{I am done with my Invisalign treatment at this point (and onto the nightly retainer phase) and I’m updating this story with further learning for all the CRUSH Readers still “in treatment.”}
Invisalign feels like Aperol Spritz in the summer of 2021. Remember how all of a sudden everybody was drinking it?
Almost everyone I know over 50 is on, done with or about to start Invisalign. Over Thanksgiving my Mother mentioned to me that one of my bottom front teeth was shifting. (Actually she said "What's wrong with your teeth, honey? The front one is protruding.") Until that moment I hadn't thought anything was wrong with my front tooth. Perhaps she can be excused for the alarmingness of her tone because she spent her afternoons during my teens driving me to and from an orthodontist office. (We later learned from local news reports that he was having simultaneous affairs with both his dental hygienists.)
Anyhow, that's how I ended up on Invisalign. Two nights after that I was at a friend's for dinner; she had started six months earlier. I then went away with four girlfriends and everyone on the trip was wearing them, about to or had just finished.
Kudo's to Invisalign's marketing team. It's shot up as the most common procedure for those of a certain age, even more than botox, teeth whitening or eating protein. (god forbid) strength training in my circle. Comparing notes with all these friends I've realized that the advice we got from our dental practitioners was anything but aligned. Here are some things you might want to know:
Some Friends Were Told You Can Eat & Drink While Wearing Invisalign. I was told to take them out when imbibing anything other than water, but some friends were told they could leave them in. Don't even try it. You really have to take them out or they get gross fast. Taking them out every time you eat and drink is a pain (at least if you eat and drink as much as I do).
Your friends won’t tell you this, but even your friends on Invisalign don’t want to see you take yours out at the table. It’s gross and they’ll say so behind your back afterward.
Come up with a system for keeping track of them when you’re out to eat. Unless you carry the little container around with you everywhere (and I lost mine by week two), you are sticking them in pockets or on tables or wrapping them up in kleenex and then forgetting where you put them. (And then absolutely definitely throwing out the kleenexes with the invisaligns in them.) The little carrying container you get doesn't fit into pockets or slim envelope purses. You need a system, and my friend Beth swears by hers - keeping a ziploc bag in her pocket.
I Was Told to Wear Them At Least 22 Hours A Day. Others were told 18-20 hours was enough. I mean, I am eating for more than two hours a day, so the 22-hours seemed on its face ludicrous to me. I explained that to my dentist when he told me to wear them for at least 22 hours per day but also take them out whenever I ate or drink anything other than water. Twenty (or 18) hours is the advice a lot of my friends got, so I've stuck with that.
Some People Get One Year Treatment Periods, Others Two. However, comparing the length of time with my friends it wasn't obvious how to reconcile why some (whose treatments were mostly cosmetic) were longer (two years), while some (whose treatments were correcting serious bite and tooth decay issues) were shorter (one year). Most people were on a two-year plan, so that seems to be more common. But wouldn't we all prefer to do it in one year if we could? I'd certainly push for a more aggressive treatment.
I Was Told to Wear Mine for Two Weeks Before Cycling Into the Next Set. But I forgot, and for the first three months I switched to the next (tighter) set weekly instead of every two weeks. When I called to schedule the appointment to get set up with another round, the receptionist got my dentist on the line. "How can you be done with the first round already, he asked?"
Something interesting happened. When I got in his chair my dentist assured me that I wouldn't see as much progress as I should have because I "rushed the process." But when I asked him to show me the scan of my teeth and to highlight the before and after, there had been p-l-e-n-t-y of progress. A lot of progress. And so, VOILA! I had, as it turned out, figured out the way to make my two-year program into a one-year program.
Some Dentists Worry About an Uptick in Cavities and Gingivitis for Invisalign Patients. First off, you really need to be serious about brushing and flossing every time you put your Invisaligns on back on. That’s true of everyone. But particularly if you are prone to either cavities or gingivitis. My dentist in Florida says that, especially with his patients over 50, he is seeing excessive gum recession.
And While I Use the Term Dentist Here, My Dentist Actually Believes You Should Only Get Invisalign from an Orthodontist. So many dentists offer Invisalign, and I got mine from a reputable dentist in Boston, but when I started spending winters in Florida my dentist there was strongly opposed to getting them from anyone other than someone who specializes in orthodontics. It makes sense. For instance, he told me he has seen cases where a dentist didn’t consider the issue that the treatment would be much more effective on certain patients if some teeth were shaved down (or pulled out) to make more room.
Absolutely Nobody I Talked to (In the Early Days of Invisalign) Was Told This One Piece of Advice That Is the Gamechanger That Everyone On Invisalign Needs. Hopefully you all have a friend like my friend Kathy, who goes the extra mile and really researches things thoroughly and always knows the smartest way to do things. Kathy figured out that the best way to clean your Invisalign is with retainer cleaning tablets. (Because the invisalign retainers don't get fully cleaned with your toothbrush even if you, like I, use a powerful automatic toothbrush.)
Then my friends Di and Sarah (who have all the smart woman characteristics of Kathy) sent me a link to the ZIMA Pod Retainer Cleaner. Yeowza. Can’t live without it if you do Invisalign.
Nobody's dentist suggested this! Surprising because they get a little icky after a couple days.
Also – in case you're wondering – Kathy called her dentist to make sure that using a retainer cleaning tablet with Invisalign was okay and he said it was.
Your Dentist Won’t Tell You This, But You're Never Really Done With Invisalign. This is the worst news I learned (which my dentist failed to point out). I learned from a friend who had just "completed" her two-year invisalign treatment that in order to keep your teeth fixed you have to continue wearing an invisalign retainer overnight for the rest of your life. After going through the hassle for a year (or two), who wants to lose all that effort?
Just when you thought you were done with that ever so slightly awkward, real-world step of having to extract your retainer when you and/or your partner got in the mood once you'd already geared up and gotten into bed. Although, truth be told, at this stage of life we have no doubt started to get accustomed to real world moments creeping into our intimate moments.
Their subscription revenue model is a homerun for Invisalign! They have income for life from their users. For those of us on invisalign, it's a habit we wish we could break but won't. Remember that saying "to smile is to brighten the world for free"? Forgettaboutit. Invisalign has made it obsolete.
*This isn't medical advice. Check with your own dentist (or friend network!), yada yada.
The Crush Letter
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