Greetings! I hope everyone is having a good week so far as we enter Labor Day Weekend! I apologize for long absence. I’ve been thinking about my case, with my colleague Dr Shafeena Chatur (our neighboring orthodontist!), and what I want to do. After a bit of deliberation, I’ve decided to enter “Refinement”!

What’s “Refinement” you ask? Refinement is the optional stage after the proposed treatment plan with Invisalign has been completed. The objective is to make any other small changes in order to reach the desired outcome if they were either not reached from the original treatment plan, or if the final outcome was not quite satisfactory. Some examples would include closing up spaces that didn’t get closed all the way or rotating teeth a little more if they didn’t make it all the way. We just need to take new impressions at the end of the original treatment plan, after the old attachments have been removed, and send them into Invisalign. Refinement stage treatment is typically much shorter and does not require as many aligners.

I’ve already approved my proposed treatment plan so I should be starting up the treatment again soon. Stay in touch as I move onto the next chapter of my self-treatment!