What My Invisalign Taught Me About Change
Growing up my nickname in school was “Beaver Becker”, until I decided to cut my own bangs, and then it became “Buzzcut Beaver Becker”. The cutting-of-the-bangs-situation is another story, for another time, so I’ll just get back to the “Beaver Becker” nickname and how it was bequeathed to me when I was 8.
I sucked my thumb until I was 12, and it took a bridge attached to braces AND headgear to pull me out of the habit of sticking my left thumb into my mouth. My parents tried everything to get my to stop: bitter nail polish, a skateboard, a sock over my hand tapped down with industrial Duck Tape, all to no avail. I was addicted to the comfort that little appendage provided me. In fact, I used to cradle my right forearm over my face to “hide” the fact I was sucking my thumb, and if I was feeling particularly sly, I would drape my blanket over my arm so no one would know…
Turns out, people knew. Especially the kiddos in my 3rd grade class who noticed my two front teeth that stuck out from underneath my upper lip and over my bottom one. Not only did I have wicked bucked teeth, my underbite was, according to the orthodontist, “significant”.
So my parents did me a solid, and got me braces (four years later, but who is keeping track?).
However, because my teeth and jaw were so misaligned, and because I still had some baby teeth that needed to be extracted, it required a Phase 1 and Phase 2 protocol. I had braces until May of my senior year in high school. MAY! MY SENIOR YEAR! Those braces helped me develop my personality because I can tell you what, they sure weren’t helping me in my looks factor by any means (at the time).
Fast forward 15 years from the metal braces horror show, what should be happening in my mouth now? Welp, I’ll tell you! Wisdom teeth making some moves, causing once perfect teeth to shift. Ummm, I’m not ok with this.
Insert Invisalign. Those sexy “invisible” trays that are going to take my crooked chompers back to their former glory.
During my time wearing Invisalign, I learned three lessons that translated to changing one’s life.
One - we change because there is a strong reason.
In my case, yes, I wanted to have perfect teeth again, but really the reason why I pulled the trigger was because during COVID I developed intense TMJ that misaligned my jaw. I would wake up and not be able to open my mouth, or every time I chewed food my jaw would click and pop and I complained about it constantly. It was painful. Eventually, I got sick of hearing myself whine about something I had control over fixing.
To change in life you must have a strong reason to do so, otherwise you will talk yourself out of it. This is where the pain of your life has the potential to teach you a lesson and move you forward in a different direction that actually addresses the root of the pain, not just the symptom. This is the work of deep self-exploration, and you’ll get there once the pain is great enough.
Two - change takes time and it’s incremental.
Did my teeth move overnight? Yes. Did I notice? No. It was only after several months that I noticed the change or the results of the work I had put in. I wore my retainers everyday with the trust that if I did this my teeth would shift and my jaw would realign itself allowing me to chew food in peace.
Often when you change your life, it’s not a big drastic one day you’re completely different. Rather it’s small and incremental to the point that you don’t even notice it happening, but you are making a conscious choice to become someone new. After you spilled your coffee, it’s catching the self-demeaning “oh my God, you’re so clumsy” comment and replacing it with “these things will happen.” It’s taking the experiences of your life and just appreciating them as an experience that will be replaced by another.
Three - change comes with a cost, but it’s worth it.
I’m obsessed with my smile now AND love eating without the Rice Krispies SNAP, CRACKLE, and POP gang joining me! However, I didn’t get to enjoy this new reality without cost. It cost me money, time, and commitment but the results outweigh those costs.
Same is true when it comes to changing your life. It’s going to cost you something. If you become a new person, it’ll cost you certain relationships who like the “old” you, it will cost you time to develop the “new” version of you, it’s going to cost your comfort zone, and money. Change is an investment in your future self.
Speaking personally I can say change is WORTH it, because of the VALUE you get from the experience. Change cost me “friends” but it brought in my soul tribe. It cost me “jobs” but it brought in my purpose. It cost me “my reality” but brought in my awareness.
If you want to have straight teeth but don’t, you’re going to need braces. If you want to have a life you’re proud of, but aren’t yet, you’re going to have to change.
Change is possible, and it’s oh SO worth it!
From one Tough Cookie to another,
Kaleigh