Do you look at a picture of yourself and see your crooked teeth?
Are you embarrassed to smile?
Is it difficult to maintain your teeth because you cannot brush appropriately or floss due to tightness in between teeth?
Is it hard to bite or chew food?
So many questions……so many concerns and frustrations. But, alas! You are not doomed to suffer in this way. It is NEVER too late to improve your smile or oral health! My mother never had orthodontia and she always struggled with her bite when eating, especially as she got older.
Here I am – mid-60s – and I finally got tired of looking at my overlapping front teeth; especially in photographs. My frustration was compounded by the fact that I went through the long ordeal of orthodontics as a young teen – teeth extractions, head gear, braces, rubber bands, retainers. But back in those days they thought you only had to wear your retainer for one year after the braces came off. Well, they were wrong…..and now my teeth have shifted. With everyone as they age, your teeth naturally shift forward a bit.
So I started researching Invisalign and made the decision, and the commitment, to do this. I didn’t realize how much of a commitment until I started. Read on.
Here’s the deal with straightening an older person’s teeth. At this point in life, many people have issues with receding gums, abfractions, grinding at night, etc. These issues are due to or put stress on the teeth. Also, as an older adult, your bone density becomes less and bone stops growing. Teeth are anchored by bone. So with straightening, the stress must be minimized by NOT moving the teeth as much as you would a young person. This is accomplished by very fine sanding of the enamel in between some of the teeth. In this way, the teeth have room to move without as much impact on the bone.
Many regular dentists are doing Invisalign but I chose to go to an orthodontist who specializes in this process; mainly because of my age and other teeth issues. The cost is the same no matter who you go to. But you will find cost differences with geographic location. So treatment in Minnesota is cheaper than treatment in the San Francisco area. Goes along with the cost of living.
The Journey
Keep in mind that this process is different for everyone but with some similarities. I’m writing this to give people a heads up so they know what to expect, based on my experience.
Initial Visit:
A computer maps out your teeth/gums. Per the desired correction, the computer analyzes the course of movement and creates multiple sets of clear plastic aligners. It will determine how many aligners you will need.
Progressively, each aligner has a very minimal correction from the previous one. For me, since my corrections were not too much, I started out wearing each aligner for two weeks at a time. After the first few, my orthodontist had me change to every 10 days. That means that my total treatment time should be around 6.5 to 7 months total.
In order for the aligners to stay put and be snug in order to affect movement of teeth, the aligners have to grab on to something – an anchor. Those are the attachments. Little knobby things glued to the front of your teeth. The number of attachments and where they are placed are different for each person. Yeah, I didn’t know this as all of the pics of Invisalign never showed those. Hmmm… If you find that one of the attachments is rough and cutting into your mouth tissue when you eat, the orthodontist/dentist can smooth it. That happened to me and the smoothing made all the difference.
So here are what my teeth look like with attachments but without the aligner:
In process:
There is a specific way to remove and insert the aligners. Follow the directions! When removing them, start on one side and gingerly work them loose from the attachments. Sometimes it feels like you are also removing your teeth, but you aren’t. Just feels that way because your teeth are tender from the movement. Also, for you women, forget wearing nail polish as it will chip when you first start to remove an aligner….unless, of course, you use a gel polish. I made a mistake one day. Not thinking, I went and had a regular manicure. Then I went to lunch. I sat in the car at the restaurant, freaking out, wondering how I was going to remove my aligner to eat. In desperation, I used my car key to loosen the edge of the aligner. DO NOT DO THIS AT HOME!!! Luckily, it worked – no damage to my freshly done nails or teeth.
Although there is tightness after inserting a new aligner (just like tightening the wires with braces), I’ve never needed any ibuprofen like when I had metal braces.
This part is weird. My lips get really dried out. Maybe because your spit naturally coats your teeth but not the plastic. I have to wear a clear lip balm. Sorry ladies. No lipstick! It transfers onto the aligners. Bummer. I manage to add a little color by taking my finger and touching the lipstick; then touching my lips. Dab dab. That works.
Let’s go back to that “commitment” part. If you are going to make sacrifices to do this – time, money, way of life – then jump in with both feet; meaning, no cheating. The wear time each day is 20-22 hrs. But because I’m committed, I’ll do around 22.5 hrs. I want this to be successful, and I want to get done!
Eating/drinking:
Since you cannot eat or drink with them in, you learn real quick that you will be limited to 3 meals a day. No snacking because the aligners are a pain in the butt to remove, and you have to brush them and your teeth each time they come out/before putting them back in. So yes, you will lose some weight. But hey, that’s a good thing! My one big challenge with this is having my iced coffee in the afternoon when I need a “boost”. Since I didn’t want to bother yanking them out for my quick beverage, I came up with a workaround. Now, this might sound a little gross, but hey, it works and no one sees me.
I set up my station on my desk: iced coffee with a straw, empty cup, and a cup of water. I take a drink of coffee through the straw and swallow. Take some water in my mouth and swish it around really well. Spit it out in the empty cup. This is what you do when you are desperate for caffeine. Even with doing this, you will still see some minimal staining on the aligner but most of it can be brushed away with toothpaste.
Some people say that you can drink anything with your aligners in. They are wrong. If you drink something with sugar in it – sweet tea, soda, etc., that sugar stays on your teeth and starts eating away at the enamel…..leading to tooth decay. Follow the Invisalign instructions; not someone’s opinion on their blog.
What do I miss? Corn on the cob, BBQ ribs, big juicy hamburgers….anything that requires you to bite into something with your front teeth. TT = tender teeth. Like the time I got my fav In-N-Out burger after just starting Invisalign. So I get home and get comfy, pick up that delightful gem, and go to bite. Yeeouch! So even for something soft to bite into, I look like a wild animal shaking its head back and forth, trying to tear through the meat/lettuce/onion. Also, I miss my Boba tea while running errands on Saturday. Just water to gulp. I have to keep reminding myself of the end result and that it’s not forever.
PLEASE be respectful of others around you when you are eating in public; meaning, do not remove your aligners at the table (that’s what restrooms are for). That is just gross watching someone digging around in their mouth and removing what looks like their teeth. Also, when you remove them, guess what comes dripping off of your teeth and lips? Spit. Yep. Gross.
Aligner care and case:
Germ alert!
Those little plastic aligners are store houses for germs. They are not like the old retainers that we used to wear. They can be death traps…..for your teeth and gums. So you sleep all night and take them out when you are ready to eat breakfast. Thick, dried spit. Gross. You have got to rinse them really well with COOL water (warm/hot water will warp them). Then you have to brush them inside and out with toothpaste. Just buy the cheapest toothpaste, such as Colgate, because you will be using it a lot. After you eat, brush your teeth and rinse. Then use an interdental brush between each tooth. Rinse. You do NOT want to pop your aligners back in with trapped food. That leads to tooth decay and gum infections. When I am out of the house, I use a travel toothbrush and those disposable plastic interdental brushes. Sometimes you have to be creative when using a public restroom. NEVER put any of your stuff directly on the sink counter! I take a few folded paper towels in my purse in case public bathrooms don’t have any. Guys, you need to get over it and carry a small case with you when you leave the house. You will not be able to cram all of the stuff you need into your back pocket.
At home after I’ve removed my aligners to eat and I’ve brushed/rinsed them, I lay them on a paper towel. I never use the case at home. But if I’ve used it while out of the house, I’ll come home and wipe the inside with alcohol. You don’t want residual spit or germs brewing in that enclosed container.
Just think smart.
Month 4: Are we done yet?
Month 5: I am on aligner #15. With this one and the last two, I’ve noticed that I’ve had saliva accumulating in the upper one so sometimes spit drops fly out of my mouth while talking. Also, I now have a lisp when talking (never had that with the other aligners). There are also gaps with two of my front teeth. Additionally, the top aligner doesn’t appear to seat on the attachments like they should. If you run into this issue, CALL YOUR ORTHODONTIST/DENTIST ASAP. Do NOT wait a month or two until your next appointment because you will go for a few months without correction taking place (once you go in to the office, they may need to take additional dental scans and then you wait another month for new aligners). That is a waste of time. You are already inconvenienced with wearing these, so why drag it out?
Check out this info about gaps and aligners not fitting properly:
https://support.clearcorrect.com/hc/en-us/articles/204109778-Aligners-Don-t-Fit-Incisal-Gaps
So I did go back in to the orthodontist 2 weeks earlier than previously scheduled. They did new scans and he removed all of the attachments from the top teeth. Whoa. Feels like freedom but boy, were my teeth super tender for 4 days after that. Now I’m wearing the current aligners for 3 weeks until my new ones come in after the scans were assessed. Because of the extended wear, I’m having more of a brown stain build-up on just the upper aligner, even with brushing with toothpaste. I tried the Invisalign Cleaning Crystals but they did not work at all. In fact, the solution made the stains worse. With heavy brushing, I managed to clear most of the stains.
Since I was in this holding pattern until my new aligners were ready, I had a little more flexibility in wear time. I took advantage of that and left them out during an all-day job interview. What a relief to not have to worry about those while I talked. When I eventually put them back in before going to bed, they were a little snug but back to normal by the next day.
Month 6:
My new aligners are ready! He added a few attachments back to the upper teeth as continued correction is still required. What a difference to have an aligner track well again! No more saliva build-up or lisp when I talk! Yay! But the bottom teeth correction is complete. So he removed the attachments from those and now I just wear an aligner tray just as a retainer.
Speaking of saliva…..
I had recently started noticing a weird smell. I thought it was body odor. Not. I thought it was my breath. Not. I finally figured it out. Even with brushing with toothpaste, the saliva lingering in the aligners and gum tissue was starting to smell. So I solved that problem 100%. After brushing in the AM and also before bed, I started swishing my mouth (NOT the aligners!!!) with Listerine. I’d spit it out and pop in my aligners. That did the trick! Hooray!
Month 9:
I’m discouraged because this current top aligner is not tracking again. Noticeable incisal gaps. This is aligner #10 of set #2. I went in for a visit with the ortho and they did new scans…..again….and ordered a new set (#3) of aligners…..sigh….now the waiting game.
Month 10:
Finally after one month my new aligners were ready. I had worn the same top aligner now for 2 months. Very discouraging to be in this holding pattern with no correction taking place. At this visit they removed the previous attachments and put new ones on in different locations. Some are back on my front teeth again. But the good news this time is that I get to change aligners every week instead of the usual 10 days! Yay! Getting impatient and SO ready for this to be done.
Months 12-14:
SO frustrated. This stupid COVID thing has put a halt to my treatment. My ortho office is completely closed so I have not been able to have my treatment progress.
Month 15:
Finally the office opened up again. I had tracking issues again so they had to do a new scan and I wait another month for new aligners. News flash: Never hope for a certain time period or end date for your treatment. It will never be as you expect. I should have been done by now. Sigh. On another note, not counting the virus hold-up, treatment with wire braces would have been a lot faster; however, that would not have been my best option due to my gum recession and age.
Month 16:
At the beginning of the month, almost done but that one front tooth is stubborn and hasn’t quite lined up. A couple more weeks has gone by since then with two aligner changes and now it has. Phew. So today back in the office to have all attachments removed….finally.
I can’t believe that my alignment is finally corrected! Talk about dragging this out. Issues for hold-up:
- Invisalign takes longer than standard metal braces. Each time you have to make changes in the aligner plans, it requires a new scan of your teeth and almost a month to get new aligners.
- My correction did not go as planned because that one front tooth on the left was quite stubborn, as was the smaller one next to it (overlapping and rotated).
- The stupid shut down from COVID caused me to lose 3 months of progress with not being able to go in and get new scans for revised aligners.
See the before and after pics. Doesn’t look like much but you can’t see how some of the other teeth were rotated; both top and bottom. The bottom corrected quickly…..month 6…..so I was merely wearing the same aligner on the bottom since that time.
Even though the correction is done, I am now waiting another 3 weeks to get new aligners that will tighten up the teeth by closing any micro gaps in between (that you can’t see). Once I get those it will take only about 2 weeks to tighten things up. Then I will get my permanent retainers. I wear those for 6 mos. 24/7; then go to at-night only. Once I don’t have to wear them during the day, I will have my teeth whitened…..finally!!!
Lesson learned….to pass along to your kids or just to note for yourself if you go through this: ALWAYS wear your retainers at night FOREVER as directed by your dentist/orthodontist. If you don’t, everything will eventually shift and all of this hard work will have been in vain.
———————————————————–
Before…..and After:
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/getting-braces-at-age-64
https://www.health.harvard.edu/oral-health/are-you-too-old-for-braces
https://www.dentistryiq.com/clinical/orthodontics/article/16353676/are-braces-better-than-invisalign