Attachment removal

[Rosieee]

Hello!

I was just wondering if anyone has had any particular difficulties/disasters with getting their attachments removed?

Just thought it would be interesting to know.

[havingitdoneintheuk]

Nothing major to report but as she had used a resin to match my teeth last time it was tougher to remove than the normal stuff. The circular attachments were harder to get off than the rectangular ones as harder to get the pliers round them! She drilled a hole in the middle then pulled them off with pliers. A bit uncomfortable but no pain!

[MCOMarkhamOrthodontist]

Attachment removal is usually done with a bur. Removing resin from the tooth is similar to removing the residual resin after a bracket is taken off. Generally, there shouldn't be many problems. Some people may be sensitive to the air blowing from the handpiece, but otherwise, it's a fairly simple process.

[Rosieee]

Yea - I have had one taken of and it took about 5 seconds and I didn't feel anything - I didn't believe it was actually gone until I felt it with my tongue!

I just wondered if anyone had any difficult experiences because it would be interesting to know!

[anastasia's_new_smile]

Hi, just thought I'd share my experience with attachments. I had my resin attachments removed a month ago. My dentist had to use a special file to remove the resin, and he told me he prefers to err on the side of leaving a little bit of resin on the teeth as opposed to damaging the tooth enamel. I wholeheartedly agree with this approach.
Anyway, I've been doing professional whitening with custom trays at home for the past month and I noticed that the teeth that had attachments are not bleaching the same as my other teeth. I'm frustrated with this as I was supposed to be done with the whitening in three days. In three days I was supposed to complete the final step in my smile makeover---a composite placed on the side of one of my teeth to fill an area of decalcification that had occurred over the years due to crowding. Well, because I'm not done with the whitening, my composite placement is delayed for another couple of weeks.
I went to the dentist today and he filed and buffed my teeth once more to get rid of the resin. It's better, but I can still tell there's a certain degree of roughness to the teeth that had the attachments. I'm hoping this time around the teeth bleach evenly.
Anyway, sorry for being so long winded, but I thought I'd share my experience.

[mommamorin]

what did he do to "buff" your teeth? My dentist just used a drill and you can see all kinds of swirls on them.

[anastasia's_new_smile]

Hi, to answer your question my dentist used an electric diamond file followed by a "finishing" tool. Not quite sure what the finishing tool is but I suspect it's a very very fine file that helps to smooth the teeth....probably much like how a nail file has a course shaping side, and a fine finishing side.
Well needless to say my teeth are not smooth like the other teeth that never had attachments and this is probably my biggest complaint with invisalign...or at least with the resin my dentist chose to use.

[Rosieee]

Thanks for your replies everyone!

Anastasia your post was great because my exact worry is about whitening my teeth after treatment - I don't want to get a patchy result because of left over resin.

To be honest though my one and only removed attachment tooth feels soooo nice and smooth - especially because it's nice and straight now!

Hopefully the removal of the rest will be as smooth - time will tell.

[havingitdoneintheuk]

Anastasia, I've still got bits of resin left from attachments, I shall wait until refinements complete then ask for them to be smoothed down further!

[anastasia's_new_smile]

Hello everyone!
Just wanted to post again regarding the residual resin I experienced. I went in TWICE in one week to have resin removed, but fortunately my dentist was very understanding. He couldn't quite see where all the remaining resin was, but he used one of his fine little scraping tools and was able to tell by the roughness where it was. He gently buffed away some more and now I'm much much more happy with the whitening progress! I seriously thought I was losing my mind as I knew there was resin left but my dentist couldn't quite see it.....what a relief when he could finally FEEL it and he just nodded in agreement! Anyway, I'm so thrilled to be almost done with all of this, and feel very fortunate to have been able to save my money and AFFORD my treatment! I think you really gain a new appreciation for caring for your teeth and gums through the process of disciplining yourself to wear the aligners and brush and floss consistently. You only have your teeth once!! Good luck to everyone!!
P.S. I HIGHLY recommend going the route of custom trays and nightly whitening applications versus going the route of speed whitening or Zoom whitening. I initially wanted to go the Zoom route but my dentist talked me out of it. THANK GOODNESS! I would have ended up with patchy awful teeth! Patience is a virtue, and if we can wait years to have straight teeth, we can wait a few more weeks for white teeth!!

[HG84]

Going by what everyone has posted, I think my dentist didn't turn up to some invisalign training days.
I had four buttons - two on top, two on bottom. The top two fell off conveniently at the end of my treatment! I need a few refinements and so I went in for new impressions last week. The bottom two buttons needed to be removed. He got the pick thing (that stabby stick they tend to stick in gums and <god forbid> cavities and scrape away with) and went AT it! As he hacked into my face I couldn't help thinking that it just wasn't right. Then he slipped, cut my lip open and I started to bleed. He continued hacking and pieces were flying everywhere (including into my eye) and then slipped again and slit my nose open! I sat up for a breather and asked if he could file these off rather than going at them with brute force. It honestly felt like a couple of extractions. She finally pulled one off and it flinged against the wall *PING* then went at the final one. She hacked away again until she slipped again and stabbed me in the gum chipping a tooth in the process. My gum started to bleed, my whole face was throbbing by this point and through the shock of being stabbed in the face three times I started to cry! How embarrassing!! Needless to say I didn't allow him to hack anymore and so I have half an attachment still left on my tooth and there is NO WAY she is going near it. I guess I'll go to my other dentist (who doesn't offer invisalign) an ask him (at great expense) to file it off and also smooth down my other teeth which clearly have some resin still remaining. Oh and repair the chipped front tooth.

WHAT an experience. Has anyone else had a torturous dentist intent on grief and pain!?

Should I sue!?

[Rosieee]

Wow.......

[mommamorin]

good grief, that certainly was an experience wasn't it. My dentist drilled them off, simple, easy.