Invisible Teeth Aligners: Pros and Cons of Straightening Your Smile

Back in February 2019, I began the process of straightening my teeth through an at-home invisible teeth Aligners company. My teeth weren’t particularly crooked, but I was hoping to straighten one of my top front teeth that sat sideways in my smile. The at-home option of invisible aligners was perfect for my needs and schedule; which is detailed in this post here.

What Are Aligners

If you haven’t read my previous post on the teeth straightening process, heres a quick recap of what invisible aligners are: traditional braces use wires, rubber bands, and adjustments by an orthodontist. This process is painful, annoying, and often expensive. Now, teeth aligners are available as braces alternatives. These aligners are clear caps that adjust your teeth, which you change every 7-14 days over the course of 6 months to a year.

Pros of Invisible Teeth Aligners

Visually Unnoticeable

As an adult, having a discreet way of straightening my smile was the best option. I hated the idea of having braces showing while I talked! Aligners are for anyone that is interested in having straighter teeth without having to have the bulkiness of traditional braces. When my invisaligners are in, no one can tell the difference.

Quick and Easy

Typically, the treatment time for invisible aligners is much shorter than that of braces. For instance, my process was a little less than a year! The aligners are easy to clean and remove, and they were even easier to get from an at-home kit.

At Home Options for Invisible Teeth Aligners

With a busy schedule, making frequent visits to an orthodontist just didn’t make sense. With the at home invisalign, I received an impression kit in the mail that I used to make dental molds of my teeth in less than 30 minutes! Those molds were then sent to board-certified orthodontists to approve and build out a custom treatment plan for my teeth.

More Affordable

Whenever I talk to friends that had braces, one thing always comes up: the expensive price tag! Without a doubt, invisible aligners are the more affordable option between the two. 

Cons of Straightening with Invisible Teeth Aligners

Easy to Forget

Let it be known, I am prone to losing my car keys quite frequently! I’m one of those people. The same can be said about my aligners, who often went missing for half a day after being removed for lunch. Truth be told, I have actually lost a pair of aligners never to be found again (no worries, I moved on to the next pair). Wearing removable retainers requires a level of responsibility that even organized adults can sometimes not handle 😉 This route of teeth straightening requires discipline in keeping track of when to change your aligners to the next set, keeping them in for enough time daily, and simply not losing them.

Causes a Slight Lisp

Having retainers over your teeth is always going to slightly change how you talk! It also can cause dry-mouth. Unfortunately for me, the lisp was hard to get over and I was a conscious of it. Often, I would take my invisible aligners out while talking on Instagram Stories. 

Invisible Teeth Aligners Can Stain Teeth

If you’re a coffee or soda drinker like me, having aligners in for 22 hours a day is tough! All cards on the table, I often found myself drinking soda WITH the aligners in. This, of course, is a no-no since food dye can get trapped in the plastic and rub up against the teeth. Overall, I think my teeth could just use a simple whitening treatment after wearing the aligners for a year. They weren’t badly stained, but not as white as before.

Slightly Uncomfortable

Honestly, would you expect anything else? Straightening teeth means physically moving them in your gums, which, of course, is going to cause some discomfort. I found that the most pain I would get was when initially changing to a new set every couple of weeks. To combat this, I would put the new aligners in before bed so that most of the discomfort could be slept off. It’s nothing that a new smile and some ibuprofen can’t fix!