There’s No Big Reveal With Invisalign

(Last Updated On: September 5, 2012)

It’s been about 16 weeks and my teeth have noticeably changed. They’ve moved and my whole smile has shifted. It’s more even, broader and well…. smilier.

But I’m a little pissed off.

Nobody’s noticed.

Earlier this summer, about 24 hours (whew!) before her registration for the fall semester, my oldest daughter had her (traditional) braces removed. I say braces but what I mean is “bane of her existence”. I don’t think it’s possible to hate traditional braces more than my oldest daughter hated hers. The broken brackets, the pokey wires, the bleeding cheeks and sore lips, the food chunks that got all up in her grill…. oh yeah. I heard her moan about all of it. I felt for her.

We had a notion that the braces were working but frankly, it was kind of hard to tell for sure what with all that metal and colorful rubber bands and stuff. She’d all but stopped smiling, opting for a certain pursed lip, semi pissy, semi sultry teen smirk better known as the duckface. I was not a fan of duckface.

So when the braces were removed, her smile was a revelation. It was fresh. Brand new like a baby who had never even been witnessed in an ultrasound. It was a big deal. She cracked that smile out big and wide and hit the internet to the tune of a hundred likes on instagram, at least as many on facebook and a nonstop stream of real live phone calls congratulating her on her new visage.

Me? I go quietly into the smiling light.This is not going to happen to me, no matter how dramatic the transformation from start to finish.

Perhaps I don’t need the attention as much. I haven’t ever had a wire poke me in the cheek or a bracket make me bleed. I haven’t had to face a single family or professional photo with a mouth full of metal. I haven’t had anyone point out my lunch, lodged in my hardware several hours after eating.

I’ve had it easy. I’ve settled into my invisalign “routine” and here in the middle of it, there are no big surprises, no major changes and other than switching out the trays every week or two, no huge milestones like there were with my daughter switching to the thicker rubber bands or getting a new color bracket, a different kind of wire.

Slow and steady does it for me, and that’s fine when slow and steady adds up to less pain and suffering. I feel for my daughter, having been through so much with her traditional braces. I wish she’d had the invisalign experience too. I know my younger daughter can’t wait to switch to clear trays.

So even though big reveals are a ton of fun, I’m willing to settle for a simple before/after pic.

Right now I’m sharing a “during”.

Stick with me for the final (if not big) reveal!

Disclosure: I am a member of the Invisalign Mom Advisory Board and have been compensated for sharing my experience with this product. All opinions as per usual, are my own. Thanks for following along.