8 ms·

Straighter Teeth by Mail

• ChrisNorstrom 12y ago
  I would NOT recommend these or invisalign to anyone. I had invisalign and while it's great at pushing teeth closer or further apart, the aligners cannot twist or pull teeth into position, and it's unnecessarily painful. You can get traditional braces for the same cost and get your "perfect smile" results with less pain. Why are they painful? Because every time you "conveniently" take them off to "eat or brush your teeth" your teeth are loose and moving them around hurts like hell when brushing or eating. Snapping the braces back on and they'll hurt like hell again for about an hour until the braces stabilize them and they start settling again. It was a huge waste of money, and now I'm saving up to get traditional braces. My teeth aren't even all that crooked, traditional braces can straighten mine out in less than a year.
  • deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  • jcomis 12y ago
    Just so you know, traditional braces hurt like hell for a day or two after each appointment, sometimes longer. They are also uncomfortable the entire time.
    • j_matthews 12y ago
      I'm 29 and got standard metal braces 5 months ago (top and bottom teeth). My bottom teeth are particularly messed up Maybe it's different for others, but I strongly disagree about the pain. It's only painful up to a few days after having wires adjusted or installed, and even then I wouldn't call it painful -- just soreness. My dentist recommended Tylenol but I never had to take it, because the pain wasn't that bad. Currently day to day I barely notice I have braces on. The only real annoyance is eating food, as food easily becomes stuck in your braces. Investment in a water flosser, like the Waterpik, is highly recommended, as well brushing after every meal -- including lunch. My braces cost $5k (my own pocket) and I pay monthly. I have to wear braces for two years, but I foresee no issues because it's been a breeze so far wearing them. I do wish I got them earlier, and suggest anyone thinking about it to get them sooner than later.
  • bdcs 12y ago
    Thank you for review. I had traditional braces for 8 years and I cannot convey much it would have meant to me to brush my bare teeth or eat some, say, corn on the cob, if only for a brief (albeit painful) moment. All the same, good luck with your braces. I cannot recommend a "gum stimulator" enough!! http://smile.amazon.com/Gum-Butler-G-U-M-Stimulator-Pack/dp/B00ELM6WRI/ http://smile.amazon.com/Gum-Butler-G-U-M-Stimulator-Pack/dp/...
    • Magi604 12y ago
      Good point about being able to feel your bare teeth every now and then. I had braces for six years, and after they finally came off, I could not stop licking my teeth for days! It was such a great feeling.
  • JeffL 12y ago
    I had metal braces as a teenager, and now about 20 weeks into Invisalign as a 40 year old to close a gap from a lost tooth, and my god, the Invisalign is wonderful compared to the metal braces. Almost no pain, super convenient, and eating is normal. I remember all the times I used to have to eat by smashing food against the roof of my mouth with my tongue, because my teeth hurt so much from newly-tightened metal.
  • vijucat 12y ago
    I think the risk of dental decay is another factor. If I am not wrong, you have to keep the traditional dental braces in place without ever taking them off for the entire duration of the n months / year? Not being able to take them out and brush / otherwise clean the tooth under them is apparently a cause for dental decay when using traditional braces.
• Magi604 12y ago
  I had braces for six years, and if I had to get my teeth straightened today, I would probably go this route. Don't forget, braces mean: - More cost - Monthly trips to the orthodontist The physical act of having to go to the orthodontist every month for years costs you time and money in terms of gas, parking, etc, not to mention the time cost. Think of your schedule today. Can you fit in another 2-3 hour monthly appointment? You probably can, but it will probably be at the expense of another activity you'd probably rather be doing. Emergency maintenance is sometimes needed (the braces can get damaged from accidents, sports, etc.) Also, braces are UGLY. Wow, I wish this was around when I needed braces.
  • shitlord 12y ago
    I wish I could have done this too. Braces were painful and actually scarred the inside of my cheeks. I can actually feel where the wires sliced my cheeks. Something similar, in another domain, is PocketDerm. They are also pretty cheap, and hopefully a good sign of things to come: cheaper access to specialists for simple problems.
  • wldcordeiro 12y ago
    It astounds me that in all the years of braces being in use they haven't found a way to make them less ugly. It's like they're frozen in time.
    • nilkn 12y ago
      There's Invisalign, but it can easily cost twice as much as braces.
    • to3m 12y ago
      Virtually everybody I know who's had braces on their teeth had them when they were 13, 14, 15 years old - presumably at that point your adult teeth are through but they (and you!) are still new enough to be flexible. So there's probably not, historically, been much demand. The parents don't want to spend extra on making the stuff look nice, so they just tell their children to put up with it. And their children don't really have another option, so they put up with it. "Character-building" was the stock phrase my school teachers and parents would use for stuff like this. I'm sure I've seen people with whitened fixed braces (perhaps made out of plastic rather than metal?), so clearly there have been at least some attempts to make them look less ugly - but I'm not sure it represents a huge improvement. If that costs extra, it's not great value.
• grantlmiller 12y ago
  A few months ago, I was thinking about the opportunity to use 3d printing/imaging to drastically lower the cost of these types of devices. Ultimately the biggest hurdle is going to be getting an extremely accurate scan (not sure if you could do some combination of using dental x-rays, along with 3d imaging tech from mobile cameras to build the mouth model for each customer). Part of the solution could be in home try-on (similar to Warby Parker). Ie send 10-20 sets of 3d printed retainers, all slightly different but potential fits. The customer selects which one fits best & the full set is based on that starting model. Since you're not actually creating molds to base the retainers on, the cost of each slightly different model should be pennies. Anyway, that's about as far as I got... then I went back to building enterprise software.
  • hatty 12y ago
    I made an entire workflow with open source tools and materials that cost less than $100. Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfjuUN0E5yc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfjuUN0E5yc Like you said, the limiting factor is the extremely accurate scan. My workflow is not rigorous, just a proof-of-concept until the printing and scanning tech comes around.
  • sethkontny 12y ago
    sleepmedx
• natosaichek 12y ago
  The thing that bothers me is things like this: "the American Association of Orthodontists, a trade group, warned consumers against moving teeth without an initial exam and continuing supervision by an orthodontist. “Our concern is that patients who don’t see an orthodontist for regular checkups and/or for a complete diagnosis are more likely to be harmed,” said Dr. Rolf Behrents, a spokesman for the association" Everyone knows that visiting a dentist is better than not visiting a dentist. Same thing for doctors. Industry groups insisting that people visit health professionals seem oblivious to the reasons that people don't (or haven't) visited the professionals: cost. If someone doesn't have complete dental coverage and must front the cost out of pocket, the 6k for braces can be catastrophic. Thank goodness there are cheaper alternatives. Even if they aren't a complete solution (can't twist teeth, or whatever) the fact that some people can get their problems fixed without going deep into debt is a good thing.
  • radiorental 12y ago
    I have better than average dental coverage and a pretty good dentist. The crowding in my lower front is starting to cause problems. Even with coverage, Invisalign would be 4-5K out of pocket. Faced with that or putting the money in my 401 or 529 - cheerio offending tooth when the time comes, it's been a pleasure chewing with you. I didn't know about the mail order option. Definitely going to look in to it. As an aside. Overbite, and hence one of the main reasons for lower crowding, only came about once we invented cutlery. Humans up to the middle ages ripped meat with their teeth. The wear & tear kept lengths in check and edge-to-edge. http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/01/how-forks-gave-us-overbites-and-pots-saved-the-toothless/267252/ http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/01/how-forks-... Edit: I applied to one of the companies mentioned in the article. Background. My dentist had suggested that Invisalign could rectify my issue. This particular company took my credit card details, then asked me to submit photos of my teeth (great design, otherwise I may have not gone through with the laborious process). After inspection of the images they advised me to talk to my dentist and canceled the charge to my card. I knew it was a longshot and would have gone ahead. I'm impressed this particular service turned down the business when my dentist was willing to roll the dice.
• patejam 12y ago
  I'm going to an orthodontist tomorrow for a consultation. The extra few thousand are well worth it in my opinion to get it done right without potentially damaging my teeth.
• deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
• bruceb 12y ago
  What is needed is more orthodontists, increase supply.
• jostmey 12y ago
  I would try this product for one simple reason: I care about my health more than anyone else possibly could. Frankly, I don't trust that a dentist would do a better job at casting the mold than me.
  • dcre 12y ago
    How much do you think the robots at the Toyota factory care about your safety?
  • copsarebastards 12y ago
    Would you also cast your own broken bones?
  • nilkn 12y ago
    This is absurd. I think you really underestimate the intensity of training that dentists must undergo, at least in the US. Dental school is just as rigorous and all-consuming as medical school. There are reasons to advocate for the sort of DIY kit discussed in the article -- cost and time being the main ones. But thinking that you are somehow going to be more proficient at this sort of thing than a very extensively trained orthodontist is not one of them.
• elasticrat 12y ago
  Optometrists aren't too happy about Warby Parker either. This seems like the Internet being the Internet for the benefit of the consumer.
  • mattlutze 12y ago
    Optometrists derive significant revenue from the sales of lenses and frames. If the eye exam is accurate, where you buy your glasses is interchangeable. Orthodontics, on the other hand, seem very much to me to require a different relationship with the dental professional. I'm not so sure the "Warby Parker for teeth" notion is accurate here, nor desirable.
• sethkontny 12y ago
  sleepmedx inc
• robotcookies 12y ago
  Would rather that society stop obsessing over having perfectly straight teeth. If they are otherwise healthy, why spend that money and go through the painful experience of straightening your teeth. It's entirely cultural (learned) to expect them to be perfect. Some cultures don't care (though in this globalized world, every culture is gradually expecting it).
  • aaron695 12y ago
    Symmetry is not cultural but part of our genetics, some cultures care less because they have more important issues when looking at attractiveness like food and shelter security. Should burns victim who are healthy be able to get plastic surgery. Most people would think so. Genetic issues is no different to anything else that cause unusual looks. Where does it go from acceptable i.e. burns to the face, to it really shouldn't matter i.e. perhaps breast enlargement from average to larger than average, is hard to say. But I have no problem with a society where no one has looks that make them stand out in a negative way that they don't wish to have.
    • vertex-four 12y ago
      > because they have more important issues when looking at attractiveness like food and shelter security Most of the rest of the developed world doesn't care about perfect teeth as much as the US does, despite often having more lifestyle security than the US.
    • robotcookies 12y ago
      I don't know if symmetry is really that ingrained in our dna as necessary for beauty. Most people part their hair to a side (rather than down the middle). There are few things cuter than a kid who smiles to reveal a missing tooth on one side. And what about dimples? A dimple on one side is nice but having them on both sides would look odd. A lot of that is just what we are used to seeing. And as others have commented, people in places like the UK often see teeth that are too perfect as artificial looking.
      • 12y ago
• merckx 12y ago
  My dad's an orthodontist. He's seen good results with Invisalign (and bad) but says that it has a relatively small sweet spot. He's skeptical of the braces-by-mail approach for anything other than the simplest cases and the most conscientious patients. > Dr. Son Tran, the creator of CrystalBraces and a Dallas dentist who is the sole reviewer Many people don't know that in the US general dentists (GPs) can practice most specialties without advanced training, while specialists (orthodontists, oral surgeons, prosthodontists, etc.) must complete an accredited program/residency after dental school and limit their practice to their chosen specialty. Invisalign/Align Tech is in San Jose, btw.
• phreeza 12y ago
  I had a friend in high school who was kind of gung-ho and claimed to have fixed a misaligned tooth by applying pressure with his finger in the desired direction for an hour every night before going to bed. According to him, this worked. I wonder if that is possible or if the teeth would undo the progress in the other 23 hours.
• adrianhoward 12y ago
  Something I've chatted to about with fellow UK folk occasionally (insert joke about "English teeth" here) is how, from our perspective some USA folk's teeth seem to cross the uncanny valley in the wrong direction. They're so white and so even they look false to our eyes.
  • hessenwolf 12y ago
    The whitening can be over the top, but have you seen a young person with crooked teeth? I feel my 'characteristic' smile really ages me :).
    • adrianhoward 12y ago
      Define 'crooked" ;) I certainly see kids in the EU with teeth that would be "corrected" in the US. I get the impression that the aesthetics vs clinical need / risk line is drawn differently.
  • cmiller1 12y ago
    Many of the celebrities that you see from the US actually have porcelain veneers put in, so you're not even actually seeing real teeth. Perhaps this is the kind of teeth that creep you out?
• robodale 12y ago
  Before braces, I had to undergo two upper jaw surgeries (1st was a SARPE, 2nd was a Lefort I Osteotomy). Needed to widen my upper bite, then detach and pull the entire upper jaw (maxilla) forward 5mm. Only then could the braces align my teeth. The surgeries were under my medical insurance, the braces were dental. Search YouTube for SARPE...it's not for the squeamish.
  • sethkontny 12y ago
    sleepmedx