Smile Cycle 101
Like most teenagers in America, I had braces in grade school. They were not cute and on top of my horrid acne, they made puberty suck. But then a glimmer of hope appeared upon my thirteen birthday I finally could put my four years as brace face behind me. People complimented me on my beautiful smile and I was no longer afraid to open my mouth.
Until college.
Flash forward to my bottom teeth shifting because I stopped wearing my retainer and my wisdom teeth jamming everything forward. I wanted to get them fixed, but my entry-level dental insurance postgrad didn’t include orthodontic work and I didn’t have $5k+ to spend on improving a smile my parents had already spent a fortune on. Then came the DIY aligner companies and it felt like a great fix! I didn’t need a lot of work, so they had to be right for me, but the more I read the more I realized it would most likely be a waste of money. While the idea of getting aligners mailed to me and having minimal dentist appointments sounded appealing, I knew I couldn’t waste my time on hold with customer service agents if things weren’t going right.
After a few times of Dentologie popping up on my Instagram feed, I decided to check them out. The offices are modern and sleek, they provide excellent customer service, and you can enjoy HGTV during your cleaning! Then I found out about their Invisalign product, Smile Cycle.
Smile Cycle is the Invisalign brand without the Invisalign price. Your journey is overseen by one of the amazing Dentologie doctors so you never have to worry about being on hold or not being able to get a hold of a professional. The appointments are still minimal and the price is HALF of what I had been previously quoted for Invisalign.
The process was super simple and in total took about 24 weeks for me. First I had my consultation which is where my scans took place. Then after my aligners were made I went back to the office to get filing and attachments before starting the cycle. Filing is what it sounds like, they take a small file to the sides of your teeth to allow for room in the movement process. It’s not painful, just a little uncomfortable at first. Then they placed attachments, which are small glue-like beads that are adhered to your tooth to add a little tension to the movement process. If you’re familiar with rubber bands with traditional braces, these work in a similar way. After you speak with the dentist you are all set and sent home with your SmileCycle kit. This includes a case for your aligners, a toothbrush to clean them, and some cleaning crystals in case they get really gross. You also leave that appointment with your aligners for the future. Depending on how your scans come back it's usually 7-14 weeks before you have to return. I only took 7 weeks home because they wanted to see some movement before doing additional filing. After that appointment, I didn’t return to the end of my full 14-week cycle which is when Dr. M looked at my progress and we decided I was all set. I left my week 14 aligners in for an additional two weeks while waiting for my retainers to come and then I was done! For the past three weeks, I’ve been wearing them full time and after this Thursday I only need to wear them a night for the rest of my life.
So now that you know my full process I want to lay out a few of the pros and cons of being an adult woman with Smile Cycle.
Pros
A straighter smile
Mostly unnoticeable during treatment
Great doctors
Cons
Impossible to wear lipstick with smudging
Aligners have to be removed for all meals and colorful drinks (Turmeric Lattes are a HARD NO with them in)
Scheduling an appointment can get tricky if you have a schedule like me
Almost breaking my nails taking the aligners out
Pain after switching aligners
Obviously, the pros heavily out-way the cons, but they are things that must be considered because this is an investment. I would do it all over again, but thankfully because of the Smile Cycle team, I won’t have to.
If you’re interested in learning more about Smile Cycle or Dentologie, please click here.
If you’d like to learn more about my Smile Cycle journey, check out my highlight on Instagram here and watch my IGTV with Dr. M after my last appointment.
*Note I was given a discount on my Smile Cycle treatment and free whitening in exchange for this review*