My History With Braces & Retainers
I had braces twice when I was younger! Once they were removed, sometime in middle school, I had a permanent retainer on my bottom teeth to keep everything in line. I was eating an ice cream sandwich in the sorority house my senior year of college and felt a pop! My bottom retainer had popped off. I was crushed! I found a local orthodontist and got fitted for a new bottom retainer.
And we all know how that goes I never, ever wore it.
Choosing Invisalign
My bottom teeth immediate started moving around and in the past few years have become a little more pronounced and a little bothersome. I knew if I wanted to get them straight I would need to get braces or Invisalign, I had a few friends who had done Invisalign with great results so I started researching to learn more about my options.
Then one day I opened an email from the tooth fairy aka SmileRefresh. They wanted to join forces and get me set up with Invisalign, so I could share this whole process with you! #toothfairydreamscometrue
So here I am at 31, getting Invisalign! My first treatment should take about 5 months, so I’ll be done just in time for the wedding.
My First Invisalign Appointment
Here in Denver, I am partnering with i-orthodontics, which has a few locations around town. My first appointment was at their very cool Highlands Ranch office and was super easy. I met with the team, got photos and X-rays, set up my payment plan and got a scan of my teeth. That’s it! No icky mold or nothing. Just a quick scan, that’s sent to be made into my Invisalign trays. You can see in the pictures below my current teeth and what my teeth will look like when they are done!
To be totally honest I’m pretty nervous about wearing these, 20 hours a day for 5 months, it’s a lifestyle change. Clay’s excited, as in he is excited to make fun of my new voice! Hopefully, my slurring won’t be too bad. I pick up my retainers right after Thanksgiving so stay tuned for my follow up post!
Hi, just wanted to share my recent Invisalign experience too! I had braces in middle school and by 12th grade, my teeth had totally shifted because I never wore my retainers! I got Invisalign my last year of college and it’s a big lifestyle change for sure. I’m always chewing gum so it was to stop cold turkey, and most days I wore the aligners <18 hours a day (oops) because I didn’t want to have to awkwardly remove and rinse them when out with friends. I didn’t notice a change in my speech (they are so thin), and most people didn’t even notice that I was wearing the aligners. I recently ended my treatment because I moved, but I plan to resume treatment in the next few years because I can already tell that my top teeth have shifted. I have a permanent bottom retainer but a removable top retainer that I wear at night. The best part of Invisalign is the scans instead of molds (I did have a mold for the top nighttime retainer though – it was as gross as I remembered!). Good luck with your treatment, and I hope you get the results you’re looking for!
Thank you so much for sharing! Good to hear you didn’t notice a speech change and that other person didn’t notice them either. Fingers crossed my treatment goes as well as yours!