As a teenager I was asked by my routine dentist if I was concerned about the overlapping of my teeth and if so I could be referred for braces. However I was really self conscious about wearing traditional wire braces that would be really visible and declined the treatment.
It wasn’t until my early twenties that I started to become more self conscious of my misaligned teeth and it was heightened even more so when I decided to have a career in dentistry. As a dental nurse I became conscious that I worked in dentistry but didn’t have a beautiful smile to go with it, particularly when patients would comment ‘what a beautiful smile’ my colleagues had, and I would purposely try not to show my teeth as I felt embarrassed in comparison to my colleagues’ smile. It was then a comment that my mum made one day (funnily enough). She had noticed that my front teeth had crossed over more. Looking at past photos of myself in my twenties and to current day I realised she was right!
However if I was going to go down the route of having braces I wanted to avoid the traditional wire brackets still and I also wanted to go to a dentist that was passionate about the care and end result for their clients. If I was going to go ahead I also wanted a dentist who was meticulous in achieving the best possible result for me.
Therefore when Anna informed me that she had been accepted as an Invisalign provider I immediately jumped at the chance to be one of her clients. As I have known and worked alongside Anna for a number of years I can honestly say that if anyone was going to help me achieve my desired smile and offer me their honest, professional and desired aspiration for me it was going to be her.
After having my photos and then my impressions taken I was keen to view the 3D Clinc Check animated video that showed my teeth in their current alignment and played the stages through to show how my teeth would move with the predicted end result! I also appreciated Anna’s eye for detail and if she wanted to improve the 3D Clinc check further she would offer her professional and expert opinion and say ‘I think we can improve that result even more’. This was reassuring! With these alterations made I was so surprised to see how amazing my teeth were aligned in the 3D video without having to have extractions or any invasive treatment, with only an estimated time frame of 12months!
I was surprised at how easy it was to insert and remove my aligners. I had also heard stories from other people how when they had traditional braces they found them painful and had to take pain relief. My teeth were occasionally a little tender which you would expect when you’re applying pressure on them to move them, but not once did I feel that pain relief was required and generally they felt very comfortable.
I found it so much more manageable to be able to take them out to eat, without having the embarrassment of having trapped food to be removed (like if I were to have traditional braces). It also meant that I could enjoy the food I wanted to eat without any restrictions. Being able to remove the aligners gave me the opportunity to keep up with my good oral hygiene easily as I could stick to my usual regime of brushing and flossing that I was used to, without having to put additional effort and time into cleaning in between brackets again, like if I wore traditional braces.
I am now so much more confident in showing my big smile or laugh, whereas I use to smile for photos with my lips tightly shut, I now feel confident to smile with my aligned teeth on show! I cannot thank Anna and the practice enough in giving me this opportunity and confidence I never thought I would have.