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How Invisalign became the biggest user of 3D printers

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Re: How Invisalign became the biggest user of 3D printers

#121

Post by meroes »

Insanity wrote: post #78
Oarch wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Best of luck! I completed mine 2 years ago and have to say it was 100% worth the patience.

My SO is now using it. I’m waiting for her impressions to decide if I want to do so. The dentist told me I’d only need it for like 3-4 months, minor corrections. But it seems like such a hassle. Always having to remove it before eating anywhere, no coffee, and gotta make sure I’d always travel with the next set of aligners etc. Glad it worked well for you though!

Because it’s annoying to remove and clean for eating each time, it will get to a point where coffee or the odd snack is not worth the hassle. Maybe once in the year process did I find it worth it to remove it to eat fourth time in a day. It’s a weird reorienting. Like jumping into a new energy level that is more taxing, but is in a minima such that you want to stay to 3 meals a day.

Re: How Invisalign became the biggest user of 3D printers

#122

Post by ivan_gammel »

rancar2 wrote: post #100
aewens wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just be prepared near the end for refinements. When I did mine, I had to do another 6 months of refinements near the end to help get the locking of my bite grip to be where it needs to be. I was otherwise expecting that day to be when I’d be done, and later learned refinements are a fairly common occurrence when going through Invisalign. As the sibling comment, it’s definitely worth it. Best of luck!

This isn’t the case with 3D printed bracket systems. Studies have shown that the 3D personalized bracket system from LightForce will cut down treatment time over 40%. The refinement phase is also spot on and finishes much faster, and recent studies have shown further improvements. Also, the more complex the case, the larger the delta on the performance. Not all orthos are practicing this way but this is where the fut…

LightForce still requires a lot of visits to the doctor. Nice source of revenue for orthos. Aligners may become more accessible to patients, because that tech is more scalable by design.

Re: How Invisalign became the biggest user of 3D printers

#123

Post by bialpio »

torben-friis wrote: post #91
LurkandComment wrote: post #65

1) Currently on invisign - mould 24 of 42 2) For 5k (Cdn) - I get 42 moulds, a method used to scan and submit my progress for each mould duration, feedback and advice from a dentist, a scan test to see who they fit 3) Considering the cost of braces and the flexibility these allow (as long as you are disciplined in wearing them) it's well worth it 4) My teeth were really misaligned. At 42 I just decided to do it so I…

How long does the process last? Are the moulds monthly or something like that? I haven't done any similar treatment and I'm considering it at 35. Worried about the length since I heard it takes far longer for adults.

My wife started with wearing one mould for 7 days and went down to one mould for 4 days near the end of the treatment (but the orthodontist knew we wanted to move and may have accelerated the schedule). She started wearing them at ~36. She says they told her it may be up to 2 weeks per mould before she started the treatment but that wasn't the case for her.

Re: How Invisalign became the biggest user of 3D printers

#124

Post by troupo »

infinitewars wrote: post #116
jaggederest wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To expand and agree: turnips, beets, hard whole grains, if their baby teeth aren't visibly worn by the time they fall out, it wasn't hard enough. Jaw and face bone grows by stimulation. It's not just a dental thing - it's sleep apnea, sinus infections, facial structure, voice timbre, and attractiveness. If it's enough, they won't even need their wisdom teeth pulled - having your wisdom teeth pulled is substantially a…

Thanks, and 100% agree. We have never had to pull a wisdom tooth either and carrots were always the go-to roadtrip snack growing up.

I've had carrots (and fruit and hard snscks) since I don't remember when.

My teeth have been crooked since forever. So?

Re: How Invisalign became the biggest user of 3D printers

#125

Post by bookofjoe »

gnabgib wrote: post #97
bookofjoe wrote: post #96

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47441521

Yours was already a dupe, why comment? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47411658

Because I didn't realize it!

I SO wish HN would tell me things I submit are dupes BEFORE I submit them! In the past that happened, but something changed and now I never get those notices....

Re: How Invisalign became the biggest user of 3D printers

#127

Post by pipe2devnull »

silisili wrote: post #118
LurkandComment wrote: post #65

1) Currently on invisign - mould 24 of 42 2) For 5k (Cdn) - I get 42 moulds, a method used to scan and submit my progress for each mould duration, feedback and advice from a dentist, a scan test to see who they fit 3) Considering the cost of braces and the flexibility these allow (as long as you are disciplined in wearing them) it's well worth it 4) My teeth were really misaligned. At 42 I just decided to do it so I…

I had really bad teeth as a kid, so had braces. Periodically I'd have to go in to get them tightened, and remember the worst whole head pain for a day. Just curious is switching Invisalign molds is a similar process?

No it’s like a mild pressure on some teeth for maybe a day or two but then doesn’t really feel like much

Re: How Invisalign became the biggest user of 3D printers

#128

Post by animal531 »

malfist wrote: post #82
nntwozz wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had good smile all my life but now at 41 I've started to feel a tightness between my teeth. Lo and behold I read that as we age the jaws shrink which makes the teeth crowd together. I'm going for a free mouth scan in a couple weeks.

Wouldn't be such a big deal if we didn't keep all our teeth, but we do now. The migration forward as we age, plus wisdom teeth are evolutionary holdovers. Fun fact, I have one fully grown in wisdom tooth. The rest are still there, but never moved. My dentist is always after me to get all of them removed, telling me that they won't fill a cavity on the grown in one

I'm 50 and still have all mine. One of them is at a 90 degree angle pointing forward as well.

I grew up in a time/place where you never went to the dentist or doctor unless if you were pretty much dying, but at least times are changing now.

Re: How Invisalign became the biggest user of 3D printers

#129

Post by joe_mamba »

jmalicki wrote: post #30
joe_mamba wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The difficult part is not the manufacturing, but knowing how to do it properly so you don’t harm the patient. And yet I read plenty of horror stories of bad orthodontic results. Ask me how I know. Went to 3 different orthodontist to fix what a bad orthodontist did to me when I was a kid, and each gave me a completely different treatment plan. I feel like being an orthodontist is just eyeballing and patching your way…

Given that, shouldn't you be even more concerned about people YOLOing it, if even highly trained orthodontists are regularly screwing this up?

Absolutely. I'm sure some high-IQ high-functioning autists like John Carmack or Palmer Luckey could fix their teeth at home with some alligners they 3d printed in their garage better than a sloppy orthodontist, but that obviously doesn't scale to gen-pop.

Re: How Invisalign became the biggest user of 3D printers

#130

Post by infinitewars »

jaggederest wrote: post #117
infinitewars wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, and 100% agree. We have never had to pull a wisdom tooth either and carrots were always the go-to roadtrip snack growing up.

It's funny because I mildly disagree with your core premise (orthodontics are unnecessary), they should just be necessary as a disability accommodation , essentially. If we had 10-30% of the population in wheelchairs because we didn't let kids walk I would find the wheelchair industry odious as well.

Right, most of the orthodontics websites say 70% of people need them. I understand wanting to justify a total market size but if people actually believe that, it's getting out of hand.
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