Smooth Process, So for So Good, Too Early to Tell for Sure

A little about me: I'm 29 years old and have never worn braces. I have some moderate crowding and rotations on my upper teeth. I do also have an overbite, but I don't think it looks that bad. My lower teeth are nearly straight. Maybe one tooth out of place, but it doesn't bother me enough to address. I never thought correcting my teeth would be in my budget until I heard of this company, which charges less than half of what traditional orthodontics would cost. My insurance doesn't pay for ortho for adults. I plan on using our FSA plan to pay for it this year.
How it works: This company allows you to straighten your teeth at home with remote support from a dental professional. I believe that cutting out physical visits to a doctor is what allows them to offer such affordable prices. Which is fine with me. After all I don't have gobs of time off work I can use to visit an orthodontist once a week. And I don't have gobs of money to spend on things that are considered cosmetic procedures. The aligners are similar to the clear Invisalign trays. The difference is that invisalign trays only cover your teeth. Sometimes the doctor has to glue "buttons" onto your teeth so the tray can get leverage to move your teeth. With Smile Care Club the trays also cover your gums a bit for the leverage. No buttons required. :)
To begin with you go to their website and fill out a short questionnaire that initially rules out any situations that would disqualify you from using their aligners. That way you don't have to unnecessarily waste your time with the following steps. Then you purchase an evaluation kit for around $95. This is refundable if they determine that you aren't a candidate or if you decide that you don't want to go ahead with it after seeing your plan. The first step after purchasing this kit is to take photos of your teeth at various angles they ask for and upload them to your account. They can then further determine your candidacy. If you pass this step, they send you an impression kit in the mail. The kit has a more detailed medical questionnaire you have to fill out along with consent forms you need to sign. Of course they have to tell you all the scary things that can go wrong. But my guess is that those things are rare. Then you have to take impressions of your teeth. The kit has two different putties you mix together quickly, roll into a tube shape, seat into a tray and bite into it. It can be kind of tricky. So I suggest reading all instructions carefully and practicing putting the tray into your mouth and positioning it without the putty a few times before doing it for real. This much have worked because I didn't have to redo any impressions. So you bag it all up when you're done and send it back to them. Then you find out if you are officially a candidate for real. Next they will send you what are called starter trays. Basically they are same thing as the trays that will move your teeth, without the moving part because they are an identical impression of your teeth. You are supposed to wear these the same as you would the regular trays, 20-22 hours a day, to see if you think you will be able to comply with the program and to keep your teeth in place until you get the real deal. You are also supposed to call them as soon as you try them on to let them know if they fit so they can proceed with creating your plan. You also get both the top and bottom teeth starter trays even if you are only planning on straightening one arch. You only have to wear the starter tray arch you plan on correcting on a regular basis, unless you are whitening the other arch at the moment. The starter trays also come with whitening gel, a nail file to file any sharp edges, some chewies which are supposed to help seat each new set of aligners you get to get a tighter fit. Although I haven't really used the chewies with the starter trays since my teeth already fit them perfectly. Also has something called an outie tool to help pull the trays off your teeth. I don't use it, I just carefully use my fingernails. And a case for your trays. After several days you should get your plan emailed to you. This lets you know how many trays it will take to correct your teeth and how much it will cost. My upper teeth will take the maximum 20 trays (3 weeks each, 14 months). So it will cost me $1300. Would be less if your teeth require less trays. Or more if you are doing both arches. They also let you know if you will require IPR (shaving tiny amounts of enamel between your teeth to create more space for movement) which would require one physical visit to a dentist. Thank God this wasn't part of my plan. The idea of shaving precious enamel from my teeth made me extremely uncomfortable. It's also an extra $200 if you require it. The plan also includes a 3D computer model of your teeth so you can view the progression of your treatment from every angle. Pretty cool. I can't stop watching it. lol At this point you can purchase the plan and they send you all your trays and guide you along the way. I haven't purchased my plan yet so I can't really comment any further on the process yet.
My thoughts and where I'm at right now: As I mentioned before, I haven't purchased my plan yet. The reason for this is because my husband started a new job about a month ago and therefore we are not allowed to use our FSA plan until 3 months after his hire date. So basically, we don't have the money for it yet and won't until March 1st. They say the treatment plan is valid for 3 months after you receive it. I got mine December 16th. So theoretically I have about a 15 day window of time that I will still be able to buy it without having to start from square one. In the meantime, I'm required to wear my upper starter tray until I get the real trays. Booooo! Three months of wearing an annoying piece of plastic in my mouth that isn't even really doing anything except making sure my teeth don't move. My thoughts on the starter trays......for the first 5 days or so, they suck soooo bad! Even after filing the sharp edges down as much as I could without compromising the structure of the tray, they still caused canker sores on my inner cheeks, tongue, and gums. My mouth was really dry. I was thirsty all the time. My spit seemed twice as thick. And I had a lisp that made me sound mentally challenged. I was seriously wondering how I was going to wear these things for 14+ months if my mouth was going to feel this way. I later found out I only had to wear my top arch tray as I was only planning on straightening that one. So it did help only having to wear one. I bought mouth sore wash, oragel, and orthodontic wax from the drug store to put on the sharp edges. These things really helped with the pain and gradually the canker sores healed up and haven't reformed even though I've stopped using the wax. Maybe my mouth tissues have toughened up and adapted. The excessive thirst seems to have gotten better and I've managed to control the lisp to an acceptable degree. So I'm starting to think that I may be able to actually pull this off. As far as the plan goes for moving my teeth, it's not perfect, but I do think it will be a good improvement. My upper teeth will be able to be straightened and aligned, but to do so, my front four teeth will need to be moved forward to make room for my canines. So it will create a bit of an overjet unfortunately. I don't think this can be avoided without going the route of traditional metal mouth braces. And I'm not willing to do that. So I guess the question is would I rather have perfectly straight teeth with a little bit of an overjet or no overjet and crooked teeth. I think I prefer the overjet. But it's kind of hard to tell with the 3D model since all you see are teeth and gums. You don't see how your lips and face interact with this new alignment. So I am a little nervous. I don't want to trade one ugly for another. But I think I am going to go ahead with the plan as soon as I can pay for it in March. After that I plan on continuing with my review here.

So yesterday I decided to break out the whitening gel that came with my starter trays. I didn't want to use it until all my issues with the canker sores were gone and they were. Big mistake. I only used two application and by the time I got home from work, my front teeth were soooo sensitive. I should have known better. My teeth always do this whenever I try to use whitening products. I guess I hoped this stuff would be gentler because the manual that came with everything said that their gel is formulated to not cause sensitivity. Well either that's an exaggeration or I'm an exception. My teeth really weren't that discolored to begin with. With all the constant brushing I've been doing before putting my trays back in has pretty much taken care of any stains I'm might have had before. Needless to say, it's not worth it to me and I won't be using any more. This morning my teeth are still in pain. At least eating and drinking doesn't seem to be making it any worse. I actually stopped by the drug store and bought Crest sensi-stop strips hoping they would help. I just used a couple and it doesn't seem like it's done anything at all. :( I'm going to try taking some Advil, but I may just have to wait this mistake out. One other thing unrelated to the whitening gel I noticed this morning when I was looking at my teeth in the mirror. One of my canines has a faint line on it. It almost looks like a crack mark (omg I hope it isn't). But if it were I have no idea how it would have happened. I haven't had any violent impacts on my teeth and my starter trays don't actually move my teeth, so I don't think they could have done it.....of course it could just be my imagination and not even be a crack at all. Other than the sensitivity I'm getting from the gel it doesn't hurt any worse than the other teeth I applied the gel to. Lets just hope it's nothing.

I got the first half of my aligners yesterday and started wearing them today. So my total plan includes 20 aligners worn for 3 weeks each. They sent the first ten. I guess that's because they want to make sure you check back in with them. And that's their way of making sure you do. So I started wearing aligner 1 today. Ok well technically I wore them over the night last night too, but today will be my first whole day. When I first put them on my first impression was "Man, they weren't kidding! These things put some serious tension on your teeth!" But that feeling kind of went away after several minutes of wearing them. Now they just feel firmly form fitting. Not sure if that's a good thing or not. They said the feeling of tension usually lasts the first couple days of each aligner. It only lasted a few minutes for me. I did take them out for breakfast this morning and I did notice my teeth felt a tiny bit achy with the first few bites I took but that quickly went away. So I hope these things are actually doing what they are supposed to. The aligners are a tiny bit flexible, so it kind of makes you wonder if your teeth could somehow warp the aligner out of shape. But I'm sure that's just me being crazy. After all clear aligners have been around for awhile and have been proven to work. Maybe my teeth are just really adaptable. One good bit of news is that I don't seem to be getting any of the soreness or mouth ulcers that I did with the starter tray. I haven't even had to file any sharp edges! I'm thinking maybe my mouth tissues have toughened up since wearing the starter tray. Whatever the case is, I'm really happy about that and happy that I don't have to mess with orthodontic wax. A confession I will make it that I did not wear my starter tray all the time until getting my real trays. I was supposed to, but I only wore it overnight and I often skipped nights. My rational was that my teeth have never been in braces, they have been in this position my entire adult life, so I seriously doubt that they a going to shift. And honestly my starter tray still fit the same yesterday as they did the first day I got them. So I don't think I was bad to do what I did. However, I can't recommend that anyone else does the same though. So as far as updates go, I will probably only do quarterly updates (trays 5,10, 15,20) because I really could hardly notice a difference in the 3d computer model of my teeth from tray to tray. So I don't think any changes will be noticeable until I've gone through several trays. I will do an update if anything noteworthy happens or changes otherwise only. Wish me luck!