27 Year Old Marcia Brady but with Invisalign Instead? - Baton Rouge, LA

I had my invisalign put on on April 9, 2015. Add me to that team of people who had never seen or heard of attachments and wound up getting them on most of their teeth. That day was probably the worst day of my journey (hopefully). I really started to second guess the whole thing, mostly because I hadn't braced (pun) myself for invisalign to be visible. I mean when you google image them it's people with no attachments or one tiny little attachment on their back tooth or something. I don't know who you people are, but life's not fair and I have those suckers on all my front teeth top and bottom. Even the initial pain of the first tray didn't really put a damper on my vanity anger, so that's how you know it was real. I'll admit it, I cried. I watched that episode of the Brady Bunch where Marcia gets her braces and just melts down and had a pity party for myself.

The only thing that really helped was going to work on Monday and getting it over with - talking to everyone who would see me every day for the next year and who would notice. I'm on tray 2 of 18 now so I've gotten sort of comfortable. I still made a countdown in excel so I can mark off my days left, though. Big countdown, many days to go. The first days after getting my first tray and changing into my second are sort of painful. Only when I'm going to take them out (I'm looking at you attachments) and put them back on, but putting them back on is at least sort of a satisfying pain. Like ha, teeth you thought you were gonna get to go back to your old comfy spot but nope, get to standing straight, punks.

My problems so far is I had an attachment come off on my second day, but got it put back on no problem as soon as I could get in to the ortho. And I had staining on my first aligner. Which really threw me because I diligently took them out for every meal and drink and brushed and flossed before putting them back in. Every time. Like an adult. I also cut out 90% of what I used to drink (diet coke and coffee) because they just take too long to enjoy and I really just want to keep the aligner in as long as possible. But yeah, anyway, staining...weird. The only thing I could think of is one day I used one of those listerine breath strips with the trays in. I bought Retainer Brite off amazon for use on my second tray and so far so good. No staining and no smell. The first trays smelled no matter how well I brushed them.

I think next visit to the orthodontist - May 28th - I'm going to beg, plead, and gnash my teeth until he agrees to let me do something to cut down on the timeline. He does a little different plan of every third tray stays on 3 weeks instead of 2. I feel like I can persuade my teeth to move faster than that with words of encouragement, gentle brushing, and motivational speeches.

Tray 2 came with a first – my first date with Invisalign. This was really kind of making me nervous because in all my invisalign research it feels like everyone mentions what their husband or boyfriend or kids think of it and I’m like…nah, got none of those. So I went on a date, took the invisalign out because I’m a wimp but it’s still not totally normal because of the attachments on my teeth. The guy didn’t seem to notice. And I didn’t think about them the whole time, so that was great.

I felt a little guilty because I probably left them out for four hours tops, but I figure it couldn’t have done that much damage and I’m usually pretty good about wear time. I probably wear them more than 22 hours on a given day (I do 15 minutes for breakfast and lunch and then 30 minutes for dinner, I am NO fun to eat with) so one little break for one tiny little date didn’t feel too bad. It’s interesting that I’m so self conscious about the stupid plastic thing on my teeth and not my teeth themselves which look kinda funny. But he started dating me with a jacked up grill, so he’s either oblivious to teeth (here’s hoping) or he just likes me for stupid reasons like my personality.

I changed to tray 3 last night before bed at the advice of another review that said you basically sleep away the pain, and so far it seems to have worked. I feel the tightness and pressure of it being a new tray and all, but no pain when I removed it to eat this morning. I guess I’ll see by lunch if my teeth are feeling tender at all. I kind of hope so, that’s my sign it’s working! This will be a three week tray for me, so I’m a leeetle bummed about that – my app (Align Remind) that reminds me to change doesn’t even have a three week option, but at the end of the three weeks I get my next three trays so there’s something to look forward to. I’ll also be going on vacation in two weeks so that will be my first experience trying to balance beach drinking with invisalign wearing. Any tips on that are greatly appreciated!