*A series sharing my Invisalign journey with the great team at LIC Dental Associates*
Ladies and gentlemen, I’m finally on a path to straight movie star teeth! Can you tell I’m excited?!
Let’s backtrack to a decade (or two) ago when a very young Chinny realized she had an overbite. She felt self-conscious about her mouth and made an effort to smile with her mouth closed. She cringed every time she saw herself talking on video, felt she had a lisp and her lips looked ginormous because of her overbite.
Dr Saran and Treazure
Chinny eventually got comfortable in her body and made peace with her teeth because it ‘really wasn’t that bad’.
Years later…. Chinny discovered Invisalign!! *cue triumphant music* and she realized she could transform her smile without wearing obvious metal braces. She immediately made an appointment with a dentist…and realized she had an impacted wisdom tooth….long story.
Anyway, fast forward to present day and Chinny discovers wonderful dental surgery – LIC Dental Associates, and her world was changed.
Consultation
Under the skilled care of amazing Dr Saran and team, I had an almost-life-altering consultation where I was shown on a pretty cool machine, an iTero, how my teeth would look before and after correcting my overbite. Wow!
Stunning LIC Dental Associates
Over an hour-long appointment, Dr Saran talked through my current teeth situation and my options for rectifying it. My overbite, I was told might have been caused by thumb or tongue sucking as a child or by a bad habit of thrusting my tongue against my teeth. I eventually discovered it was the latter (ugh!) and was given a daily exercise to change this habit – I’ll let you how I get on in future updates!
Dr Saran advised me on 2 possible options to correct my overbite. One of which included extensive jaw reconstructive surgery followed by years of braces and the other being, Invisalign, to camouflage and improve function. The former was more likely to produce permanent results while the latter would be a cosmetic fix. For vanity’s sake…and because I’m not trying to be model or movie star, I went for the simpler aesthetic option, Invisalign! The goal would be to retract my front teeth to start closing my bite and further down the line, IPR, where the sides of my bottom teeth are stripped to make them a little bit smaller so there’s space to pull back my teeth further.
My teeth were scanned, pictures of my smile and teeth were taken from different angles, then I was sent home in excitement. I was to return in a few weeks when my Invisalign aligners trays were ready.
Dr Saran
If you’re interested in getting Invisalign, please go see an Orthodontist in person instead of using an online service like SmileDirectClub. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had patients come to me to fix the damage caused by using online services. An Orthodontist will look at your teeth, advice you on the best course of action and monitor your progress to ensure you don’t do irrefutably damage to your teeth.
D Day
I arrived for my appointment bright and early and sat down with the team to get things started. My attachments and trays had arrived. Attachments? Trays? What’s all that? Well, these are the cools bits that make up the Invisalign.
Aligner trays
Attachments are little teeth colored buttons that help the trays grip and move your teeth. Your Orthodontist figures out where they should be placed on your teeth to achieve the desired outcome. Mine are mostly on my front teeth (look really closely at my photo at the top of the page and you might see them), however, they’re barely visible. Most folks don’t notice them till I tell them I’m wearing them!
Aligner trays are a series of custom-made trays that you place over your teeth and attachments to gradually shift your teeth into place. The plan is to wear aligners for 6 months with a new tray each week. Each tray is slightly different and will eventually get me to perfect straight teeth!
My dental nurse, Treazure, sat me down and got to work placing my attachments on my teeth. Apart from the awkwardness of having a retractor in my mouth (I took hilarious selfies which I won’t inflict on anyone!), it was pretty painless. Once they were all in place, Treazure got to work showing me how to place and remove my trays. I’ll be honest, I was expecting to be in pain when my trays were inserted but it wasn’t painful at all, just uncomfortable. You’re keenly aware there’s something in your mouth and you have a pronounced lisp, which was quite funny. I will say, these side effects pretty much disappeared a few days later.
Dr Saran showing me a simulation of my mouth post Invisalign
Shortly afterwards, Dr Saran came by to run through my simulation with me one more time and explain next steps. I was given a lovely little Invisalign kit with containers for storing my trays, little things called chewies you bite down to help seat your trays properly and fancy cleaning crystals to clean my trays. I was also given these instructions:
- I would have to wear my trays for at least 22hrs a day. Tough at first but I got a hang of it
- I would have to take it off to eat or drink anything but water
- I would have to brush my teeth and floss after every meal or drink other than water
- I would have to be gentle taking them out and placing them back in so as not to dislodge my attachments
- I would probably lose a bit of weight. Folks tend to lose a bit of weight on the ‘Invisalign diet’ because you end up not snacking as much. Music to my ears!!
I’m over a week into my Invisalign journey and so far so good! This might sound silly but I honestly believe I’m already seeing results! My next appointment with Dr Saran is in 5 weeks time and I can’t wait to see and share the progress that’s been made so far!
If you’re considering Invisalign, please get in touch with Dr Saran and team at LIC Dental Associates. Not only is their clinic stunning, everyone’s friendly, knowledgable and warm. If you do pop in, tell them Chinny sent you 😉
*In exchange for sharing my story, I was given a discounted rate on my procedure*
Shop the Look
