Hey guys! Many of you have been asking about my Invisalign updates and I'm finally here to share some. For one, I was on my 40th pair of aligner (out of a total of 55) when my dentist, Dr Tiew, asked me to drop by his clinic to test out this new machine called iTero Element. iTero will help us to determine if I need to do some readjustments.
So, what is iTero, you ask? The iTero Element is the first of its kind machine that allows Invisalign patients to view the progression of their teeth pre-Invisalign. It is an Intraoral scanner that is set to replace the traditionally "torturous" mould when used to take the teeth's impression. Kids who have gone through braces will know how gross the green gel is and how it doesn't guarantee 100% success rate the first time, so you might have to redo it again. You would also have to wait for a few weeks for the actual teeth mould to come out and also wait for your ClinCheck to determine the next step of the Invisalign treatment.
This is where the iTero Element comes in with its redesigned wand that has build-in controls and a user-friendly interface. It helps dentists to do a quick and thorough colour scan of the teeth to monitor its progress so far. So, I guess you could say it's sort of a digital mould and X-ray at the same time.
According to the website, iTero Element scans are designed to work with the Invisalign system, the exclusive Invisalign Outcome Simulator, OrthoCAD and OrthoCAD Viewer. The wand is fitted into the patient's mouth and can do real-time 3D scans within 40-50 milliseconds (20 scans per second captured) so that it improves visibility and communication between patient and dentist.
With ClinCheck, we are only able to view the predicted results but with iTero, we patients will get to see the current and simulated progress of the teeth in high-definition 3D. The touch-screen is very intuitive and you can pinch-zoom and spin the image for a more realistic feel.
Basically this is my teeth progress thus far (on the right). If you noticed, the ones coloured green are on progress while the ones coloured yellow means that they are not really on track. Because of this scan, Dr Tiew decided that it would be best for me to do some readjustments to my progress and so he sent over this scan to Invisalign HQ and I will be receiving new aligners for a more optimal treatment.
Dr Tiew took some photos of my current progress again and within a month, I received my new aligners. There are a total of 20 pairs. I'm already on the 16th pair and I'm quite excited to finish the whole Invisalign process in another month plus! I'm already seeing better progress after doing this readjustment, all thanks to iTero for identifying the points of adjustment!
Disclaimer: [Sponsored] I have received complimentary Invisalign treatment from Align Technology, Inc & ST Tiew Dental Group (Tiew Dental Clinic @ Bukit Indah, Johor Bahru)
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