Can International Students Get Orthodontic Treatment in Korea While Living Overseas?

Hello.

This is Apgujeong Orthodontic Clinic.

How do international students get orthodontic treatment?

They use Invisalign treatment during summer and winter breaks.

If they are lucky, they may also come in briefly during spring break.

24.07~25.12

Today, I’ll talk about an Invisalign case for an international student who lives in Korea only during the summer and winter.

24.07

This is an international student who came in for an orthodontic consultation during the 2024 summer break.

You can see open bite in the lateral incisors and crowding of the lower front teeth.

The right occlusal relationship is close to Class I,

but the left occlusal relationship is Class II.

If the upper and lower teeth bite together one-to-one, that is a Class II or Class III occlusal relationship.

A bite in which the canines through the molars interdigitate evenly by half on each side is a Class I occlusion.

We decided to extract the wisdom teeth and move the molars backward into the wisdom tooth space to correct the bite relationship and create space to resolve the crowding.

There was no protrusion or flaring, so the treatment was carried out without extractions.

Orthodontic treatment was started with the Invisalign Comprehensive program.

A total of 48 aligners were made for the first set.

Before returning to school, the patient tried on the first Invisalign aligner set, went through about a week of adjustment, and then left in late August.

After wearing the aligners diligently throughout the fall semester, the patient returned in December during winter break.

24.12

This is how the patient looked when they came in during winter break.

Orthodontic miniscrews were placed on the inside and outside to move the molars backward.

Winter break is usually short.

The patient left again with about five more months’ worth of aligners and returned during summer break.

25.07

This was 11 months after treatment began, after wearing all 48 aligners in the first set.

The midline was still slightly off, but the crowding and open bite had improved.

The Class II occlusion on the left side was still remaining.

To improve this, we proceeded with making additional aligners.

The number of remade additional aligners was 10.

The patient again took about four months’ worth of aligners and left, wearing them diligently throughout the fall semester.

Then, the patient returned in December during winter break and completed treatment.

25.12

The midline was corrected,

and the molar occlusion achieved a Class I relationship on both sides.

Now, let’s look at the before-and-after comparison.

The total treatment period was 1 year and 4 months.

24.07~25.12

The patient wore the aligners well even while overseas, and the result is good.

24.07~25.12

Now let’s look at the facial comparison.

From preparing for the orthodontic consultation to completion, the total number of visits was fewer than 8.

2024.07~2025.12

2024.07~2025.12

2024.07~2025.12

The attractive lip line was well maintained.

2024.07~2025.12

The molars moved backward into the wisdom tooth space, there was no root resorption, and root parallelism is good.

2024.07~2025.12

The treatment result is as follows.

The position and angulation of the front teeth, as well as the lip position, were all maintained as they were at the initial examination.

I hope this post is helpful for those wondering, "Can I get orthodontic treatment as an international student?"