As a child, when I started losing baby teeth, I lost all 4 of my top front teeth at the same time. When the permanent teeth started coming in, the top two middle ones took all of the space and left no room for others. A couple came in through my upper gum and another came in behind my front teeth - just a real mess. A couple of the odd ones were pulled and the rest were just all out of alignment. In 4th grade, I had a consultation with an orthodontist to see about braces but unfortunately that was the day that President Kennedy was assassinated so no one's focus was on my teeth. It wouldn't have made any difference because my parents were not financially able to provide braces for me. This was long beofre dental insurance.
As I continued through junior high and high school I became more aware of my appearance & my smile. I became more self conscious of my smile and found myself smiling with a closed mouth, usually covering my mouth with my hand when I laughed. Others said they didn't notice my teeth but I was never convinced. It was just something I learned to live with throughout my adult life.
Then several years ago I heard about Invisalign. I even went for a free consultation with another dentist but the price was prohibitive at the time. I was convinced that this was the avenue I wanted to take & kept hearing of more people that had gone through the process. One of our sons started going to Beattie Family Dental & had good things to say about them. I realized that they were offering Invisalign. I was now 54 years old & I had been saving up so I went in for a consultation with Dr Matthew. I was treated so graciously & very impressed with the entire staff. The procedure was discussed thoroughly & it was explained that in my situation, we would not get a "perfect" smile but it could certainly be improved. And to my suprise, the duration fo the process was only going to be 6 months when I thought it would be a year! My coworkers did not even notice the aligners until the subject came up one day & I told them. They hadn't even noticed. Not being able to snack during the day without removing the alingers was not a problem & drinking only water with them in was not an issue for me since I drink water all day anyway. I will continue to wear the alingers at night indefinately.
I have been exceptionally pleased with the outcome and don't give a second thought to a big smile or laughing out loud anymore. Our youngest son was recently married and the pictures show me with a huge smile - no more smiles with a closed mouth!
I am no fan of going to the dentist but Invisalign was a painless way to solve my problem. I would not hesitate to recommed Invisalign or Beattie Family Dental to anyone. Diane, Durant IA