How do Invisalign attachments work?

[jenn773]

Do they pull teeth forward or push them back? I've seen attachments on the teeth that need to come forward.. but I don't understand how attaching them to the front would work..wouldn't it do the opposite and put more pressure on the front of the tooth pushing it backwards? Can you put attachments on the back of teeth?

[Zoso]

The attachments correspond to little "bubbles" in the tray, so they don't push back or foward any extra compared to what the tray would be doing without them.

If you think about how the trays "grip" the teeth, you'll quickly see that they can move the teeth quite well in certain ways, but not well in others. They are great at intrusion (pushing the teeth deeper into the gums, as it were). They are pretty good at moving the teeth into/out of the arch. They are OK at moving teeth along the arch. But they are not good at turning (rotating) them (especially the "round" teeth) and have no ability without attachments to extrude teeth (that is to pull them further out of the gums) The attachments give the trays a means to grip in different ways so as to make some of these tougher types of movement more easy.

Edited to add: yes, they can be placed on the back of the teeth too, but this is not routinely done unless the prescribing doctor explicitly requests it.

[jenn773]

That makes perfect sense. I just thought they were to push or pull, not to act as grippings. I know I'm definantely going to have to have them on some teeth now... but I'm not going to worry about them being more visible. It ain't metal so there's no complaining there! Thanks for explaining that to me!

[myhollywoodsmile]

Hi jen, I just got my 5 attachments 2 weeks ago, and have written about it fully on my blog. There is also a link to a youtube vide of somebody having their attachments put on which I found quite helpful.

You can definitely feel the extra grip that zoso talks about. They feel much, much firmer.

I have seen elsewhere online people having their attachments on the back of the teeth. This wasn't something I was offered by my ortho though. I suppose it would be more important if you were having them on your front teeth.