My Adventure with Invisalign
On December 7, 2016 I started wearing Invisalign.
It was not easy.
It was not fun.
Nearly no one knew.
This is my story.
How it started
I cannot believe how this all started. I spend my entire teenage years in orthodontia, jaw surgery at age 20 , and most
of my early adulthood back in orthodontia to only be, at the age of 35 years, going back into this yet again.
I remember the moment I discovered it. Just like every other day of every other human being visiting the restroom during the workday. Upon completing my business I looked in the mirror to check for anything embarrassing on my teeth to realize one of them had gone rogue. Yes, this single tooth had pushed passed the perfect line of soldiers in the bottom of my mouth. I was mortified. After all this time, all those dollars, all the pain, I was standing there looking into a bathroom mirror with a defeating look of disgust on my face, as I realized I was back into it.
It took over a week to talk to my wife about it as I felt my vanity had been affected. Like all other incidences she met it with incredibly rationality. “This is just how it went, all you can do is have a professional look at it,” she said. So I moved forward with the plan and after seeing my dentist eventually got in to see an orthodontist.
Although, I know from experience that moving teeth are bad news to some degree I didn’t expect it to be completely bad, more so just a “this is what we can do” mentality. On the day of the appointment I sat down in the first examination chair where my “case manager” spoke with me about what was going on and my background. I explained the orthodontia I had previously, but more importantly the jaw surgery I wanted everyone to be abundantly aware. She took a panoramic x-ray and put me back to waiting for the doctor to review.
When the orthodontist sat down with me he had a very free look in his eyes. His face said “this is going to be easy” however, as soon as I closed my mouth that expression changed. He looked at the case manager and said “I am going to do a full workup.”
To shorten the details a bit, the rogue tooth was pushing my top teeth forward as my perfect bite was starting to unravel. The progress was too advanced to simply “throw a retainer on it” as the Orthodontist put it and he said he would recommend doing Invisalign for a period of six months.
This conversation led us into the reason I was there, I was unlucky. It was simple biology which drove me to the Orthodontist, although the surgery was done later in my growth period I still managed to grow and this is what killed my bite. The only positive I took away from this consultation was the opinion the Orthodontist thought I would have been here no matter the preventative measure I partook.
I received all the information I needed to know about the process including a procedure called inter-proximal reduction of my bottom front incisors, which means shaving millimeters off those teeth to make room to pull them back more.
I left the office with mixed emotions, but mostly negative ones, all because I was the old man back in Orthodontia…again. I sat in my car in the parking lot and rightly or wrongly had some thoughts.
I felt stupid.
I felt embarrassed.
I felt ashamed.
How I decided
I didn’t like being here again and I feared it greatly. My wife was on board with doing whatever I needed to do to regain my bite. She knew what I went through with jaw surgery, I was not going to give up on my teeth.
In my work life the research I do is grand and the same in my personal life as well. I spent days doing research, consisting of speaking with prior patients, other dental professionals, even reading peer reviewed medical journals. I wish I could say I came to the decision gracefully, but I didn’t, I simply gave into it as the best way I could seek treatment and not end up in steel braces again.
The other decision which was made this day was the need to keep this between my wife and I. I did not intend on telling anyone about this to spare the embarrassment of having to explain why the old man was back in Orthodontia.
The Process
To save some space I will briefly describe the process.
They start out by scanning your teeth, which is exactly as it sounds. They take three dimensional scans of your teeth and bite, the Orthodontist moves your teeth where they need to be, they send the work to Invisalign, and Invisalign “prints” your aligners.
When I came in to get my first aligner I got to find out how long my treatment plan was going to be. I was in luck and it ended up only being 14 weeks long. I was ecstatic I would only have to deal with this for an inconsequential course of time.
On the same day receiving my first aligner they added attachments to my teeth. These attachments are little mounds of glue which create leverage points for your aligner to move your teeth where they need to go. I only had three, which the Ortho tech had never had a patient with so few (not surprising considering we were doing so little moving). They did the inter-proximal reductions, which smelled and sounded horrible, then showed me how to put the aligners on and take them off. I asked them many questions about the rules and there really was only one rule they enforced: they must be worn 22 hours a day.
I will describe the nuances of living with Invisalign later, but from beginning to end it was a drastic change in routine with much modification and abandonment of habits, both good and bad. I think I did even more research after I got them than before due to the drastic changes needed to make the Invisalign work.
After the treatment they put me into a retainer for 30 days, which then became a nightly process from there on out, which is where I am now. I wish I could say it was easy, but it really was not.
My thoughts on the treatment
Speech
I must preface this with the understanding my undergraduate degree is in Speech Pathology, so I have the inside track on modifying speech. For me speech was not a problem until I had to wear retainers full time for 30 days at the end of treatment. However, I did meet a patient at the Orthodontist who exhibited very drastic lateralization (shhhing your ‘s’es). My feeling on this is other people will have different experiences, but I am more attune to hearing these changes than most.
The Convenience is a Lie
The whole process started with scans of my teeth before thanksgiving, aligners after thanksgiving, and retainers at the finish. On the whole, the process was not as convenient as the commercials would have you think.
They have a lot of buzz around the phrase “eat what you want” and “no dietary restrictions,” but this is a lie. Keeping your teeth healthy is the paramount need when having any sort of Orthodontia and I find Invisalign to be even more difficult to keep your teeth clean than when I had steel braces. Humans are constantly sweeping their teeth after meals, which is one of the vital processes to keeping your teeth clean. With Invisalign you are not able to sweep your teeth and thus your teeth have to be cleaned very well before putting them back in. This means you spend lots of extra time attempting to clean them…one should try doing this when one only has two hours to eat and clean their teeth per day.
In the end you will restrict your diet out of necessity and convenience for yourself. After you ate that really good chocolate cookie only to spend 45 minutes of your precious “out time” picking and cleaning your teeth afterwards you will rethink your diet.
Beware of your Teeth
Keeping your teeth clean when you have nothing covering them is easy. All the acids and deposits, which wash across your teeth or shortly cleaned off with your saliva as you go through your day. With Invisalign you trap those contents on the surface of your teeth. This means those acidic and “bad for your teeth” things you consume do much more damage than they did before.
I chose to forgo all the “really bad or your teeth” foods and drinking much more water to help with oral health. These were not habits easy to break and were very trying, but I did it nonetheless with much complaint from my body.
Don’t Over-clean
As I desperately tried to keep my teeth clean you can over-clean your teeth. On my first day I realized this as my teeth became very sensitive and my gums became very irritated. I didn’t know what exactly was happening and assumed it was Invisalign, but research revealed others experienced this as well and the culprit was over-brushing. After doing much research on brushing after meals I found recent research results (2014) of a ten year study, it revealed brushing right after meals increased enamel loss on patients and this drove me to come up with a plan.
Let me preface this in fact I am no dentist and not all plans work for everyone, but below is the plan which worked for me. Either way I would encourage you work it out with your dentist.
Cleaning Plan
The path I chose for keeping my teeth clean was avoiding acidic foods, ending meals with base foods, and suffixing every meal with two minutes of chewing sugarless gum. I only brushed my teeth lightly in the morning 20 minutes after breakfast and did the typical real deep clean before bedtime.
People could not tell
In the end the only people I told about this was my wife and co-workers. I didn’t plan on telling my co-workers about it, but in the end I just could not hide it from them. When you work closely with others they can tell when you are struggling with speech, can’t go out to eat anymore, and have to “go to the bathroom” every time before you eat. I told them all about it and really expressed my embarrassment in the process, but luckily for me they were all supportive with the going consensus being “why be embarrassed for trying to improve yourself.”
Overall, no one found out about it on their own other than a former orthodontist assistant with whom I work. I would like to say it didn’t matter, but I still feel embarrassed having done this at my age and a second time after going through so much before.
Modifying Your Habits
Research revealed one vital thing regarding Invisalig: in order to survive this I would have to densely alter my eating habits. I decided to remove soda from my diet, as having sugary syrups resting on your teeth and feeding bacteria with no means for your saliva to help clean your teeth, was a bad thing. Several recent studies also revealed the softening effect of soda on enamel and the damage a toothbrush can do if you don’t give your saliva time to work their magic. This coupled with the fact I had to keep in my aligners 22 hours a day meant no soda. Check.
Another no brainer was alcohol. Alcohol is meant to be enjoyed over time and since I didn’t have the time I couldn’t partake. There was really no other reason…it was just easier this way. Check.
Time was a major factor into the habits and behaviors I had to change during my time. Two hours a day was simply not much time. Research revealed in order to maintain optimal tooth health you need to give your saliva time to clean the bacteria from your food off your teeth. This meant every time I wanted to eat something it was a 20 minute adventure in eating, waiting, cleaning, and putting them back in. So no long consumption foods, eat as fast as possible. Check.
The above revealed all factors of eating requiring greater than 40 minutes was a no go. No restaurants, little fast food, no work outings, no parties, and no lack of planning. Everything required planning my day around the aligners down to the ability to take them out cleanly and put them back in cleanly.
During my time I met someone who was in Invisalign then ended up in steel braces because, she failed to keep her aligners in long enough. She described herself as only somewhat compliant and said “I should have known my personality would not let me follow the rules so strictly when it was so easy to break the rules.”
The Outcome
I wish I could say I am completely out of the woods, but I am not. I am on “nights only” wear of my retainers, but alas a problem was discovered at my last appointment. I have two months to see if my teeth will “set” appropriately and go back into the Orthodontist. If they don’t set I will go back into Invisalign, but at least I already have a plan this time. I am going to hope I don’t have to go back, but I will do it if that is what is needed of me.
In Conclusion
I researched from several resources before and during going through this, what I learned was everyone found difference ways to cope. I was on the far edge of the spectrum with the strict rule followers and did not want to add time to this because I didn’t have a little bit of self-control.
Given all the self-control I needed to employ in my time in Invisalign I would not recommend this for anyone who lacks the ability to regulate behavior and hold themselves accountable. I know people who had their teenage children do this and I heard good, but mostly bad and expensive stories.
I don’t plan on doing this again, but if I end up in this boat again I would only do Invisalign for 6 months or less, anything greater I would prefer metal braces. Being I was in both worlds the metal braces were much easier to deal, at the end of the day I could eat whenever I wanted and didn’t have to worry about persistently cleaning my teeth after every single meal, snack, or glancing look at a doughnut.
I write this because I feel it is necessary for people to know. Of all the research I could not find anyone telling a story of what I experienced. In my opinion, if you are dedicated you can make it through this, but if you need someone to make you do something you need steel braces.
In the end, it was worth it, I am better cause of it, I have learned from it, I have my bite back, and I am happy about it.
