Invisalign Journey: Joe's experience with Clear Choice Orthodontist and Smile Envy
Hi all my lovely readers! Today, something a little different and a guest appearance from someone I love.. my Joe. We were approached by Clear Choice Orthodontist, who are a group of specialist orthodontists in Australia who are complete experts when it comes to aligning teeth and creating dream smiles. We went to Smile Envy, where we both had a consultation to determine if we needed anything. While my teeth were fine (I had braces when I was younger), Joe’s teeth had moved since he was younger, and it was evident that something needed to be done.
Over the next 12 months, Joe will be working with Clear Choice Orthodontist and Smile Envy to create his dream smile, and to document how easy the journey is. Here’s his first official article for Live with Elle, and more importantly, about his smile journey!
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Hey guys,
I wanted to share a little about my journey to finally get teeth I feel confident with (currently on that journey now).
To take it from the start, I had braces in England from 17-18, luckily in time to start university without them. They were the standard train-track metal braces on both bottom and top teeth, and were a royal pain for the whole two years I had them. This was due to playing rugby every weekend, leading to issues eating and drinking after games and training. Despite the help of a mouthguard, the braces never stopped causing me problems.
I also had to miss school on a semi-regular basis (despite trying to study courses to get into university), with my orthodontist being far away enough that it required a whole day off of school, which would need to be caught up on. The travel and pain of the braces made it one hell of a journey, not to mention the tightening of the tracks and having to find a mirror to clean out my braces after every meal! So once they were off, as you can imagine, I was over the moon at being able to smile properly.
Fast forward 4 years, living in London, completing a training course to become a teacher, and I’m trying to keep wearing my retainer every week. However, as all adults come across at some point or another, my wisdom teeth started showing up (often stopping me from sleeping at night), which made wearing my retainer even more difficult. My bottom teeth started moving, which eventually lead to my retainer splitting one night in my sleep! Now, going through a postgraduate course means one thing is never far from your mind - money. I saw that my retainer was too expensive to replace at such a vital time in my life, and something I could organise to be replaced later on, when I could afford it.
Yet living in London came with a price - a big price - RENT. The high cost of rent meant retainers went further back in my list of things to spend money on, mainly behind eating and travelling to work each day. I also started playing AFL in London, which meant contact sport was back on the cards after a 2 year hiatus after university. Therefore, a few head knocks here and there, wisdom teeth doing their thing, and a couple of years down the line I realise I am no longer that confident in my smile. My bottom teeth have started overlapping, my top teeth are moving up and down. I needed to do something about this.
Coincidentally, I am now in Australia, having met the love of my life and moved across the world with her to secure our future together. I am finally in a place to start another process to try and have a smile to be confident with.
I’ve recently started using Invisalign aligners courtesy of Clear Choice Orthodontics, Smile Envy and Dr Peter Miles. Compared to braces, it astounds me that technology has come such a way in only 10 years. The entire team at Smile Envy were incredibly friendly, welcoming and helped to educate Ellie and I on our current smile situations, and what the next steps were.
I now have a set of 12 aligners, that after one scan and one appointment to secure blocks onto my teeth, are now updated as and when the orthodontist approves it. This was all organised when Ellie and I lived in QLD and were a commutable distance to my orthodontist. Our situation has changed recently and we have had to move to NSW for our careers.
As you can imagine this was a bit of a curveball to my perfect teeth plan. However, I have been introduced to Dental Monitoring, a system used to scan my teeth without even needing to go into the orthodontists office. I can complete my 3 months (minimum) treatment remotely using a scanner provided and my phone. All I have to do is download the app onto my phone, place my phone in the scanner, and it gives me instructions on how to properly take pictures and videos of my teeth and aligners. These are then sent through the app to my orthodontist, who views them and then sends me a message (through the app) to let me know if I need to keep my current aligners in, or move onto the next set. How easy is that?
I will keep you updated on how my treatment goes, but so far remote orthodontics seems to have taken a huge step in helping people who don’t live near their orthodontist. Compared to the days off I had to take with my first set of braces!
Joe