I'm Shooting Rainbows Out of My Face Because of Invisalign

I’ve always had busted teeth. Let me take you back to 1999 when I was in middle school, and I was taken to the orthodontist for a consultation. He told my poor parents that I would need headgear to correct my bite. HEADGEAR. In MIDDLE SCHOOL. It would also cost $4,000 in 1999 money. He was adamant that Invisalign wasn’t an option because it couldn’t rotate my teeth in the way that I needed. I cried at the thought of being the new kid at my middle school, a slurpy, metal-mouthed monster, AND a financial burden at the same time.

Fast forward to the future, November 2017. We can fix my busted teeth. We have the technology.

I went to Dr. Yazji's practice and was thoroughly impressed with how put together the office was compared to some other clinics in the area. Not only was the clinic nicer, but the prices were reasonable, too. They told me $350 was due that day, $350 next month, then $96 per month for 24 months after that. Bonus: I was able to get half of the cost paid for by my insurance (look into that)! They scanned my teeth with the iTero scanner that day, and the tech said Dr. Yazji would review my scans to make custom adjustments for the lab to produce.

The first set of aligners came in January 2018. I remember thinking that I could never get used to the feeling of having the aligners in my mouth (spoiler alert: I did eventually). My tongue was crazy irritated from me compulsively running my tongue over the edges of the aligners, even after getting the edges buffed down. I bought some orthodontic wax, rolled it thin, and wedged it into the small gap between my teeth and the aligner trays. My tongue instead touched the soft wax and HOLY CRAP WHAT A RELIEF. I always kept a supply of wax on me until my permanent retainers came in around July 2019 (the retainers extend over the gums, too, so I stopped needing to wax up).

After the first few trays, I had tiny, barely noticeable attachments added to my teeth. These attachments are the technological breakthrough that made busted teeth like mine treatable with Invisalign. They started off super sharp, and my poor tongue got cut up YET AGAIN. Eventually, taking the trays in/out wore them down so that they felt more like nubs than baby shark teeth growing sideways out of my actual teeth.

Once I was done with my full treatment, I had two additional sets of refinements, and I got impressions taken in July 2019 for my permanent aligners. While the iTero scanner is used to get the Invisalign aligners made, the retainer is still made with old-fashioned goopy, gross impressions. Unfortunately, the impressions were done incorrectly, so I had to come in again to get them redone about a week later.

I still wear my retainers for 22 hours a day. I’ll update my review in November when I go in for my last appointment, where I should transition to only using my retainers at night.