Straightening my Teeth with Invisalign | Sponsored

I’m happy to be working with Invisalign today to share my knowledge of the difference between traditional braces and new, removable aligners like Invisalign.

It’s common knowledge that I never smile in photos, but I’m willing to bet you don’t know the reason why: I hate having crooked teeth.

I truly don’t like smiling for photos and it makes me deeply uncomfortable whenever someone insists. My teeth have been bothering me more and more as I get older, and I began to avoid smiling in general starting when I was eighteen or so. As a young girl, I remember my friends disliking their metal braces and the lifestyle changes associated with them. However, a few years later they all ended up with beautiful, even teeth. I can remember begging for braces to straighten out my crooked teeth… and I didn’t get them. I wanted straight teeth, too, and I won’t lie– I thought being able to change the color of my braces every few weeks would be fun. What can I say? It was 1990s. Fashion trends can be weird.

For whatever reason, my dentist wouldn’t recommend braces to my parents. There’s nothing seriously wrong with my teeth, but now as an adult I have problems with taking proper care of them as they’re not spaced correctly. I actually love going to the dentist (I know, what a weirdo), although the cost of all my dental problems has definitely added up over the years.

I finally decided to have my teeth straightened earlier this spring. I saw a cosmetic dentistry specialist for a consult for Invisalign, which has only recently become widely available as an alternative to metal braces. At twenty-six, I really couldn’t imagine having traditional braces and if not for Invisalign, I most likely would have ended up with costly veneers. There was no way I was going to go for traditional braces over Invisalign’s invisible braces.

photo credit: Invisalign

Invisalign’s clear braces are an especially appealing option for adults, but with the release of Invisalign Teen they’re also now an option for kids as young as ten or eleven. It’s easier to keep teeth clean and healthy with Invisalign, there are very few food restrictions, and far less soft tissue damage occurs with injury due to sports, accidents, etc. And gone are the days of extremely uncomfortable impressions taken with plaster and molds. Invisalign impressions are taken digitally with scanners. Having had plaster impressions taken three times during my life, I can personally attest that digital imaging is much easier. You can do some further reading about the advantages of clear braces on Invisalign.com.

Invisalign was definitely the right choice for me. Could it be right for you, too? If you’re thinking about straightening your teeth, I recommend taking the Invisalign Smile Assessment online to find out if Invisalign is an option for you.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post written on behalf of Invisalign. I received compensation for this post but not for Invisalign treatment. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Comments

  1. says

    i wanted braces for vanity reasons and was excited when my dentist suggested i get them to help with over-crowding. when i inquired about Invisalign, i was told i wasn’t a good candidate due to the over-crowding. hence, i haven’t done anything. happy to hear it worked out for you…can’t wait to see you flash that beautiful smile!

    • says

      Really? That surprises me. I heard a presentation on Invisalign by an orthodontist who suggested seeking an orthodontist’s opinion for tougher cases. I could see how he might be right– they’re a little more specialized than dentists. Maybe you could go for a second opinion?

  2. says

    I don’t have anything helpful to say about tooth-straightening–my teeth are a little crooked on the bottom but straight enough not to bother me or become a medical concern–but in high school I randomly saw an Invisalign infomercial that featured one of my middle-school science teachers. It was the weirdest thing. (Almost as weird as seeing my boss in an online banner ad for Progressive insurance last year.)

    • says

      Whoa, that is totally weird. I hear commercials are really profitable, so it’s pretty cool too!

      My teeth on the bottom are a nightmare. They’re so crowded that my gums in the front tend to bother me when it rains.