Ortho Appt. 8-17-10

Had an awesome appointment today, received trays 7 through 12.  I saw the ortho who did my initial consultation and feel alot better after seeing him.  I automatically took my trays out, because normally, they don't look at my teeth with them in, but the ortho had me put the back in today so that he could examine how they are fitting, and, great news - I'm right on track!!  I was a little worried because of tray 3  (broke them...had to go to 4 early).  I also asked him for my clincheck, and he apologized that it hadn't been offered before.  I like him....but the rest of his office..not so much for the most part.  The billing and office ladies are really awesome, but the techs don't seem to want to be bothered.  Well I came straight home from the ortho's office and compared tray 1 to tray 12....and....whooo hoooooooo.....huge difference.  I'm so excited, this process seems to actually be going by pretty quickly.  So....for anyone interested, here's my clincheck:

Tray 1

Tray 12!

Tray Six

Just started tray six...I don't see much of a difference yet, but I go to the orthodontist on the 17th for more trays, so hopefully they will bring a more visable change.  I do feel a big change in my bite, as in, my molars don't meet, so eating is a little difficult, and I can see that my front tooth that's next to the crossbite tooth is being pulled outward a little.  I hope that's part of the plan to get the crossbite fixed.  So here's my before pic and a pic of my teeth as they are now:

Tray Six

Before Invisalign Treatment Began

I had a really tough time getting these ones in for the first time and I've broken my fingernail on my index finger, not with the trays, but that's the one I use to take the top trays off so it's making getting them off kinda tricky. 

Hopefully I'll have some exciting news to share before too long!

Dentist Appt Results and Cracked Aligner

So 9 days into wearing my 3rd aligner (the first one with the attachments) I find that it fits pretty loose, and it's coming off waaaaay too easy.  I was really hoping that it had just done its job and loosened up.....but it was all just wishful thinking, because upon inspection, I found two good-sized cracks....one on each side on my top tray.  Not little ones either, big enough that it made the aligner feel a little floppy.  I was advised by my ortho office to move on to the next tray if I could...if not, go back.  It was kinda tough, but I got into tray 4.....which I wore for 3 weeks instead of two (ortho office didn't tell me to do that mind you, I just wore them longer than two weeks on the advice I've found online). 

I was also able to find a better way to remove them so I wouldn't break anymore trays.  I broke tray 3 by trying to remove both sides from the back...rather than removing little by little from one side, as the instructions say to do...so after the break I decided to try to go by the book, and it's working out much better for me.  I start on the side of my mouth without the crossbite and pull them down, while pushing out from the inside of my teeth where the attachments are.  This helps me to not bend them so much and I feel like a pro now!  :)

I'm currently on tray 5 and still don't see much difference, although my bite feels totally different.  I'm hoping with the next few trays I will see something, but we'll see.

I got fabulous news at the dentist a couple of weeks ago when I had my checkup and cleaning.  The hygenist could definately tell that I was flossing more, there were no cavities, and my gums have even improved!  Yay!!!  The dentist even told me he was proud of me for getting my teeth straightened.  He's so awesome...I was terrified to go to the dentist before I found him and his staff!

I did have a bit of a scare that I will share with you....anyone still in the decision making process may want to take this in as a "something to ask about before starting treatment" item...I was just poking around on a dental message board...(I don't know why I do it...lol) and read a post by a 30 something year old who was in dentures...full-blown dentures, and claimed that braces 7 years prior had cause her to lose all of her teeth!  Well I went into full-blown panic when I saw that and began to question whether I'd been checked out thoroughly enough to have my teeth staightened.  I kinda calmed myself by remembering that my ortho has a policy of not treating anyone who hasn't been cleared by their dentist...but it stayed in the back of my mind even so.  Well, when I went for my checkup....DrW pulled out my file and it was all the x-rays and photos that were taken by the ortho, so that put me right at ease knowing that the two of them are communicating.

Moral of that rambling tale.....ASK FIRST!  Find out what criteria they use to determine whether or not your roots will hold up to orthontics just for you own peace of mind if nothing else.  I was terrified that I'd spent all this money and was virtually ready to walk away...If there was a significant chance I'd lose my teeth within 10 years of treatment!

I feel better about it now, and am back to looking forward to a nice smile, but I really dropped the ball on that one.

Invisalign - 3rd Set - Attachements - IPR

So I just got my attachments today, and had some IPR done as well.

First, the attachements -

The tech placed them...by first using what she called a pomice on my teeth.  For the crown, she prepped a little differently, appying a couple of different agents (I have no idea what) and letting them each sit for few minutes while she moved on and worked on the others.  When she'd finished prepping them all, she put the template on and glued the attachements on.  I have 5 on top and 1 on the bottom. 

I'm not crazy about the looks of the attachments.  They are much whiter than my teeth and I feel like they are pretty obvious.  I'm not too upset about that though, because they still aren't as noticeable as regular braces, and when this is over, I'll have straight teeth!  Here's a pic of my attachments without the aligners:

The worste part of getting the attachements for me was when she went to remove the template (which is basically a flimsy set of aligners with holes in them where the attachements are to be placed).  I thought she was never going to get the top one off....and I was worried about the actual aligners being that difficult.  I asked her if they would be and she just kind of shrugged and said, "maybe"....So far, I'm not finding these guys to be overly concerned about their patients' well-being outside of their office, unfortunately.  Also, the glue left a pretty bad taste in my mouth, and there was quite a bit of clean up that had to be done after the attachements were done...no biggy though, and the bad taste didn't last long at all, maybe a couple of hours.

And just in case anyone's ever intersted, here's a pic of my teeth+attachments+aligners:

The IPR wasn't bad at all.  The only difference I notice is that it's much easier to floss in the areas he shaved.  At one point, he must have gotten kinda close to the gum, but it never once hurt and it didn't take long at all. 

Once the attachements and IPR were complete, he put the aligners in for me.  They felt tight, but honestly not as bad as I thought they would be.  Before leaving, I re-stated my concern about removing them to eat (it was lunch time, after all).  She told me to just be sure to take both sides out at once rather than pull from one side and gave me a little plastic hook thingy to use:

Hook thingy

It doesn't really work, it's too thick to get between my teeth and my aligners.  It took some time and energy, but I was able to wrangle them out and eat lunch.  I left them in until it was time for dinner, and it is already starting to get much easier, so I'm happy about that.

Camping with Invisalign

Camping with these and keeping the yuck factor down was a bit of a challenge for me.  For one thing, no running water.  Even with plenty of water to use, for some reason it just didn't seem the same not to be able to use a steady, warm stream of it to wash my hands and aligners.  I don't know if there was a real difference, but in my head, it just didn't seem right....haha....maybe I'm just neurotic though, I've always had a kind of weird hand washing obsession anyway. 

I didn't really miss being able to snack, but I have to admit, when the s'mores ingredients came out, I was a little bummed that I couldn't just spontaneously take part.  Not a big deal though.

I did notice something I hadn't before...I usually use room-temp water to swish with, because I'm more thorough that way as my teeth are sensitive to cold.  Well I had to use some bottled water out of the ice-chest and the cold made my aligners tighten up!  I thought that was really odd....and just goes to show how temp sensitive they are...so I'm guessing, when they say no hot soaks or drinks....they mean it!

I enjoyed our trip...but really looking foward to next summer when (fingers crossed) I will be done with this and won't have to be thinking about my teeth all the time. 

Also, I did have beer, and am happy to report that there are no apparent problems with drinking beer with these on.  I just made sure to swish with water pretty often, and brushed my teeth and cleaned my trays as usual.

This coming Thursday will be two weeks with my 2nd set in.  I will have to wear them until the 21st though because that's the first available ortho appt.  I'm kinda bummed about all that wasted time, but it may be a good thing, because our vacation is right before the appt and I won't have to worry about attachements, and tightness and all of that on our trip. 

Smoooooth sailing so far....I'm hoping it stays that way!

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.

Invisalign Treatment - First Impressions

I finally got the ball rolling! Yay!

Monday, April 12th I went to Dr. F's and got impressions done. One of his techs actually did the work. I have to say, it wasn't the most pleasant experience, but not too bad either. I think the worste part was that the trays they put the goop in were so big, I felt like the corners of my mouth were going to tear and the top one felt like the goop was going to go right down my throat. I had to resist gagging. Yuk!

First they fitted me for the impression trays. They used Flexitime, which I don't really know how it's different from any of the other stuff, but in case anyone's interested, that's what they used for me. The tech mixed some grayish puddy and some purple puddy together and pressed it into the tray. Once that was done they used what looked to me like a caulk applicator to add some green stuff to the top. With the little puddy mixture in place, they put that in my mouth and it sat for 3 minutes for each arch.

They told me they usually get the trays in within about 3-4 weeks, but it could take as long as 6 weeks. I'm anxious to get started, but nervous about the discomfort and lifestyle change I know is coming. If I can just smile with confidence, it will all be worth it though.

Oh, they also said that I will only wear the first tray for about a week, then I'll have to go back in for attachments and more trays (I'll get to take 4-6 trays per visit).

Here's a link to a video explaining the impression process.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVxg4j6GMVU

1 - How it Started

At age 7, I knew nothing about dentists. My mother was the kind who didn't make use of health professionals unless there was a problem, so to this day, I'm not sure what compelled her to take me to the dentist that day. The office seemed foreign to me and I wondered what I was in for. I don't remember too much about that visit, other than it was determined that I had a cavity. It must have been a very small one, because Dr. H managed to fill it without causing me one bit of pain. I remembered being amazed and a little troubled at how numb and rubbery the side of my face felt after, but it was an otherwise uneventful...um, event. That was the only time in my memory I ever visited the dentist while I was under my parent's roof.

In the year I started middle school, some of the kids came back from summer vacation with shiny metal brackets on their teeth, and as the year progressed, these brackets began to appear on more and more smiles. I wasn't sure what it was all about, but when my best friend Emily got braces, I learned that they were uncomfortable, they cut her mouth and caused her headaches and she was forever putting wax on her finger and sticking in her mouth. When we were all together at recess, I remember the bracketed kids commiserating with one another about what they were experiencing with their silvery devices...so even though I had no clue what they were actually for, I went home and informed my mother that all the kids were getting these things, and maybe I should have them too. "Those are expensive." was the answer, and so it was decided just like that.

As time went by, the small nuisance of not being able to be like the other kids turned into a genuine envy, as the crazy looking metal came off to reveal perfect, beautiful smiles....and I was stuck with the same crooked look I'd always had. I again approached my mother..."Emily got her braces off and her teeth are soooo pretty, my teeth are crooked, so I need to get braces too!" At this point, the idea of wearing braces when everyone else was just getting theirs off bothered me a tiny bit, but now I knew what it was about, and I wanted a pretty smile too. I was denied again. I think this was about the point that I became really aware of how my teeth looked....and I didn't like it. I consequently began to try to hide it from others. I used all the common strategies. I would smile with my mouth closed, or put my hand over my mouth, or look downward when I was talking. These are habits that are still with me today at age 37.