Today we are talking teeth! Teeth are so important! Teeth and eyebrows can make or break a persons appearance in my opinion! Throughout my 30 years I have struggled with both lol. Middle school and high school were kind of rough for me. I wasn't the cutest let's just put it at that. It's all about growth though right?
A little back story. In elementary school, middle and high school my teeth were pretty much jacked. My adult teeth grew in extremely large. Like huge, especially the front two teeth. I had a gap between those two teeth and I had gaps between all 4 of my front upper teeth. It was tragic!
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| I always wanted to do my own hair! These bangs were NOT the look! This was 5th grade. |
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| Please don't laugh! The glow up is real! My teeth were just bad! Point blank period! No cavities just really crocked and gapped. |
At the end of 5th grade I got braces. This was a long journey! I had traditional braces for about five to six long years. It was pure trama! It was painful and it seemed like it would never end. You know how teenagers are. I was a stereotypical teen, super duper dramatic!
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| Despite have jacked up teeth as a kid I was pretty confident. I had lots of friends and it honestly bothered me more than it did my peers. |
Towards the beginning of my senior year the time finally came for me to have my braces removed. But there was a catch! The braces had caused my gums to swell so badly that I had to go to a periodontist and have a my gums shaved down, with a lazer! It was horrible! Super painful and I had to have stitches in my gums for days after that! Terrible! After this was all said and done my teeth looked really amazing! They were perfect! You couldn't tell me nothing. Lol.
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| Brows were NOT on fleek! You can see here on the upper right hand side I still have some severe gum swelling. |
I got two permeant retainers after my adolescent braces. One behind my front two teeth and one behind my bottom 4 teeth. I also had a traditional wire retainer that I was to wear every night. Welp, needless to say I lost that wire retainer after about 5 months out and didn't think twice about it!
Fast forward about about 10 years and a much needed slight glow up. After under grad and grad school and all my glory years my teeth, you guested it, began to shift. This was very gradual but I noticed it immediately. My front two teeth began to slowly protrude outward and the gaps between my canine teeth at the top and bottom begin to appear. The first realization was how easily food would get stuck in those spots. Gross I know! But as the years passed it became more and more visible in pictures and most importantly to me.
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| This gap that started to appear grew larger and larger and it bothered me the most. |
After much thought and a consultation I decided that Invisalign was pretty much my only option. Because I didn't think I needed much fixing I felt it to be a good decision. Just a small word of advice when making decisions about altering your outward appearance, whether it be a new hair cut or hair style, getting cosmetic surgery or fixing something about yourself you don't like...
1. Make sure your doing it for yourself only.
2. Don't tell a lot of family or friends about your decision. Too many opinions can easily sway your initial thoughts.
3. Maybe get the opinion of one or two people your trust..
4....then pray on it and go with you gut.
That's exactly what I did! I have had the same dentist since I was 10 years old. It was his professional opinion that I see a orthodontist as the shifting of my teeth would only worsen with time. I headed back to the same orthodontist that did my braces when I was 12. This worked out well because they are able to give me a discount because I was a returning patient.
On October 16, 2016 I got my first attachments placed. Attachments are small squares that are clued on the teeth strategically that match the same attachments placements in the tray. This allows the tray to fit snuggly around the teeth and pull the teeth in their proper position. This is extremely painful.
Initially I was instructed to change my tray every 2 weeks. After my second visit I was told to change my tray every week. I was excited about this at first until I realized that this meant pain every single week. I was told to wear my trays for 20 hours a day. Totally not realistic! I snack a lot! I work I eat like every 2 hours. As you can imagine this was a huge inconvenience. Honestly speaking I only wore my trays about 12 hours a day. It worked too! My teeth immediately started shifting.
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| This was about 3 months before being done! You can clearly see my attachments here. |
On August 30th I was able to officially be finished! I was so happy! I got two permanent retainers on my top six teeth and and bottom 8 teeth. I also got a clear upper retainer to sleep in.
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| Before Invisalign |
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| After Invisalign |
If something bothers you about yourself its your responsibility to yourself to fix it. If you don't want to second guest how you look you have to put effort into your appearance. If you don't want to second guest how your speak, you have to effort into correcting that. Correcting the alignment of my teeth has taken hella work and money. You only get one physical body and one set of teeth. I cherish both. You have to take care of yourself. Period.
Confidence comes from putting in the work.
Confidence is practice and preparation.
The glow up is real and I'm forever humbled by it all lol!
"Confidence is a balance between acknowledging my weakness and affirming that at my core I am made of greatness."
Love,
April M.
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