I was surprised about it never really being done. You've got to wear a retainer forever.

My bottom teeth have become crooked over the years. I had braces but that was 30 years ago. My fathers teeth had moved so much that he needed to have oral surgery to fix his teeth to the tune of $13k. I decided to spend the $6k for invisalign to look better and avoid future surgery.

My wife had them and we had great results. I have had them a month and Im already seeing some nice results, still have 5 months to go.

Regarding wearing a retainer, once done kids are supposed to wear a retainer as well, your bottom jaw is always growing and shifting. I hadn't heard that this shifting is any different for adults.

I am considering getting a permanent retainer so I don't have to wear the retainer. I told my ortho I'll probably be good for 5 months and then start to forget. He says yes, everyone does that. LOL The permanent retainer is a small metal bar that goes behind your teeth to keep them from sliding around. I have heard a few people say that after a week or so, you forget its there.

After kids have braces, I think they wear a retainer for a certain period of time, but eventually they stop. After invisalign in adults, you NEVER stop wearing the retainer.

My instructions were to, "Wear the retainer as much as you can for 6 months, then only at night after that." And yes, if you really want your teeth to stay put, you keep on wearing the retainer...but only while sleeping.

My kids asked the ortho how long they had to wear their retainer. He asked how long do you want your teeth to be straight. He recommended always wearing one at night, forever. It's been 10 years for them. So far they wear it at night most of the time.
I know I only wore one for about 6 months and my teeth shifted around.

I grind my teeth at night and every dentist I've ever had has tried to get me to wear a guard at night but I never had the motivation to do it. Finally my dentist showed me a teeth casting of a man who ground his teeth his whole life without a guard. It was scary! That was all the motivation I needed. I decided if I was going to wear a mouth guard/retainer for the rest of my life, I might as well spend a bit more money and do invisalign.

Even after Invisalign, I had to get a permanent wire retainer behind my top 4 front teeth since from morning to night my tooth gap would visibly open.

i ground my teeth at night. And while working sometimes. My dentist who've I've known for over 30 years and is a friend always tried to get me to wear a guard. I did but would spit it out at night. 2 years ago during a check-up he said I've finally ground all the enamel off my teeth.

As I said back in September of this thread, that meant 16 crowns and 16 veneers. One bottom tooth was always pushed out before the work. My perfect smile lasted about one year and then my teeth started to move again and the bottom one was getting pushed out again. Hence the invisilign or whatever he gave me.

Net net: For anyone in similar situations, spend the money, very short money compared to crowns, to wear something at night to protect your enamel.

I've been wearing a cheapo, sporting good store mouth guard for about 4-5 years now. So I slowed some of the damage down. But after spending the money for Mrs. Lee to have an abscessed tooth removed and replaced, Invisalign looks to be a better bang for the buck and good preventative medicine.