I've been slowly stretching with acrylic but they never seemed to heal ( always painful). Decided to try these and for the price, said what the heck, let's try. I'm so glad I did. I put these in and the pain was gone after the initial stretching burn, of course. They are a little shorter then the acrylics but that just made them more comfortable to wear. Used the stretchers for about a week then put in the plugs that came with pkg.