Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. However, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Readers, I have a confession to make.
My smile belies a horrific secret. You see, I am careful in photos to make this face:
Healthy, white, straight teeth, right? But what’s that lower lip hiding?
Here is the dirty truth…
Wait for it…
Yeah.
Cue the horror music. Yes, while the beauty blogger has decent looking upper teeth, I use my healthy overbite to hide my crooked, awful, messed up lower teeth. And I have no one to blame but myself. Back when I was about 11, I went through the braces song-and-dance, and I found my retainer uncomfortable, so guess what? I didn’t wear it that often. Then one day, I couldn’t fit it in my mouth anymore. My teeth had re-crookified themselves and I’d not only wasted my mom’s investment in braces, but I also lost my chance at straight, beautiful teeth.
Why would I ever share my hideous dental secret with the whole of the Internet? Because I know I’m not alone. There are others like me, adults who squandered their straight teeth and now have lost all hope at having them again. I’m here to tell you – there’s hope, and it starts with Invisalign.
I would never wear traditional braces again. First of all, they are just plain ugly, and secondly, I’m an adult. No offense to adults with braces, but I’d be pretty embarrassed walking around with metal-mouth at almost thirty years old. But an almost-invisible alternative with pain-free checkups and no impressions taken? I could go for that.
Enter Invisalign (now available to pre-teens and teenagers too as Invisalign Teen), which I didn’t know much about and always assumed would be preventatively expensive. Little did I know that the cost is comparable to traditional braces and can even be covered by dental insurance just like braces. Plus, the average adult treatment time for Invisalign is 12 months. I was stuck in my braces for several years as a child.
As much as I’ve learned about Invisalign, I also learned some scary truths about braces. Braces brackets can damage the enamel on your teeth and leave you with permanent staining. I totally had that happen and have only been able to reduce the visible effect over the years through excessive whitening – I’m never getting that enamel back, and if you had braces, neither are you. Invisalign doesn’t do that – and it can actually help protect your teeth from cavities while you’re wearing it to straighten your teeth. Bonus!
The very best part of Invisalign, though, and the thing that attracts me to it the most, is the iTero scanner. What is it? It’s a fancy schmancy computer that makes a 3D image of your teeth. Why? So you don’t have to take impressions. When I was a kid and they first stuck that awful gel in my mouth, I literally threw up. I would have crooked teeth for the rest of my life in order to avoid going through that again. Luckily, I don’t have to.
(Note: not all Invisalign doctors have the iTero scanner. Check out to find a doctor in your area who performs Invisalign straightenings – there’s a symbol they use on the Doctor Locator to show whether the doctor has iTero or not.)
Wanna get in on the invisibly straightened teeth game without shelling out the dough? You can enter the Rafflecopter sweepstakes below for a chance to win Invisalign treatment for FREE:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
There’s lots of chatter out there about this technology and its advantages for both kids and adults over traditional braces. Check out this cool for more info, or like Invisalign on Facebook to join the conversation.
Have you or someone you’ve known used Invisalign? If so, what was their/your experience?
I started invisalign about 2 years ago for the same issue! My top teeth were great… I thought. I guess my whole jaw alignment was off. I blogged about it a little. But it’s such a slow process. My first assessment equaled 34 trays. When that was done I went in and was told that I needed an adjustment…. 40 more trays! It was/is exhausting, but easy. I’m half way through it now. 🙂