£40 Perfect Smile?

First photo: teeth before, others: teeth after

I was hesitant about writing this because I wanted to keep it my little secret. I don't mind people knowing my teeth are a temporary cosmetic fix as everyone who follows me knows my teeth are in no way perfect but I don't want everyone in the world having them (not that everyone in the world will want them). However, I will share because I know a few of you really wanted to know more and also because if you've got bad teeth like I do and need a confidence boost for occasions, photos or just for yourself. I will start off my saying it is £40 and it's from eBay.

Now this little bad boy is by an American company that used to make joke teeth called Imako. While doing some research about cheaper alternatives to a snap on smile this popped up. I looked at YouTube videos and very mixed reviews and testimonials and couldn't really find an answer. After all, they are just strips of plastic moulded to look like teeth. For £40 I knew they wouldn't be excellent but with the amount of mixed reviews I decided to take the plunge from a UK seller.

I'm glad I did.

The teeth come as a flat strip of plastic and when you first try to put it in your mouth it looks ridiculous. I persevered. I boiled my water, lowered in my pink moulding plastic, rolled it into a sausage, stuck it to the gum line of the teeth on the back, popped all of it back in the water and waited for it to soften and I slowly put it in my mouth and pressed over my natural teeth for 2 minutes. This is the essential part as this is where the hot plastic on the back (it doesn't burn you) moulds to the shape of your teeth and hardens leaving them with an imprint in the back. When it's solid it means the teeth pop in and out and stick to your natural teeth very easily. Bear in mind this took about an hour and a half of melting, forming, re-melting, re-forming and so on to get the perfect fit.

So once it's all done I needed to trim bits in the back of my mouth to stop it feeling uncomfortable and trim any hard plastic but while the fit was great I still found it felt a little insecure. Enter the denture wearer's favourite - Polygrip. This bad boy holds them securely in place all day long and enables me to talk with only a slight lisp. The lisp is caused by giving me a different bite and I'm still getting used to it so while talking is relatively normal, it's very noticeable to me.

You can't eat food that needs to be chewed with these in as they're not strong enough but you can drink, smoke (be careful about staining - try to stick to clear liquids and not smoking if you can), talk and kiss with these in and it's actually surprising how natural these look if your smile covers most of the gum as mine does. It does feel like there's something in your mouth but I've been wearing mine for four days pretty much non-stop and you do often forget they are there. Strangers have complimented me on my lovely smile, my sister even thought I'd had mine fixed professionally and in photos you definitely can't tell the difference. My only complaint is that the gum colour is a little too even meaning they look slightly plastic but this can be overcome with a practiced smile.

To put them in you simply take the denture-like beast and pop it in. Once positioned it'll slot over your natural teeth and hold itself. I had trouble with my back teeth holding so that's where the Polygrip comes in. To remove them you spread the plastic a little and pull out. No pain, minimal fuss. You store them in the case provided and before you do just wash them with water and a toothbrush to remove any plaque.

The teeth come in natural and bleached, small and large (I got large as I have quite large teeth naturally and natural because I didn't want to be Ross Gellar) and for a fraction of the price of even the cheapest temporary cosmetic fixed and a teeny tiny price compared to crowns and veneers, I think they're 100% worth it. Will they work for everyone? I don't think so. If you're very self-conscious about your smile and any improvement is a bonus? This will work wonders.

If you do decide to get them there's a fitting video on YouTube here which is informercial-central and very corny but will really help with application. I'd 100% recommend these to anyone with missing, broken, stained or wonky teeth even if you just use them for photos.