Scrutiny by the Masses

Almost Finished!

I am a member of the Invisalign MAB. As a member, my daughter is receiving Invisalign treatment.

So, here we are, almost at the end of my daughter's Invisalign treatment. She's worn 15 sets of trays for appriximately 16 months.

Here is where we started:

And here is where we ended up:

Are we pleased? I think her teeth look much better than before, and she's delighted with the improvements to her smile. As a bonus, I can now get her to smile in pictures, which was always somewhat of a challenge for us before.

I really do think that Invisalign has a great product. My oldest son wore traditional braces, and I well remember the breaking wires and the brackets that were forever popping off. There were no foods that she couldn't eat, and we spent much less time in the orthodontists office.

The downside is that she didn't wear them quite as much as she could have - her compliance wasn't as stellar as i would have wanted - so her teeth aren't as perfectly matched as my son's teeth are - but as I told her, that part of the equation is completely up to you.

Now we move into the retainer stage. One thing I didn't realize, although it's totally my fault, is that she'd still need a retainer, just like traditional braces - and I didn't factor that into my budget.

It's always something, isn't it?

Invisalign Mom Advisory Board - What is the Refinement Stage?

My daughter called me the other day after her Invisalign appointment. She was really super excited to tell me that she'd finished her braces! Well, no, not really - but she'd turned in her last set of aligners. So, she was done! Now she was moving on to the refinement stage.

The what? What is a refinement stage? How can you be done with your Invisalign aligners - and still need a few sets of additional aligners - with several months ahead?

Let's take a look at the refinement phase. What is it?

The term "refinement" in the context of Invisalign treatment implies just what it is: a small modification to the tooth positions at the conclusion of the initial series of aligner steps. It's done at the conclusion of the primary active therapy time frame, and it does just what it sounds like - it refines the position of the teeth.

My daughter had one tooth that needed to be rotated, and the primary set of aligners hadn't completely straightened it out, so she went into refiners to complete it. The Refinement phase can be done at any time - it doesn't refer to correction of relapse due to non comlinace with a retainer.

I wondered why she'd needed refinements, as she'd had a computer scan done of her teeth - wasn't that pretty accurate? Indeed, it is very accurate in predicting tooth movement but sometimes at the end of a treatment a few more trays are needed to finish the case prior to retainers. The computer simulation can only give an estimate as to how well someone's teeth will move. 

 A refinement is just continued treatment to really "fine tune" the final result.The end is in sight, though - at her next appointment, we will be discussing her retainer!

I am a member of the Invisalign Mom Advisory Board. My daughter will receive complimentary Invisalign treatment, but as always, I'm sharing my own personal thoughts and opinions.

Invisalign Mom Advisory Board - What About Compliance?

Sometimes, teenagers can be tricky. They think that they know better than the people who are responsible for them, those parents that just get in the way of their fun. Cries of "It's not fair!" riddle the earth, parents everywhere are beaten down and exhausted.

They try to sneak off, do the wrong things and think that they will never, ever get caught.

One of the great benefits to Invisalign is that you can remove the trays if you have something major, such as a portrait shoot or a special event. You can take them out, attend your event, and put them back in. This is also a downside - because if you don't wear them - your teeth will not move. There's no way to cheat when you are wearing the Invisalign. If you want your teeth to move, you must wear the trays - it's as easy as that.

Those tricky teens, though - they think that they can report that they *are* wearing their Invisalign aligners when, in fact, they are not. But - how can you tell? I mean, of course you can see that the aligners are in their mouths when they are with you, but your teen undoubtedly spends a good bit of time away from you, and I'm confident that those aligners come out almost as soon as the door closes.

Invisalign aligners come with blue compliance indicators on the back molar area of the trays that allow the orthodontist - and the parents! - to monitor the amount of time that your child wears the aligners. When your teen wears the aligners the proper amount of time - 22+ hours - the blue disappears. Now you don't have to take her word for it - because you know that she's going to tell you, Oh, yes, absolutely Mom, I've been wearing them all day!

Now you know if she's telling the truth. Sure wish we could get compliance indicators for every day knowledge...

 I am a member of the Invisalign Mom Advisory Board. My daughter will receive complimentary Invisalign treatment, but as always, I'm sharing my own personal thoughts and opinions.

INVISALIGN TEEN “SHOW US YOUR BLOGHER SMILE!” SWEEPSTAKES

Please note: this blog post is for the INVISALIGN TEEN “SHOW US YOUR BLOGHER SMILE!” sweepstakes. You may only enter if you have found Carmen at the Blogher 2012 conference, requested an egg, and received it. Your entry is found inside the egg - post it in the comment section - ALONG WITH YOUR TWITTER HANDLE -  and then watch your twitter stream - you could be a winner! There are 3 $100 VISA gift cards and 3 $25 Amazon gift cards to be won - please enter your comment below!

Your smile is one of the first things that people notice about you.

Invisalign is a terrific way to improve your smile. Their smoth, comfortable and virtually invisable clear plastic  aligners gently guide teeth into place and help you get that perfect, camera ready smile you want.They are custom created to fit only you and help you achieve outstanding results.

After all, first impressions are everything. 

If you - or your child - have ever thought about braces, why not look at Invisalign? Find an Invisalign provider in your area, and transform your smile without wires, metal or sharp edges in your mouth. With no food restrictions and no extra dental hygeine efforts at all - there's no reason why you can't have the smile you've always wanted.

Official Rules and Regulations below the fold.

Invisalign Mom Advisory Board - A Parenting Bonus Just for You!

Ending The Entitlement Epidemic.

Every single time I go to the store, I see it. Bratty kids, begging parents for just.one.more.thing in the check out line. Kids who feel as if they are entitled to whatever they see, whatever they want - if it's in their eyesight, it must be theirs.

My own children are not immune to this scenario by any stretch of the imagination. They feel as if they are owed everything and anything that they want, whenever they want it, no matter the cost or the difficulty or impracticality. It's one of the more frustrating aspects of parenting, that's for certain.

Author Amy McCready, Positive Parenting Solutions Founder and TODAY Show Contributor, will hold a complimentary 1-hour webinar that will teach you tools and strategies you can use to end that feeling of entitlement in your own children. Subtitled 5 Strategies to Raise Responsible, Respectful and Resilient Kids, this chat based webinar will help you see:

    •    how well-meaning parents contribute to the entitlement epidemic
    •    the secret to using allowance to teach responsibility and accountability
    •    strategies to get kids helping more and complaining less
    •    solutions to get kids to take responsibility for homework, chores, personal hygiene and so much              more.

I participated in the chat that Amy held last month and I learned a couple of new tips and techniques that, once I implemented them into our daily routine, helped ease some areas of strife that we were experiencing.

This chat is offered twice on Thurday, July 26 - at 2 pm and 9 pm EST. It's web based, meaning htat you don't have to talk to anyone - so grab a snack and a drink and check in to something that is certain to benefit your family!

RSVP here.

I am a member of the Invisalign Mom Advisory Board. My daughter will receive complimentary Invisalign treatment, but as always, I'm sharing my own personal thoughts and opinions.

Invisalign Mom Advisory Board - What About Forbidden Foods?

Every time I eat popcorn, I have a flashback to the time(s) that I wore braces. Popcorn was, and still is, a forbidden food to those in traditional braces. So is gum. And caramels, and anything else sticky or sharp or, you know, yummy.

Not so with Invisalign - a fact that had completely skipped my mind until the day I took my kids to a theme park. My daughter wanted to have a caramel dipped apple and it didn't even occur to me that she shouldn't because of her braces. She wanted popcorn, and chewing gum, and none of these foods were off limits to her with her Invisalign - she just took the aligners out and enjoyed her foods. When she was finished, she brushed her teeth and put the aligners back in.

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. No forbidden foods, nothing off limits - just remove your trays, eat your foods, clean your teeth and go on with life.

Except for the time that she, you know, didn't put the aligners back in - because she'd wrapped them in a napkin and tossed them in the trash with her leftover lunch. She realized while we were hunting for a bathroom so that she could brush her teeth, and all of a sudden, her aligners were just gone.

Poof. We did get them back after digging through the garbage - a job which I do not recommend to anyone. Thank goodness her dad was there.

Invisalign understands how teens can be a bit, shall we say, shortsighted in their personal care and allows for six sets of replacement trays. This can be a great consolation to the mom and dad who are really tired of hunting through the garbage can to find those trays again.

When you are given your trays, you are also given a couple of containers in which you should store your trays when they are out of your mouth. However, if you wear them the recommended amount of time - 22-23 hours a day - they really shouldn't be in the container.

You can't lose the aligners when they are in your mouth.

I am a member of the Invisalign Mom Advisory Board. My daughter will receive complimentary Invisalign treatment, but as always, I'm sharing my own personal thoughts and opinions.

Invisalign Mom Advisory Board - Special Occasions Can Still Be Special

This is my daughter Allegra. She was on her way to Ring Dance - a special night similar to prom, but for Juniors, where they are presented with their class rings. She worried about her appearance - what would she wear, how would she do her hair, her nails needed to be perfect, and on and on. One thing she didn't have to worry about was her smile. Due to her short amount of time in the Invisalign, her teeth are already noticeably more straight. She felt more confident in her smile.

The most important part of the entire evening, according to her, was the fact that she could remove the Invisalign trays and not wear them for her special evening. She has been counseled to wear them 22 out of 24 hours, and wore them round the clock for an entire week in order to have some time banked.

This is something that you can't do with traditional braces. You don't have the luxury of removing them for a special day. You can always take your picture with your mouth closed, but the effect is ruined.

She absolutely loved the fact that she could go aligner free for her big event.

I'd like to share this graphic with you. Did you know that your smile is one of the first things that people notice about you when they meet you? Or that those with straight teeth are described as being happier with a high self esteem?

How do you feel about your smile?

I am a member of the Invisalign Mom Advisory Board. My daughter will receive complimentary Invisalign treatment, but as always, I'm sharing my own personal thoughts and opinions.

Don't Miss This Webinar!

I've had a rough week with one of my kiddos - being the mom of a teenage girl is definitely not for the weak. It's been a loud and frustrating week and I could really use this advice. I'm planning to be on this webinar, and I'd love it if you guys would join me!

Get Kids to Listen Without Nagging, Reminding or Yelling

What does it take to get your kids to listen? Nagging? Reminding? Yelling?

Parenting expert Amy McCready will teach you easy-to-implement strategies to correct misbehavior and reclaim the calm voice you had before kids. Discover proven tools for your most frustrating discipline dilemmas and the secret for consequences that work!

FOR: Parents of school age kids to teens
DATE: Thursday, April 19
TIME: 2 PM Eastern or 9 PM Eastern
COST: FREE! Compliments of Invisalign!

Webinar seating will be limited so learn more and RSVP now!

About Amy McCready

Parenting expert Amy McCready is the Founder of Positive Parenting Solutions and the author of If I Have to Tell You One More Time (Tarcher/Penguin, 2011). She is a frequent guest on The TODAY Show and has also appeared on Rachael Ray, CNN, Fox & Friends, MSNBC, and elsewhere. In her most important role, she plays mom to two teenage boys.

Use this handy Webinar Registration Link and I hope to see you there!

Invisalign Mom Advisory Board - What do You Mean by Attachments?

I am a member of the Invisalign Mom Advisory Board. My daughter will receive complimentary Invisalign treatment, but as always, I'm sharing my own personal thoughts and opinions.

Anyone remember braces with elastics? Those teeny, tiny little rubber bands that unfailingly popped off when you were talking to your boyfriend, shooting him right between the eyes and insuring that you'd never get another date, ever?  Remember the little hooks that were added to your brackets so that you could hook said elastics? Remember how those hooks TORE UP the inside of your mouth?

Invisalign remembers. And they've gone one better.

Now, in places that the teeth may need a teeny bit more pressure, you have attachments. Small, tooth colored bits that attach to the teeth and then into the aligners, they help rotate teeth and move them into line more effectively than before. The idea is that the placement of the attachments provides an anchor point on teeth around which an aligner can firmly grasp and then manipulate the tooth. You won't need an attachment on each tooth, but typically, they are applied to teeth that need to rotate or be moved down or up in the mouth.

They kind of look like this.

Note: this is not my daughter's mouth. She flatly refused to have a photo of her teeth up there.

My daughter was taken a bit unaware that she would need attachments. She was completely unhappy when she had the attachments applied. In fact, I was out of town, and my phone blew up with unhappy text messages, unflattering photos wtih her lips flayed open and teeth pushed forward, and hysterical tears. She hated them. Hate is perhaps not a strong enough word.She wanted the attachments off, she wanted them off YESTERDAY, and pronounced herself finished - before she'd ever begun.

Fast forward six weeks. Now, she says, "I don't mind them as much now that I am used to them. I think that my teeth are moving a lot faster." The attachments themselves aren't really visible, especially when she has her aligners in. Knowing that her teeth are moving faster makes her more anxious to wear them, especially because she'd like to be finished in time for her senior pictures. She has a total of 15 attachments; 9 on her top teeth and 6 on her bottom teeth.

One small note: efforts are made to match the attachments to the color of your teeth - but if you eat or drink large amounts of foods or beverages that have staining properties, you may notice some discoloration. So skip the soda and the coffee - and drink more water!

Invisalign Mom Advisory Board - It's ClinCheck Time!

I am a member of the Invisalign Mom Advisory Board. My daughter will receive complimentary Invisalign treatment, but as always, I'm sharing my own personal thoughts and opinions.

Allegra began her Invisalign treatment the way that most of us began our braces work - with the impression phase. When I did braces - both times - and when my step daughter and oldest son began treatment, we all did impressions. Those nasty, nasty impressions. You start with a mouth full of the GROSSEST goo possible, bite on it, and the forms are sent away. Half of the time, the impressions are not done correctly and you have to redo them.

Invisalign bought the company that has revolutionized the impression phase. Now, there's no goo, and there's virtually no chance of the impressions being incorrect or incomplete. You have no goo in your mouth, no difficulty whatsoever - it's all done by scanner.

And as it is emailed to the Invisalign company, weeks are cut from the first phase of treatment to the time you get your first set of aligners. There are no mistakes, nothing is unclear - it's a simple scan, click and send.

Within about 10 days, we had Allegra's ClinChecks - the videos that explain how her teeth are now, and how we can expect them to appear at the end of the treatment.

 

ClinCheck #2

 

She's currently in her first set of aligners - check back next month for the update!