Invisalign Lite Treatment for Crowded, Protruding, and Gapped Front Teeth in Your 40s

Hello.

Let me share a story about clear aligner treatment for someone in their 40s.

Invisalign Lite is a program used for mild malocclusion that can be resolved within 14 stages.

The number of remakes is also limited to one.

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However, after one remake, if an additional appliance is unavoidably needed due to issues such as relapse, another remake may be possible by paying an additional fee to Invisalign.

Today, I’ll show a case treated for protrusion and spacing of the front teeth with Invisalign Lite, in which remakes were done a total of two times.

This is a patient in their 40s who visited in October 2023 for orthodontic treatment.

The patient had previously received orthodontic consultation but gave up after hearing that full orthodontic treatment would be necessary, because they were not confident about wearing braces for a long time.

Then they came in after learning that there was such a thing as partial orthodontic treatment for the front teeth.

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The front teeth are spaced and protruding.

A mismatch in the midline is visible.

The right molar occlusion is not bad, but

The left molar occlusion is Class II, and both the upper and lower front teeth are protruding, so the protrusion is fairly severe.

The molar alignment, including the wisdom teeth, is not bad. The misalignment is limited to the front teeth.

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After treatment, there is an area in the large molar region that needs an implant.

Rarely, all four wisdom teeth have erupted well and the bite is in good condition.

If we were to achieve Class I on both sides according to the standard approach and also resolve the protrusion, full orthodontic treatment would of course be necessary.

Whether by extracting all four wisdom teeth and moving the entire dentition into the wisdom tooth space, or by extracting four premolars, orthodontic treatment of at least two years would be required.

However, the patient did not feel the need to correct the protrusion and only wanted the front teeth aligned. If only the front teeth are aligned, a small amount of space can be gained through interproximal reduction, making alignment possible.

In this case, though, because the left and right bite relationships differ, we would have to give up on matching the front midline, and there would also be limits to improving the protrusion.

Even after accepting those limitations, the patient wanted short and simple partial treatment for the front teeth, so we estimated Invisalign Lite would take 9 months and began treatment.

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This is the appearance after wearing all 14 appliances in the first set over 5 months, from November 2023 to March 2024.

The spacing between the front teeth has been resolved.

Due to the limitation that the shape of the front teeth narrows again toward the bottom, the teeth are tightly together, but the edges still appear slightly spaced.

The protrusion of the front teeth has improved significantly, and

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The alignment is also perfect.

It looks good already, but for a more refined result, we proceeded with making additional appliances.

The additional appliances were worn for 4 months, from April 2024 to July 2024.

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The area that still looked spaced after the first set of 14 was reduced as much as possible through additional interproximal reduction.

Of course, the amount of interproximal reduction should not exceed 0.5 mm per area across both the first set and the additional set.

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Since the bite is also perfect, we decided to finish the orthodontic treatment.

Now we need to prepare for an implant in the empty large molar site marked by the blue arrow.

Because an implant involves first placing the root into the jawbone and waiting several months before placing the crown, completing the treatment takes 3 to 4 months.

The patient wanted to have the implant done at a neighborhood dental clinic because of distance and schedule.

Since it is best to do the retainer all at once after the implant treatment is completed, we asked the patient to wear the last Invisalign aligner every day only while sleeping to maintain the current condition.

After 4 months of implant treatment, this is the appearance at the November visit.

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The patient admitted that they had not been wearing the appliance well because it became uncomfortable during the implant prosthetic period.

As a result, the front teeth became spaced again.

What is the advantage of having implant prosthetic treatment done together at an orthodontic clinic?

It allows continuous monitoring of whether the final retainer fits properly and whether there are any occlusal changes during the interim stages of implant prosthetic treatment,

which helps prevent situations like this.

Since the front teeth had spaced again, we could not finish the orthodontic treatment like this, so we decided to pay an additional fee and order another appliance to close the spaced front-teeth area again.

Although it was Invisalign Lite, a total of two remakes were made.

Finally, all treatment was completed in April 2025.

Orthodontic treatment was completed over 9 months from October 2023 to July 2024, and additional orthodontic treatment was carried out until April 2025 due to relapse in November 2024.

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The implant prosthesis completed at another dental clinic is slightly disappointing in terms of occlusion.

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The protrusion of the front teeth has also improved significantly, and

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This is how it looks with the retainer in place.

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The improvement in the protrusion of the front teeth is even more obvious from the side.

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Now let’s look at the change in facial appearance.

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The neater alignment and

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The cleaner angle of the front teeth

Front tooth alignment and angulation make the smile look much more refined.

Although the treatment period became a little longer due to relapse caused by not wearing the appliance, the patient’s desired concerns were carefully addressed with Invisalign Lite.

If there are people who are hesitant because the full orthodontic treatment period feels burdensome, I hope this post helps.