As we all know, I just finished my Invisalign journey. My teeth are now perfectly straight and my orthodontist sanded down my chipped tooth, so now I have a normal smile. But how did I get through Invisalign when I drink a lot of wine as a blogger and as part of my career in the wine industry?
I’ve gotten a lot of questions about this, so I’m going to tell you how I did it.
Be disciplined.
I’m a pretty disciplined person when it comes to anything, but being disciplined with Invisalign was actually really difficult. They recommend you keep your trays in 20-22 hours a day, but that can be hard when wine tasting. Now, if I knew I was going to be going to wineries and wine tasting during the day, I would keep my trays in for an extra day before switching. So instead of 7 days, I’d keep them in for 8 days before moving on to the next one. This made it possible to wear them for the required amount of time and to make sure that my teeth were moving when they needed to be. Most orthodontists will recommend this if you know you have a day where you absolutely can’t keep your trays in for the full 20-22 hours.
Don’t forget the essentials.
A quick swish of mouthwash was my best friend when I needed to pop in my trays from winery to winery. They make travel sizes of mouthwash, so they will fit perfectly inside your purse or pocket. I only did this on days I was going from winery to winery and I made sure to carry around water to get the mouthwash taste out of my mouth. If I was doing a regular tasting just at a wine bar or a restaurant, I’d make sure I had a travel sized toothbrush and toothpaste to fit in my purse to brush my teeth after. A quick brush of my trays made sure wine wasn’t staining them red or yellow.
The things you absolutely need are: mouthwash, floss, a soft toothbrush, and a good toothpaste. I really like the ACT Alcohol Free Mouthwash and the Crest 3D White Brilliance toothpaste. Some people said that they liked having whitening foam to put inside their trays, but I survived without all of the fancy stuff. Sometimes I would use denture cleaner to clean my trays, but a simple scrub with toothpaste was enough.
Be confident.
I thought everyone would be staring if I took my Invisalign out in public. Yes, it can be disgusting, but no one really cares if you put your trays in the case. Most people understand and can sympathize with you. I still do this with my retainers because I have to wear them full time. Even at work, I’ll be brushing my teeth after lunch and my coworkers are like, “You are so good about your Invisalign.” You paid to have a perfect smile, so be confident about the work and care that goes into your teeth to make sure that you do love your smile at the end of it all.
You don’t need to be perfect. I definitely wasn’t perfect during my Invisalign experience. Rubber bands made everything about 10 times more difficult and I never changed them as frequently as I should have. While trying to drink wine (or eat/drink anything really) with Invisalign was hard, I would do it 100 times over to see the results that I got at the end. I got to enjoy all the wine I wanted, while getting a smile I’d be confident with for the rest of my life.
