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Just got certified for Invisalign today. It looks really cool. I'm definitely going to offer this service to my patients. Anyone treated a patient in D-School with Invisalign?
Invisalign
- Thread starter vasco
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Did you get certified through your school or elsewhere. I have heard a rumor that invisilign will certify students at half price but i haven't really looked into it yet.
The way our ortho curriculum is set up, everyone at UOP gets certified as long as they pass the classes. There is an extra elective, which I'm taking right now, where we come in every Wednesday night for a quarter to gain additional clinical experience. The patients selected for the Wednesday night clinic are usually simpler cases, mostly Class 1 malocclusion or previous ortho therapy relapse. More complex cases are handled during the day by the ortho residents, especially ones that require mixed appliances or mini-implants. We see different patients at every stage of the process, from initial impression to recall after the retainers have been delivered, as well as a few case studies once all the patients have left. Unfortunately, since the quarter is only 12 weeks long, we don't get to follow a patient through their whole treatment and observe the outcomes. Even though night clinic gets pretty draining, I'm really glad I'm able to get at least a little bit of clinical experience at school before I try this one of my own patients. It's not nearly as simple as submitting the ClinCheck and delivering aligners.
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I got certified through my school. And I do think that Invisalign has nice discounts for students.
Awesome, now be sure to go to a post-grad ortho program so you can fix all the messes that Invisalign creates!
Wow. Now, lets remember, guns don't kill people, people kill people. Invisalign is a great tool in dentistry, when used correctly.
i'm looking to get invisilign...what problems does it create...i mean, it's a healthy investment, i just want to make sure it's the right one. i mean, i've never read bad things about it...😕
You have not read many bad things about it b/c it is faily new....I got my invisalign certificate when it was first introduced in 2000.
Invisalign is good for class I case with mild lower anterior crowding. It is great to correct deep bite. But if pt has a small vertical anterior overlap (open bite tendency), he/she usually ends up w/ an anterior open bite after invisalign tx. Another problem I often see w/ invisalign tx is the lower spacing between lower anterior teeth due over stripping. It is not very effective in producing crown/root torque and angulation. In other words, bodily movement is very limited. Invisalign treatment is very expensive b/c of high lab fee ..usually in the range of 4000-5000 dollars. I charge a lot less for a 12-18 month case w/ conventional braces.
Invisalign treatment cannot produce ideal occlusion and dental alignment that my referring dentists expect me (an orthodontic specialist) to do for our mutual patients. And if I cannot accomplish this, then I dont deserve the title orthodontist. If pts said they only want invisalign and nothing else, I usually refer them to my gp friend who does invisalign. If pt hates braces, wants to pay a lot of money and is willing to accept compromised tx outcome, then invisalign is a good alternative.
I have seen numerous pts who come to see me b/c they were unhappy w/ the outcome of invisalign treatment. So far, I have re-treated 3 of them with regular braces.
thanks bud. i've got pretty bad lower anterior crowding, so i guess i'll stick with conventional braces there. now the maxillary...we're good...invisilign all the way🙂
I have(okay now HAD) some mild lower anterior crowding, my invisalign certified orthodontist wife just finished treating me with conventional brackets. Her rationale for treating me this way, quicker. Me, I kind of liked having funky colored o-rings and power chains for the few months I was bracketed😀
My wife really like invisalign for the correct cases(mainly adult, mainly class I mild crowding), as Charles Tweed has already said, invisalign ends up costing the patient more, because the cost to the treating doc for the set(s) of aligners is much more than the materials costs for brackets/wires/o-rings, etc. On the flipside though many a patient has come for a consult with my wife asking for invisalign because they have been wonderfully effective with their marketing, especially to the coveted esthetics driven adult female market
well, i'm all about the quickness. i want my teeth to get straight, and quickly! thanks for the input
Invisalign is free at "Bee You", the only cost involved is lab fees (about $600-$700). And yes, everyone gets certified in their 3rd year.
Also, you have to be a candidate for this type of treatment, not everyone can opt for invisalign over the conventional braces.
Also, you have to be a candidate for this type of treatment, not everyone can opt for invisalign over the conventional braces.
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What is the 'absolute final answer' lab fee? Charlesweed said lab fee is $4000. Coldfront said lab fee is $600-700. My friend said lab fee is $2500. It's hard to believe one company Invisalign will charge different offices drastically different lab fee.
4000-5000 dollars is the treatment fee. Invisalign has several fees: 1 arch vs both arches, 12 month vs. 18 month (more aligners cost more $$$). It was about 2000 dollars 2-3 years ago.
My wife is being charged invisalign lab fees of just over 2 grand for a full 2 arch case.
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Invisalign lab fees are on a sliding scale. If you don't do a ton it is 1495 for full tx and half that for an express case (10 aligners or less). If you are starting over 25 cases a quarter the lab fee drops to about 1000 per full case. Invisalign is great for tipping teeth and intrusion but if you need to move them bodily you're pretty much gonna need brackets. I have seen some pretty sweet orthognathic cases done completely by invisalign though. Pt obviously had brackets immediately pre/post surgery.
This patient probably had to pay a lot of money for both invisalign and ortho brackets (pts usually want ceramic brackets, which are 4 times more expensive than metal brackets). Most of my adult patients (mostly blue-collars) cannot afford this type of treatment. There are a few high-end orthodontic practices do offer this: 12-24 months w/ invisalign (may be longer for 4 bi ext cases), 6-12 months w/ braces.
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so not completely. you contradicted yourself.
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i've seen a lot of Invisalign relapses. pts get pretty pissed off about that. problem here is case selection - and Invisalign doesn't teach GP's how to do this properly b/c they're too busy trying to push the product $$$.
my dentist stopped doing Invisalign except for extremely minor tipping for this reason. you don't wanna lose a life-long patient.
my dentist stopped doing Invisalign except for extremely minor tipping for this reason. you don't wanna lose a life-long patient.
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Suggesting that aligners are the root of all evil in cases of treatment failures is like suggesting that a laceration of the lip with a high speed drill is the fault of the equipment and is unrelated to the sudden inadvertent movement of the patient/or operator.
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A weekend course on Invisalign may be sufficient provided there is adequate understanding of the mechanics of tooth movement. While it is possible to treat cases that require distalization, intrusion or extrusions with aligners, the treatment becomes challenging for both patient and practitioner when attachments are needed to achieve the desired movements. Removing an aligner in the presence of multiple attachments become a difficult task.
Temple only charges $187.50 for students to get Invisalign.
Invisalign likes Temple(and just about any dental school) where they can get a bunch of newly certified invisalign providers that will send them cases where they can charge the big $$ for a set of aligners. In talking with my wife about the lab fees that invisalign charges, they apparently have a sliding lab fee schedule where what the doc pays for each case is dependent not only on the type of case, but also on how many cases that doc does, so the big providers get the bettter rates - basically a "bulk discount" rate.
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i have a little different use for it. I'm using invisalign on just the upper arch for my dad to intrude his upper four incisors. He ground them down and as they wore away they also super erupted. This way we can create some space in addition to opening his VDO a bit. Invisalign works well for intruding and is great for a big esthetic case like this where there aren't any bodily movements. While he's in the upper tray we have been working on the lower arch. Delivering them this month.
Invisalign probably gives special rates to ortho programs at d-schools. As DrJeff said, "bulk discounts" gets you the best lab fee rates.
Another thing about invisalign, if your one of their "big" clients, they'll pay for you to goto their meetings. While my wife is more of an "old school" wire-bender, one of her former ortho residency classmates who practices in the greater San Francisco Bay area, is getting a free weekend in Vegas real soon on Invisalign for one of their conventions👍, and they're not putting her in some gnarly off strip hotel either!
