Invisalign Me.........Part 1

I have been toying with the idea of fixing my smile for years now.  I have what I lovingly refer to as a "snaggle tooth" as my left lateral incisor (the one next to the big front tooth).  It has been moving backwards and hiding behind my other teeth for a few years.  I remember once in college a good friend of mine asking me if I was missing a tooth because at times it creates enough of a shadow or gap that it appears I am missing a tooth there!  

It probably didn't help my case either that I broke my face while I was in college.  Yes, my face!  I fell down the stairs and broke my fall with the left side of my face.  I have to admit that copious amounts of alcohol were involved but I also blame the stupid chunky heel shoes I was wearing.  Ahh to be young and so, so stupid again!  At the time my jaw was very misaligned and the orthodontist agrees that the damage has not helped my bite or my alignment at all in the years since the fall.

I have been waiting to get a cap on my right lateral incisor for three or four years.  I had the root canal done and they wanted to wait until after any ortho to put the final cap on it.  Now it has a nice little stain right dead center in the tooth that also bothers me.  (see pictures below)

After some lengthy research and consideration about how Invisalign would affect my every day life, I have decided to move forward.  I met with Dr Kadar on January 8th to discuss the process.  His office is very technologically advanced and they promote themselves well on all social media formats.  I was very pleased when I first arrived, checked in with the touch screen computer monitor in the waiting area and was immediately whisked back to take a tour and meet everyone.  The environment in this office is much different from the office I remember when I was 13 and getting my braces!  

After the tour, they took some pictures of my teeth from all angles and did an X-ray for the file.  Once the pictures were previewed to make sure they were okay, I went down the hall to discuss the options, treatment plan time frames and of course, the cost!   I was presented with three options: traditional braces, clear braces and Invisalign.  I was already set on doing Invisalign and Invisalign only so that made the conversation much easier.  

My treatment plan is estimated at 16-18 months which at first sounded extremely daunting.  After all, I am constantly traveling and presenting to customers.  I am on the phone all day and did not want to have a speech impediment that long if I could avoid it.  The whole timeframe just seemed way too long, despite my desire to get this smile fixed!   Then she told me about a fairly new tool called Acceledent.  Acceledent is a soft pulse tool that speeds the process for braces or Invisalign by providing a gentle vibration to your gums to stimulate movement.  It is said to cut the treatment time in half!   I was sold!   It costs an additional $1000 for the unit but to me that is money well spent if I can be done with this much sooner!

We discussed the costs in detail and the three different payment plans they offer at Kadar.  With the Acceledent included, my overall plan is $6,275.  The first $995 in lab fees was due as soon as I decided I was certain I wanted to proceed.  I needed time to review everything after the meeting anyway but to save another visit to the office we went ahead and did my virtual tooth scan that day anyway.  It is basically a machine that takes a picture or digital image of each and every tooth.  This process replaces the old gooey trays you had to bite into and sit with in your mouth until they hardened.  Apparently it is much more precise!  That process took about 20 minutes and then I was out of there.  

About two weeks later I called to confirm that I was ready to go ahead with the treatment.  They put the order in that day and set my first fitting for February 12th.  Tomorrow!   I am both nervous and excited to get this process started.  I am mostly nervous that I will have a noticeable lisp.  I feel like I already do since this tooth is pushed back so far that air can easily seep through the gap that it has created!  

Here are the BEFORE pictures straight from Dr Kadar's office:

I am cringing just thinking of other people (you readers) seeing these horrible teeth!  Teeth in general just gross me out!  

You can see int the top picture that the left side of my bite (on the right in the picture) is very misaligned.  In the bottom picture you can see my snaggle tooth in all of it's glory!  Eww!  By the way - the white marks on my teeth are lovely remnants from my braces.  I'll write more on my braces in another post down the road. 

So tomorrow is the big day!  I assume I will be fitted and shown how to put them in and take them out.  I have to wear them 22 hours per day so that means they basically come out to eat and that's it!   I'm curious to see if my colleagues will recognize the difference when I get back from my appointment or if it will take awhile.  Wish me luck!