Have you heard of Invisalign? No? It’s the most amazing thing ever. Basically, it’s braces, INVISIBLE braces.
What is Invisalign?
Invisalign works the same way traditional braces do, except that no one will notice that you’re wearing it. Unlike the traditional metal wires, Invisalign works on a system of tray sets that are progressively swapped until you achieve your desired smile.
Reasons to Get Invisalign!
Well, I’m sure prior to reading this, you’ve already more or less convinced yourself that this is an option. So let me give you the breakdown on the good parts.
- Your smile stays the same as it always has. Obviously – no metal wires, no frames, no nothing. Your teeth will change slowly, but hardly anyone will notice your progress until you’re done.
- Of course, dental hygiene is slightly easier. With the trays being removable, there’s no worry about having to dig food out of tiny crevices or crannies that I can only assume would happen for traditional braces.
- Flexibility. Are you going on a holiday? Don’t want to be in pain? Want to eat your favourite sticky toffee or chewing gum? No problem. You have the choice to decide when you want to wear it, and when you don’t. Of course, not wearing it for long hours hinders the process, but hey, you got to binge for that 1 day. It’s worth it.
Now then here comes the tricky thing no one tells you. I was one of those who did not really do much research on Invisalign, except for read a few blogs and articles on whether it worked and how effective it was. I took the plunge last December and paid for my first instalment of what would be an SGD$8500 hole in my pocket.
And after wearing it for slightly more than 8 months, here are 6 things that NO ONE EVER WROTE ABOUT / TOLD ME. Albeit I had no friends who were actually on Invisalign to share their stories personally.
- IT HURTS. You’d be thinking DUH of course it hurts. Braces HAVE to hurt. Well, that is true. BUT what no one tells you is that it will hurt WAY more. Let me explain. Traditional braces are on your teeth 24/7. The pressure is more or less identical throughout the process. The pain will of course be there during tightening, which will be no different from changing a tray. But the pain I’m talking about here is REMOVING and WEARING Invisalign. ESPECIALLY new sets. You think it hurts to have it on? Trust me, pulling it out and wearing it back on exerts more force on the already tender tooth, making it so dreadful that a lot of us actually resort to either not eating, or not removing Invisalign when we are eating. The pain tends to be worst on the first 3 days of certain sets. A piece of advice – strategically change your Invisalign at night before you go to bed, so you’ll sleep past the uncomfortable first few hours. Since there is hardly any mouth movement while you are asleep, you probably wouldn’t feel the pain as much.
- IT HURTS PART 2. Now teeth aside, another common area you’ll find feeling tender and sore will be usually the tip or underside of your tongue. Because the edge of Invisalign can sometimes be sharp, you will realise this tenderness about 2-3 days into the new set. The good thing about this? Let your dentist know – they can buff the edges down for you. My awesome dentist has been doing this for me since set 2, and I’ve only complained about it once or twice in the entire process I’ve gone through so far (Set 22 now)
- IT DOES NOT ALWAYS STAY TRANSPARENT. Invisalign is transparent. That’s its selling point. But it may not always stay that way. Especially if say you had curry, or really strong-colored spices like heavily marinated chicken. Either you ate it while wearing your Invisalign, or you didn’t brush properly before putting them on. Resulting in a very yellow tinge that will just make it look as though your teeth were super yellow too! Of course, with proper care, Invisalign will only turn a slightly murky cloudy tone as the days go by – no worries though! You’ll be swapping them out every 10 or so days so it goes pretty much unnoticed!
- IT TAKES A LOT OF DETERMINATION. At one point, I was honestly close to giving up. Being able to remove it anytime I want gave me too much freedom to customise my plan. There were days where I would go mornings without wearing them. And also, because there were sets that hurt so much you felt like it wasn’t worth it. Hang in there – it gets better!
- IT MAY TAKE MORE THAN 1. Sometimes, Invisalign process undergoes what my dentist calls a refinement. Basically what happens is every month or so your dentist will meet up with you and provision you with a few more sets. This ranges from 3-5 sets usually in my case. If she notices that the progress has not been going as planned, for example in my case, the top set was not sitting properly where she had predicted, so she took a new mold from my teeth in it’s current position, and refined the next few sets to correct the difference. So it’s not to say that Invisalign is a fixed process that doesn’t require a dental expert to look after your progress after the sets have been created – more than not it requires a specialist who knows what to look out for and how to correct the situation.
- EATING IS NOT AS SIMPLE AS IT SOUNDS. Sure – I said you can eat whatever you want. Technically that’s not true. After a few sets of Invisalign, you’d realise, as I did, that there are certain foods that you can no longer bite. Either because your teeth are sensitive due to the movement, that it becomes hard to even bite on a whole apple (I have to chop them up now), or because the gaps in your teeth are getting so wide that the food constantly gets stuck in places they never got stuck in before! It’s honestly the most frustrating thing in the world. You’d think that Invisalign freed you from that burden, but no, it in a way actually allows bigger particles of food to go in! I have gotten anything from meat chunks, vegetable leaves to even tea leaves stuck in my teeth for the whole duration of my lunch, until I was irritated enough to give up and brush my teeth. In fact, you’ll soon come to conclude that wearing your Invisalign to eat is much more convenient than not (though don’t tell my dentist I said that. She’d probably kill me)
The journey is far from over. As of today, I’m on the 22nd set of…. 47, which was the initial number my dentist originally quoted. Now, with the refinement in progress, even I’m not sure if that number will increase (or decrease). All I can say is get a good dentist that you can trust, and preferably somewhere convenient because you’ll be going back pretty often.
I can’t say it’s rewarding or not, but I have noticed my bite change in the last couple of months. And so far I must say I’m satisfied with my experience. Wish there could be less pain, but hey the price we pay for straight teeth, eh?
[Dipped in Crimson] 