33yr old Invisalign Journey the Highs & Lows - Brighton, UK

Having had a fixed brace at 16 and pretty perfect teeth afterwards all I keep thinking is 'why the hell did you not wear your retainer when you had the chance!' Anyway, my teeth have moved alot over the last 10yrs and I decided it was best to do something about it now while it hopefully won't take too long.
I had my first set of trays fitted a week ago and so far am feeling apprehensive about the next 28 weeks as this week hasn't been easy. The first couple of days were ok, I had the pressure pain of the teeth moving but that hasn't been unbearable and Im sure I can even see how some of them have moved already! What I am finding really difficult to deal with however is the cuts to my tongue and inside my lips. I work as a trainer so do a lot of public speaking to large groups of people and on day 3 of tray 1 had to speak to a group for 5 hours. After about 30mins I could taste the blood in my mouth and was in so much pain that by lunchtime i had to remove the trays (blood stained, so gross!) as otherwise I just wouldnt have been able to get through the afternoon. After that awful experience my mouth was completely cut up so I went running to the nearest orthodontic surgery begging for wax! I should add that my own orthodontist had told me that if there were any sharp edges I could file them with a nail file which i had already done and had worked for normal everyday talking but when training I obviously use my mouth in a much more exaggerated way whilst trying to project my voice.
For my next training day i prepared by covering about 75% of the tray edges with wax which gave me a really bad lisp as i had so much 'stuff' in my mouth but initially felt much more comfortable. After preseting for an hour though i again had a completely cut mouth just from the edges i hadnt covered and a tray full of blood! Slightly loosing the will to stick this out!
Today I have just been working in the office so not too much talking and my mouth is feeling better already. I've been trying to rinse with warm salt water to aid the healing and have done a bit more filing in the particularly sore spots.
I guess my main reason for writing this is in the hope that someone can assure me that it will get easier. Does anyone else have to speak a lot for their job? How do you find it? I'm wondering whether I just have to remove the trays everytime im in that kind of situation or will my mouth get used to it?

Firstly I'm pleased to say that after the horror of my last review things did get much better in the third week of wearing tray 1. The edges weren't rubbing and i didnt need to use the orthodontic wax at all. The trays were easy to get in and out and I felt much more positive about the whole process.

Anyway back to the bad news lol, two days ago I went back to the orthodontist to collect my second set of trays, have 12 attachments fitted and some between teeth filing. This was a 90min appointment for which I spent most of it with my mouth propped open. The attachments i had are mostly on my bottom teeth as that's where I need the most correction and the filing was also between the bottom teeth at the front. Although uncomfortable to have someone faffing around with your mouth for so long it wasn't painful and I don't feel the attachments are too visible so I left with trays 2,3 & 4 feeling relatively positive.

When I got home I put in tray 2 which I had been warned would be tight because of the attachments but I hadn't anticipated quite how tight! The bottom tray particularly is very hard to click into place and feels like someone has whacked my teeth with a hammer when it does. Lovely!
I'd read many horror stories about people using all kinds of implements to remove the trays but I have found that if I start at the back on one side I can gradually pull them up off each tooth. Although it's painful and not doing my manicure any favours it isn't too difficult!

I've taken a few ibuprofen over the last couple of days as the pain of the teeth moving is definitely worse than with the first set but im hoping that will improve over the next few days.

As far as the edges rubbing which is what hurt so much initially with the first trays it hasn't been as bad so far. I did some filing initially on the edges that felt they were particularly catching on my lips or tongue and that seems to have helped. If you've read my first update though you will know that the problem was down to me having to talk so much for my job and as it's now the weekend we will see what happens when i go back to work next week. Eeeeek.

I have to say that the edges on my first set felt remarkably smoother after the three weeks than when I first got them. Not sure whether that's down to the fact I clean them quite thoroughly with a tooth brush/toothpaste every time i take them in and out or is just what happens with them being in your mouth. I would definitley reccomended that way of cleaning though as they looked sparkly clean throughout.

I look forward to updating this again with positive results soon!
P.S tried to upload pictures but they would only insert upside down!