Hi! It's Kelly. For the past few weeks, I've been talking about my journey with Six Month Smiles Clear Braces. I'm 40 years old and ready to gain confidence through my smile. Achieving my goal within about 6 months is very appealing to me.

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• Everything You Need to Know about Clear Braces [Brochure]
• How Much Does Treatment Cost? [Calculator]
• Is Six Month Smiles right for me? [Free Assessment] 

Video #5: My Six Month Smiles® Experience

First, I must say that I am astonished at the difference I can see in my teeth already! I really notice a big change already. I didn’t expect it to happen so quickly, but it has. They are lining up quite nicely, a month into this process.

As I said before, the first week of having these on is a time when you’ll have a lot to get used to. I’m happy to report that now things are going well, and I’m used to having the braces on my teeth. I’m getting used to eating with them (bite-sized pieces are key!), and getting used to keeping them clean. I found these things called “Platypus Orthodontic Flossers” which are great and it is easy to floss with them – I think quite a bit easier (and faster) than the way I was shown to floss, with these special floss-threaders I was given.

At the appointment at Bensonhurst Dental the other day, Dr. Rubenshtein removed a couple of the metal “ties”, for lack of a better word, which were connecting certain brackets to the wire going across my teeth, and the difference I feel after she removed them is remarkable. She also did some additional filing, like she did just before I got the braces on, to make a little more room between my teeth, to allow for a little additional movement.

I have one particularly out-of-place, crooked tooth which needs a little more room to come forward in line with the others, and she is really focusing on that one now, it seems. I don’t know exactly what she did while I was in the dentist chair, but she did something that really affected that one tooth – I could see a difference in how it looked before the appointment compared to after. It didn’t feel great, whatever she did, but it wasn’t that bad either. She took a sort of elastic tie and hooked that bracket onto the wire, and I’ll have to come back in two weeks to see what’s happening. She didn’t replace the wire going across my teeth, which I heard some people have had done. All in all, it was pretty quick and pretty easy, and now I’m feeling and noticing the braces even less than I was before. Someone told me yesterday that they notice a difference, for the better, in my speech, so that is also totally awesome!

One more thing to add: I had been cautioned that if I drink too much coffee or eat too many berries or too much tomato sauce, things like that, the wire may stain. I’m still having my coffee and strawberries in the morning, and since pasta is a really comfortable food to eat right now, I’m not avoiding tomato sauce either, and I notice no staining.

Next adjustment in two weeks. I can’t wait to see more progress!

- Kelly