Aww, what a sweetie. The "standards" for teeth are much higher today that in prior generations. IME, today, anyone who can afford it, does choose to perfect their smile.

My kids all had braces. My DH had bite issue and, at the start of the pandemic, his dentist suggested Invisalign. She said it would take 6 months; perfect. Well, he just had appointment yesterday... one of many. I think the 6mo estimate is a come-on to get people to do it. You pay a set fee no matter how long it takes, though.

One of my DD's good HS friends did Invisalign. I think they are a good choice for (looks conscious) kids, but they can affect speech until you get used to them and they are of course, not truly invisible. I think the largest issue with young people is compliance. Not an issue w braces.

I would ask the dentist for a pro-con list for her particular situation.

After getting off Invisalign a couple of months ago, I'm wearing the retainer only for sleeping now, I sometimes had a hard time keeping up with the aligners with them being clear and as a matter of fact I lost my very last four! Still haven't found them as of today. I must have thrown them away. Had to reorder them. Not cheap.

I think being twelve, most kids, boys and girls, have braces anyway-my son did. No way would I have trusted him with the Invisalign. I know most girls are more responsible, but I could see them easily getting lost at school lunch time. At least with braces, they don't have to be taken out to eat etc. Another thing, you have to make sure you keep them in! Could be a problem with middle schoolers.

Also, there were quite of few of my aligners that needed readjusting because they cut into my gums. If I was say, in my 40's I would have gone with braces, lots less hassle. Especially since I didn't have to wear them long. I was only correcting one tooth in front that was in process turning as I got older, my bottom teeth were worse, but now all straight, which is very nice.

OTOH, I went out of town with some friends, and about a day in, I took out my aligners and another girl (a friend of my friend) said she had them also-we couldn't tell each other had them in. So, for our age now, it was worth it.

Just wanted to chime in support of giving your granddaughter a perfect smile. I had a small gap and one really crooked tooth so my parents gave me braces while my brother who had a small gap did not get any. He ended up doing Invisalign in his adulthood and wished he would have been given the opportunity for straight teeth in his youth like I was. He always had a beautiful smile, but I think he's much happier without any gaps. I think your granddaughter will be happy by her teens to have had it done.

I do not have experience with Invisalign, but I would wonder if a 12 year old would be responsible enough to wear them all the time. I think they have to be taken out to eat (meals or snacks) and maybe teeth brushed before putting them back in. I imagine that could be difficult for a 12 year old in school dealing with lunch time or going over to friends house and everyone is snacking on something. Certainly not having visible braces is nice, but it may be too much responsibility for a 12 year old.

My neighbor is doing invisalign. Based on what she describes I think there'd be a high risk a kid would not comply with the wearing schedule. Might also be an issue keeping track of them when you have to remove for eating, etc.

When I was her age, I didn't need braces but had a lower retainer instead. I was never the kind of person who lost things often, but I lost them twice. My "punishment" was braces. Learn from my mistakes. Braces are more practical!

Also, every adult I knew with invisalign had floss every single time they ate. Does a 12 year old want to do that?

I think it is best to have teeth aligned when person is young, There are additional reasons for addressing gaps and misalignments other than cosmetic. You want good (correct) contacts between adjoining teeth. Over time, everyone’s teeth will ”drift” and change position (or want to). What may be okay gaps now, will allow tooth shift over time.

It is less ”costly” and more effective when the patient is motivated and compliant. Keep teeth meticulously clean with brushing and flossing (If braces, this requires the extra simple step of using a threader so that the floss can be threaded between the braces and gumline.) Flouride treatments, good dental education and follow up.

YES, to flossing after each meal-I've never flossed so much in my life.

Also, everynight I used Brite cleaning tabs to keep the aligners from staining. Otherwise, I can see where they would look yellow pretty quick. So, just another thing to do-wasn't that big of deal to me. I still use the Brite on my retainer everynight before bed.

I actually stopped drinking any kind of soft drinks (I was worried about them turning yellow) because you'd have to take them out to drink and it was kind of a hassle. So, that's a good thing I was forced to attain-and upped my water intake.

@petalique makes a good point-- Over time, everyone’s teeth will ”drift”

Also I feel like teen years are such a good time for braces simply because so many other kids will have them. When she's older, she'll be so glad she got it all out of the way.

There are a couple of whitening (lightening) mouthwashes that can be very effective at addressing teeth darkened from pigmented beverages such a coffee, tea, red wine and grape juice. Blueberry teeth?

Floss and brush teeth first. Wait about 30-40 minutes if you are using a prescription fluoride toothpaste.

Ones that we find helpful are:

Listerine Healthy White and Colgate Optic White

These each contain some hydrogen peroxide in the formulation. BTW, do not ever use undiluted hydrogen peroxide as it is too harsh.

Now, here is the FUN part (not yelling, Ida, so you can sit back ;)

You can use this sort of mouthwash as a light duty stain remover for fabric. Spill red wine on your new white skirt? Or coffee splashed onto your duvet cover? Just dab some of this onto the stain (“dab,” don’t scrub). Voilà!

I was speaking of whitening Mouth Rinses!

I used Colgate Optic White toothpaste on vacation. I think they have different variations and mine was like the super duper kind.

OMG, killed the inside of my mouth. It was so tender. Took a while to realize it was the hydrogen peroxide i in the toothpaste. SO use it carefully,

I'll chime in and recommend braces. My teeth were a mess as a kid. They put braces on my bottom teeth and a retainer for my top. I hated the retainer and never wore it. My two top teeth are still crooked to this day.

Every other 12 yo has braces. She'll fit in fine.

For now we are just looking into the braces versus invisalign.

her baby teeth like all babies were pure white , as soon as her first regular tooth came in it was noticeably yellow. then all the others that followed were too. so this is not a staining problem from any one food. the yellow teeth will be taken care of after 18. but definetly a nice white and not that white chicklet look like all the news anchors seem to have.

you are all making good points about her age and the responsiblity thst goes slong with invisalign.

Another Invisalign wearer here. I got mine in June or July 2020. Here it is August 2022 and I am still wearing them. Mine started off as a crowding issue and morphed into a bite issue. I’m fairly compliant, but as time has gone on, my compliance is diminishing. You think two hours a day is a lot of time not to wear them, but it isn’t.

I have never lost an Invisalign tray but I am pretty conscientious about putting them in a specific place when they are not in my mouth. If I’m at home, they are in a little bowl by my sink. If I’m out, they go in the case I was given.

Having said all this, if it were my child or my grandchild, I’d opt for Invisaligns. But I suppose a lot depends on how reliable the child is and how strictly they follow rules.

OllieJane, I cannot use the Brite cleaner. It has an ingredient, persulfate, that is pretty well known to be an allergen. Not knowing I was allergic to it, I bought the Brite, used it once, and broke out in hives. I use Fresh Guard Soak by Efferdent. It does not contain the persulfate. I am only mentioning this in case Lyban’s granddaughter gets Invisaligns.

It really depends on the individual. My 12 year old grandson had invisalign, and I wondered how he would do. But he's a sensitive soul and was very responsible about care and cleaning. Same for contact lenses. I wore braces back when few people did and really hated them. Today I'm very happy my parents did that for me.

Good info, bbstx! Thanks for posting your experience with Brite.

LOL Petal

Braces over Invisalign would have been my choice had my boys needed straightening. The naturally yellow teeth things is a thorny problem. My husband and first born have that issue. In their case you can do nothing about it. It has something to do with what their mouth produces. The scale and tartar those two make is something special. They get their teeth cleaned every four months. My grandfather was a dentist and I was brought up to do nothing cosmetic which would involve degrading a healthy structure, so no teeth whitening for my family.

Both my kids had braces, and both started around age 12. Everyone here gets them, I can’t think of any kids I know that didn’t get them. So there is no stigma…even super vain (I kid!) dd didn’t mind them too much. I can see how Invisalign would be a great option for adults, though.

There is a decent amount of disconfort involved with re-aligning teeth and I could totally see my kids taking the trays out too much/often.. Plus, not sure if the aligners would work with contact sports. Ds did football and basketball and we had to get special mouthguards for braces. Just something to rhink about. Dd didn’t need a mouthguard for cheer, but as a flyer with all the flipping and being thrown, I could possibly see a tray flying out. 😂 So if she does sports, something to consider.

I went to the ADA (American Dental Assoc) website to see which products are approved by them. Without checking I tried ACT Whitening Mouthwash - the foaming of the hydrogen peroxide was a turn off for me. I'm no help with braces/ invisalign but I do wear a nighttime mouthguard and whenever I'm talking with it in, my DH kindly requests I take it out LOL

Stigma around braces? Not even when I was growing up. Just a fact of life for most young people.

Reminds me of the Sean Parker of Napster story. He got called out of class one day, the note said, Your father is here to take you to your orthodontist appointment. Parker was not wearing braces and knew his father was at school because the FBI were executing a search warrant at his house.

My daughter will start braces soon and i researched braces vs invisalign. i had braces for four years when i was younger so very familiar. i do not know anyone with invisalign. that said i researched Invisalign thouroghly and the patient needs to wear them at least 22 hours a day, no snacking, water only between meals (cant be removed so no sugary drinks etc), brush and floss after each meal (can daughter do this at school?), expensive to get replacments, etc. i knew this wouldnt be a good fit for my daughter so traditional braces for my daughter. next up, researching insurance plans…

Stephanie, I’m curious about ”can’t be removed.” As I said above, I’ve had Invisaligns for 2 years. I can remove them any time I choose to.

Compliance is the key here. We never made Invisalign appliances for preteens, because they must wear them 22 hours a day. It takes an unusual young person to comply with that.

I was just reminded why Invisalign was off the table when DS1 was possibly needing braces, the eating problem. DS1 ate very little as it was and I was very concerned about adding any layer of complexity to getting him to eat. That was the trade off with keeping teeth clean with braces I weighed.

Re compliance: My son, now 29, decided he wanted to fix the alignment of his front teeth and could not wear braces due to his trombone playing. He wound up also needing jaw alignment correction. He was playing trombone an average of 4 hrs a day then, so no way he would get 22 hours in. They told him he would just have to be really good about getting as much time as possible and expect it to take a bit longer to reach the goal. It worked well -- except that each tray meant adjustments in his playing, but that would have been true with braces too -- and the metal on both sides of his mouth would have been torturous. He also didn't have the keeping teeth clean and avoiding cavities that my other son did. My sons both ate well, especially in marching band season, but I think teeth that were sore from braces caused more issues with that son and my sister. So -- if they will stick with it, I'd probably favor invisalign. But it all depends on the kid.

My vote is for fixed orthodontics because of non-compliance issues. In my experience--I am not a provider but I work with patients who have done/are doing Invisalign and I would say the Non compliance is Significant, even with patients who are generally pretty good about a lot of things.

Interesting about the peroxide warnings here. i swish peroxide every night. I started that after a friend mentioned that she does it and has really healthy gums which I do not. My dentist has me swish for 30 seconds every time I have a cleaning. I have never had any kind of issue with it.

I had braces as a kid and then invisalign as an adult. i would go with braces for your daughter. Everyone is right-it is a rite of passage for practically all kids! ;-)

There are other substances in whitening and tartar control toothpastes that create contact sensitivities in a significant portion of patients. I may end up having a selection bias because I see patients who were sent to me figure out what's going on, and frequently it's a sensitivity to something in one of these toothpastes.

I haven't read all the comments. I'm surprised her mouth is fully grown at just 12 years old.

But I really want to discourage a child getting invisalign for the simple matter of having to remove the liners before eating and drinking, and the whole cleanliness part of the process. During her school day, this may be such a hassle and likely unhygienic.

I'm not implying that your granddaughter would do this, but I see so many young people remove those things without having washed their hands, eat/drink, then put them back in without having washed anything. Yesterday evening, I was at a big box store and one of the young employees was walking down the aisle with the liner in his hand and then put it back in his mouth. I gagged.

In re HP and mouth discomfort, ulcers etc.

The product that I had an issue with is: Colgate Optic White Pro Series Stain Prevention Whitening Toothpaste, 5% HP.

Some blame SLS (see here: https://askthedentist.com/toothpaste-canker-sores/)

The database of cosmetic ingredients, https://www.ewg.org/skindeep/products/882908-Colgate_Optic_White_Platinum_Anticavity_Fluoride_Toothpaste_Fresh_Mint/, does not have this particular version of the product, but similar products have SLS.

This is the only product ive ever used that caused an issue, but that doesn't prove it is the 5% HP of course.

I got braces after I turned 40 (started in Dec 2005, finished in mid 2007). I considered Invisalign, but I decided against them. Partly because of the increased cost but mostly for all the work they would take. I was also worried about them getting spit bubbles in them LOL. My original removable retainer after the braces came off was an Invisalign type, and I didn't like it, so I'm extra glad I went w/ traditional braces. I got the ceramic brackets for my top teeth, so they were not as noticeable at least to me. After a while, though, I really didn't care and even started choosing my rubber bands according to the holiday (red/green for Christmas, etc).