and rotating canines or premolars. So even aside from the price tag (which I assume used to be even higher) it wouldn't have worked for me.

Would've loved to do without the wires popping out and stabbing me in the mouth, it wasn't a favorite part of my childhood. So much orthodontia.

Would be great if you're doing it as an adult, I wonder how most kids would do with the "must wear 22 hours a day" part. If I could've taken my braces out I probably would have. OTOH I had a couple other removable mouth appliances and managed with those, so maybe it's just because braces are awful that I wanted to get rid of them.

https://happytoothnc.com/braces-vs-invisalign/

invisialign is for shifting, not really for repositioning.

I had invisialign for 2 years before switching to regular braces. Metal braces can generate much more force in more directions, which was necessary for completing my treatment (very stubborn teeth). They're dead simple and reliable. But my ortho is very advanced and helped it along as much as possible - I used this pulsing mouthpiece at night called AcceleDent which helped my teeth move quicker. We also talked about an option called Propel? which essentially made small bone perforations which encourage teeth movement.

My takeaway is that teeth are very stubborn and don't like to be moved quickly. And that once moved, they really want to go back to the way they were. There is a lot of new tech, but you've gotta find the right ortho. I shopped around until I found a forward-thinking one who was willing to try new things, and got spectacular results within a reasonable timeframe.

Thanks for confirming what I have been told. I was going to go with Invisalign, but then my dentist said my teeth would most likely need braces. He said I should go to an orthodontist, or he could offer Fast Braces. I was not under the impression that a dentist does this type of procedure. I like the guy and he didn't push his procedure on me but it looks like he is a general dentist with education in cosmetic. http://sbdsd.com/dr-javaheri/

I checked out their site https://fastbraces.com/ but it looks like it caters to dentists. It's about 50% of the price at least that's comparing a quote from an orthodontist. I just don't know enough about it.

"My takeaway is that teeth are very stubborn and don't like to be moved quickly. And that once moved, they really want to go back to the way they were. There is a lot of new tech, but you've gotta find the right ortho. I shopped around until I found a forward-thinking one who was willing to try new things, and got spectacular results within a reasonable timeframe."

That's my belief too. I had my metal braces removed a year ago, I have to wear retainers overnight, and I'm still finding the retainers quite a tight fit when I first put them in, especially if it's later in the evening than normal. My orthodontist says this indicates there's still some movement of the teeth.