My close friend at work decided to have her tooth fixed. She’s a very pretty girl, has an otherwise beautiful smile, but she had this one naughty tooth that affected both her smile and the way she spoke. Pictures that she took with loved ones always reminded her of this tooth as the camera would catch it “just right” each time, making it appear worse than it was in person.
Having been recently engaged and looking forward to her nuptials next year, she decided to check into braces. While exploring her options, she stumbled across the “Invisalign” option, which was both cost effective and more attractive than regular braces.
Her journey began with x-rays and a model being made of her teeth as they currently were, and what they could be if she went through the Invisalign process. The computer spit out the answer she was hoping for. Number one, she was a good candidate for Invisalign, number two, it would only take ten “trays” to fix that tooth.
Every two-three weeks, she would go to her dentist and a new tray would be given to her. It would be tender for a few days, required some additional (free) tooth filings in between, but here we are on tray number 8 out of 10 and somehow, slowly, over the past several weeks, that tooth is almost straight!
The great part of Invisalign, and why I am such a fan, is that our (and hers) dental insurance considers Invisalign “braces” and pays the same towards those as they do towards normal braces for kids, etc. Her Invisalign process was also eligible for her to use in her medical flexible spending account at work so she didn’t have to pay taxes on the medical expense of her teeth.
The best news is that you get to keep all of your trays in case that wayward tooth ever should decide to go back to the way it was, etc. You use the final tray as your “retainer”…the Invisalign are completely clear and can be removed for cleaning, eating, or if you are self conscious about doing a speech, etc. while wearing them. They affected her speech minimally.
Her out of pocket cost? Just $500 (paid paycheck by paycheck from her medical expense account – tax free). This is an appealing option for appearance, cost, and time.
