Smile Direct Club: My Experience With Aligners

Before I embarked on the Smile Direct Club aligners journey, I watched a few videos to figure out what was in store for my teeth. I took all the warnings very seriously but I  didn’t take my own personality (irresponsibility) into account. I also experienced some things that other people didn’t really mention.

So here are 5 of my own experiences:

1) Your teeth won’t be the only ones in pain. Your tongue will hurt too!

Having plastic in your mouth makes your tongue really sore. After going to bed in my invisible aligners I would wake up and the sides of my tongue would hurrrrt. This went away after a few days after putting in each new aligner  every week but the pain during those days had me googling remedies.

2) You WON’T lose weight.

A lot of these videos tell you that you’ll be eating less because your habits will change. This is where my irresponsibility comes in. They tell you that you should brush your teeth after eating and before putting your aligners back in. Yeah. Not happening. I did this for a week before saying “screw this!” and keeping my same habits. Having the freedom to put in and take out your aligners whenever you want is a lot of freedom.

3) Okay, you CAN’T eat everything the same

Your teeth are going to hurt. I’m not just talking about the pain from drinking cold water. They will be sore af. Again, this is usually only after the first few days after transitioning aligners. Once, I couldn’t even bite into a sandwich because the bread was too hard. I had to open it, eat the inside with a fork and then eat the bread in little pieces.

4) You might end up with them longer than you need

This goes two ways. One of those ways: the plan they have for you may not meet your expectations. If that happens, you can contact them and let them know that their plan didn’t work for you and they may end up sending you more aligners that will actually fix your problem. The second way: irresponsibility. I got my aligners two years ago. It was supposed to be a 4 month plan but I’m irresponsible and I would go months without wearing them. Two years later I’m still not done with this plan. I have a manager who also has the same problem. It’s so annoying to wear the aligners that much of the time, you will actually take the opportunity to not wear them for a day. That day turns into a couple of years.

5) You might lose them

Remember those movies and tv shows where the “nerdy” kid had to go through the trash to search for their aligners? This might be you. Once, I forgot the container to put the aligners in so I wrapped them up in paper towel and I forgot I did that so I threw them out. Then I remembered my expensive mistake so I went back in the trash to recover them. My bad.

These are things about wearing aligners that not many people talk about. They definitely straighten your teeth but you need to commit, commit, commit.