Invisalign - First Two Weeks Completed

Today is the last day of my first tray...Yay!!  I do have the option of leaving these in for a couple of more days, but that will put me changing them out over the weekend, and I have lots of fun stuff to do and don't want to be sore and grouchy, so I think I'll just go ahead and change them out before bed tonight.

I thought I'd share my routine that I've followed for these first two weeks.  Anyone who may stumble upon this blog should keep in mind that I have not seen my dentist and may very well be changing my ways after I do...mid-June.

Eating:  Other than sugarless mints, I haven't eaten anything with them in.  The thought of eating with them in seems really disgusting and I'd have to take them out anyway to floss and brush so I don't see the point. 

Drinking:  I have been drinking whatever I feel like drinking with them in.  That includes diet coke and sweet tea so far, and I anticipate having beer with them in when the mood strikes.  Again.....my wonderful dentist may have a thing or two to say about that, we'll just have to wait and see.  I do make sure to swish really good with water after drinking anything other than water, hopefully that is getting most of it off my teeth.  I check in the mirror regularly and nothing that I can see is being left anyway.  I expected my teeth to look brown the first time I had dcoke with them in, but nothing like that.

Smoking:  I smoke with them in.  (Don't tell me smoking is unhealthy.  I don't live in a cave and anyway it's printed right on the box.  I'm well aware that it's bad for me.  I'll quit when I'm damn good and ready.) Just in case there are any smokers who want to hear it from a fellow smoker, there it is.  I do it, and no staining so far.

Wear Compliance:   I take them out for about 20 minutes in the morning, 30 minutes at lunch and 30 minutes in the evening.   One night we went out to eat and I had them out for a little over an hour...but that's the longest at one time I've had them out.  It may just be my imagination, but I think they did feel just a little tight when I put them back in that time.

Cleaning:  During the day I rinse them and my mouth when I visit the ladies room (because of my drinking habits described above).  Three times a day (more if I eat more than 3 times) I brush them with water , and brush and floss my teeth.  Once a day, in the a.m., I soak them in denture cleaner. The denture cleaner turns bright blue at first, but after 15 minutes goes clear.  According to the instructions, this is how you can tell it's finished doing its job.   Also, while I have them out to eat or whatever, I soak them in water and when I'm eating out, I go to the ladies room and rinse them out before puting them in the case.  I haven't ever, so far, let them dry with my saliva on them.

Here are some pics of my old tray after 2 weeks of wear, and my new ones, which I haven't worn yet.

                                                                 Out with the old.....




                                                             ....and in with the new!!

I think my cleaning technique is working well to keep the aligners fresh and clear.  I haven't noticed any odor at all and I actually had a little trouble distinguishing between the old and new aligners in the pics when posting this.  The main difference is that the new ones look a little cloudier than the ones I've been wearing.  The first had that cloudy look too when I first put them in, but that was gone after the first time I cleaned them.

So far, no problems and no pain.  I will be getting attachments with my third set, so I am bracing myself for some of the unpleasantness that others have reported, but I know it will be worth it to be able to smile without thinking about how crummy my teeth look.  Until next time....Ciao!!

Good News!

I woke up this morning to some wonderful news....See, when I first went in for my consultation, my ortho told me that he estimated it would take 36 trays and 18 months to fix my teeth.  Well, last night I realized that I hadn't even checked my actual treatment time and the tech who gave me my trays never mentined it, so I took a look at the baggies my trays came in, and whatayaknow....there are some numbers on there!  "1U of 16"  "1L of 16"   Sixteeeeen....NOT 36!  Not wanting to get excited over nothing, I went on a message board and asked if those numbers were really the total number of trays.  This morning, I woke up to find that 3 kind people had taken their own precious time to answer my question, and if that wasn't enough (I'm always amazed when strangers take their time to help me, message boards rock!!) the answers were all...yeah, that means you have 16 trays in your treatment and judging by your teeth it seems reasonable.

If anyone's interested, it's     www.bracesreview.com/forums/invisalign/
another good one is here:    http://www.archwired.com/

There are tons of personal experiences and the folks are so good about helping out the newbies.

So I'm as happy as I can be.  16 instead of 36....8 months instead of 18 months.  (assuming everything goes smoothly)  That's what I call gooood news!

So yesterday was the first day I went to work with my trays in.  I walked into the co-worker's office that I had told I was getting them on Thursday and said "Well, I got 'em"   ....and she said "Well....I can't seeee them"  Then, I had an entire conversation with another co-worker and made no effort to hide my teeth and as she was leaving...I told her I got them.  It was so funny, she walked straight up to me and got right in my face to look for them!  Honestly, it was a little uncomfortable and out of character for her, because she's one who likes her personal space respected and certainly doesn't get into others'.  She was just taken back...I had told her awhile back I was thinking about doing this (we talk alot, we're pretty good friends) but she didn't know I had actually gotten them.  So her reaction tells me that she really had no idea.  This is cool.

I'm finding now though, I'm not as embarrassed about the treatment.  It's like, I was embarrassed about my funky teeth, but now, since I'm taking steps to correct that, I have nothing to be embarrassed about.  I'm still glad these are discreet though, and I'm loving being about to take them out to clean my teeth and eat.

First Morning With Invisaign

If I hadn't had these trays on my mind already, I totally coulda forgot they were even in.  No discomfort whatsoever!  I did cringe when I first woke up, though, at the thought of wrestling these things out with my funky morning breath-mouth...Yuck!! ....but I was in for a pleasant surprise, they popped right out - a definate difference from last night.  I guess there are minor movements happening with this first one.  I left them out for fifteen minutes while I had some diet coke and a smoke.  I soaked them in Efferdent while I did that, and when I went to put them back in, they were slightly tighter.  I tested this by trying to take them back out and, the top ones at least, were not quite as easy as they had been first thing.

I'm wondering if anyone at work will notice them today.  I've only mentioned it to one co-worker (who was very sweet and totally understood my decision to do this).  We'll see!  I'm going to have to remember not to put my top and bottom teeth together when I smile though, because these things do look odd when I do that.  The kinda look like mouth guards that way, the plastic touching together is noticable IMO, but as long as I just don't clamp down, they look fine.  That shouldn't be hard.

I'll be taking some bottled waters with me to work, so I have easy access to swish, and some Colgate wisps because they are small and I don't have to walk to the bathroom with a toothbrush and toothpaste.  Is that weird that I don't even want anyone to see me walking into the bathroom with a toothbrush?  Yes, it is.  I'm sure I'll get over that soon.  I feel fortunate to have my own office at times like these.

They're Here!

Dum-dada-Dummmmmm!!!   The ortho office called this morning to let me know that my aligners were in...Yay!  I was even able to get in TODAY and pick them up.   So first things first...I'll put up a before of my lovely, banjo picker choppers:

So with that done, I gotta say, these are gonna definately take some getting used to.  They feel really strange.  They gave me two aligners, and once I'm finished with these, I go back for the attachments.  I think they must have been really busy today, because I did feel a little rushed, she gave me some basic info - wear them at all times, some advice on removing them (which I'll get to in a minute), and to never place them somewhere where pets can get to them.  She said that pets are drawn to these things, and will seek out and destroy them.  On removing them....she stuck out her two pinky fingers and and motioned like she was taking aligners out of her mouth as she told me to do it as she was because they had found that starting on one side tends to break them.  Welllll......I don't know about their other patients, but there's no way in the world I'm getting these things out with my pinkies!  I've been using my index fingers so far and it's been a bit of a struggle, I know not as tough it's going to get though.  She told me this first tray won't have much movement.  They do feel tight, but not bad at all.  I can't wait to start the next ones!

So I will leave you with a photo of my teeth with the aligners on:

Oh!!! I almost forgot the BEST part....and I'm super jazzed about this!  I was soooooo excited when I got the call this morning....and I wanted to call my husband and let him know the good news.. (I've been waiting for this for a very long time).   I got to thinking, maybe I should use him as the first test....so I held this in ALL FREAKIN' DAY!!  My appointment was at 4:30, which put me home at about my normal time.  He was on the couch..I walked to him, gave him a kiss, asked him about his day.....NOTHING!!!!   WoooooHoooooo!  Finally, I just smiled and stared....he gave me a perplexed look, and said "What?"  So I leaned in, and, rather than just smiling, actually showed him my teeth (like a dog does when they growl).  He was shocked...he was like "holy shit - that's is coooool....I didn't know you had them!!    So, to me, that's the ultimate test.  I'm very happy with the asthetics of these things.  I though for sure he'd spot them from a mile away, but, no.  I practically had to tell him I had them in!  Yay!!  He did mention (after he found out I had them in, mind you) that I am lisping.  That's okay, I know that will get better.  So there ya have it. 

First day, and all is well.