“Not as painful as i feared! but still a bit of a nuisance.”

I'm on day 5 of my first set of Invisalign trays. I'll be wearing 23 trays on the top and 27 on the bottom to correct moderate crowding. I wore traditional braces as a kid, the whole process took over 4 years including facebow, rubber bands, spacers, every possible torture device you could imagine. So when I finally got those metal contraptions off, I was handed this enormous retainer that took up my entire palate! WTH?! I think I wore it for maybe 2 weeks before I "lost" it.

Needless to say, all that pain and suffering was for naught as my teeth pushed against each other into their current snaggletooth position. So I've finally got the money to fix them, and I chose Invisalign for many obvious reasons.

The first day wearing Invisalign, as I had expected, was the worst. Definitely not excruciating pain by any means, just an uncomfortable pressure. And it was extremely hard to get them off. I bruised a few fingernails in the process. Now I've got it down pat, I tug out from the back on both sides then "pop" it out of the front. I'm assuming this will change once I get the "buttons" put on. Luckily my ortho has me wearing my next tray, which includes the gaps for the buttons, for a whole week before he sees me to put them on. This, I'm guessing, is to make it easier to pop them on and off when my teeth have already moved into their second position.

The biggest downside for me with Invisalign is not being able to snack. Sure, I could pop them out and eat something but it's such a hassle to floss, brush, rinse, brush the aligners, etc that I'd rather just eat at mealtime. I'm not accustomed to this, I'm a grazer and used to eating small portions throughout the day (good for dieting, not good for Invisalign). I've read various reviews about people cheating a little and drinking things other than water while wearing their aligners. I may do this also afterwhile, since I'm so dilligent about brushing and flossing before I put them back in. I also thorougly brush the aligners so I don't foresee getting a "film" on them as others have described also.

So aside from being hungry most of the day, I think these are a great investment and I look forward to a year from now when I'll have straight teeth!

Updated on Nov 10, 2009:

Update: Yesterday I had the teeth shaving and button attachments. And as I had feared that was some seriously PAINFUL stuff! My teeth are so sensitive, the blasts of air they were using along with the button attaching completely wreaked havoc on my gums. And then, the shaving... yeouch. Wow, that was awful. I'd even gone to my dentist upstairs beforehand to have him numb my bottom teeth and it didn't help even a little bit. For those with sensitive teeth like I have, beware this is definitely the worst part of the whole process. Luckily I only have to go through it once. I was crying from the pain and bolted out of the office without making my next appointment like I was supposed to! :(

In the end, it'll all be worth it but sensitive teeth people beware: take a xanax or a vicodin or something before you go in to have this done. Owww!