I went to the dentist today to get the attachments on my teeth removed. Since December of 2021, when I started with Invisalign, I’ve had various nubs of plastic attached to my teeth, which improve the leverage or grip of the Invisalign aligners and helped adjust my teeth. Now we’re done with moving teeth around, they could be sanded off.
I’m not done done, though. I have two months of wearing retainers night and day (these don’t adjust my teeth but just keep them steady) and then however long (forever?) of wearing retainers when I’m asleep. Still, I got them to show me the before and after scans of my teeth, and they were pretty higgeldy-piggeldy before this all started.
The main advantage though isn’t that my mouth is more tidy, I was never that concerned about that (and in a pandemic when you’re wearing a mask, smiles matter less); instead, it’s the improvements to my dental hygiene. All that flossing and brushing to ensure there wasn’t food stuck under the aligners means that my gums have never been healthier and my teeth are lovely and clean. So there is that. I don’t think I have ever flossed so regularly and consistently as I do now.
Downside: it’s expensive and it hurt. For the first few weeks my mouth was always sore, and not eating whenever I wanted did bad things for my mood. I’d like to say it’s cured me of snacking but I’m still bad at grazing on days when I’m at the office and my retainers are out.
But, better than nothing!