Fashioning The New Me a.k.a. My Invisalign Experience - Georgia, GA

Hello everyone! I'm a mid-20s pre-dental student, hoping eventually for orthodontia (hence the name). This is where I will be writing about my experience with Invisalign for approximately 15 months. I will be updating every aligner, and adding progress pictures every other aligner, so about every month.

I never had braces as a child because my parents think teeth straightening is for the most part vanity and my teeth gave me character. I never agreed but I couldn't find the right orthodontist and price (I am paying completely out of pocket) until now.

I'm hoping to correct the following issues:
-5mm diastema between upper central incisors (better known as The Gap)
-Moderate overjet causing slight gaps between remaining upper teeth

The cause of my issues are thumb-sucking as a child and tongue thrust (I will begin working on it as soon as I begin treatment).

So, how did I decide on Invisalign and what am I hoping to achieve? The interesting thing is that I had no intention of getting Invisalign. For one reason: I didn't think it could fix my issues. I had only done a bit of research on my own, but two orthodontists had told me that Invisalign only works for minor straightening and they didn't recommend it at all for me. I don't care if anyone could see that I was getting my teeth straightened. So I was looking for a good orthodontist to fit me with traditional metal braces when I happened upon my current orthodontist.

One of the first things the treatment coordinator asked me was, "So, you're here for Invisalign?" I said "...No, just regular braces. I don't think Invisalign would work for me." She waved her hand and said that the orthodontist has dealt with cases like mine with Invisalign. When the ortho arrived he showed me pictures of a patient with very similar issues (slightly more extreme) and I was shocked by how great her teeth came in ~1 year. So those little plastic things and some bonding could do that? He impressed me with his knowledge of teeth movement and mentioned that Invisalign worked really well for closing spaces.

I had already chosen to go with him for Invisalign, expecting that the cost would be more than for traditional braces, when I got a nice surprise: $5,680 was my quote. This was less than 2 other orthodontists in the same/similar area for traditional braces, in one case $1300 less. I set up my appointment to have my impressions taken.

But I guess the answer is: I didn't. I was somewhat lucky in that when I talk, my teeth are mostly covered. I never smiled with teeth showing past the age of 7 or 8. So most people have no clue what my teeth really look like, i.e. how bad they really are.

I'm a little self-conscious about these pictures because, as I've mentioned, I never show my teeth. Now that I'm going to be receiving my first aligners in a couple of days, I can breathe a little easier and post them, knowing that these teeth will soon be a thing of the past. And maybe if there is someone out there with teeth like mine who is wondering how or if Invisalign would work for them, they can watch my progress.

P.S. Sorry for the sepia tone. The pictures were taken with my phone which throws off natural color anyway. The next update will hopefully be in full color when I get my digital camera back.

I am wearing my first aligners!

I must say, after that long wait and from reading others posts, I was expecting a little more. No pain, no edges causing cuts, nothing. Just a mild tingly feeling on a lower central incisor which is slightly rotated and the aligner is targeting. The entire appointment was quite anticlimactic and only took about 15 minutes. I received my first and second aligners, chewie, aligner cases, instructions, and a toothbrush. What I did not get were attachments -- those are going on in a month at my next appointment. My orthodontist says that he does this with all patients because he wants them to get used to taking the aligners in and out before the attachments come on.

The only interesting thing I learned about at the appointment is that I will be getting a rubber band! My ortho added, "Remember we talked about having to get a rubber band at some point..." No, I don't remember that! During my initial consultation we discussed many things, even the mechanics behind Invisalign, but we didn't discuss that, I'm sure. I'm not too happy about the rubber band thing but it's supposed to only be for a short time, to move one of my canines. The office secretary also has Invisalign with attachments and rubber band on her canine and I didn't notice until today so I guess it won't look so bad. I'll just not open my mouth too wide, which shouldn't be hard considering I've been doing that all my life. ;)

Now, on to my impressions of my first aligner/aligners in general:

-The aligners are tight, especially on the bottom, but not tight enough that I need any pain relief.

-I feel ready to play a sport -- the aligners are like thin mouthguards. Or like having peanut butter stuck to my teeth.

-I have a slight lisp, but it should be only temporary. I'm talking as much as I can with them in to get used to having the aligners in.

-Putting them on are a cinch and taking them out is also pretty easy except around The Gap, probably because the large space doesn't allow for smooth movement.

-The bottom aligners have a slightly rough edge but nothing major. I may file them if it becomes annoying.

-The aligner plastic makes The Gap appear a millimeter+ smaller, so that's a definite plus.

As my teeth still look the same, except shinier, I'll save pictures until Aligner 3, when the real fun begins..

My aligners decided to give me a swift kick in the butt for underestimating them. The past few days I've been in real pain!

Here I was thinking they wouldn't do much damage without the attachments. I even used my chewie throughout the day, hoping to get a response...and I sure got one. In the evening of the first day the aching started, particularly on my right side. At first I was glad to feel something: they were working! But the pain kept growing and the aligners felt like they might squeeze my teeth right out of my mouth. Afraid the pain might rise to a completely unbearable level, I popped a couple of pain relievers and went to bed.

The next morning my mouth throbbed. Moving my mouth or touching my upper incisors sent pain shooting down my body. I couldn't wait to rip the aligners out to release the death grip they held on my teeth. The pain continued through the third day. If it weren't for pain relievers I would have just stayed in bed because the 24/7 aching was exhausting.

Just when I was wondering how I could go through this twice a month for a year and a half, this morning I'm almost completely pain free. Whew!

On the positive side, my teeth look better! I know it's too early to see results but the aligners make my teeth bright and shiny and give the appearance of being straight. And after that period of pain, I'm happy with knowing I'm making progress toward better teeth. I'm going out to buy some vinegar to soak the aligners in because I think I spot a hint of a yellow tint to them when held up to the light. I currently use the baby toothbrush given by my ortho and liquid hand soap to brush them when I take them out, which keeps them sanitary but I don't think removes stains very effectively.

Anyway, I'm both looking forward to and dreading Aligner 2. I can only hope the worst pain is with the first aligner, like some say.

Merry Christmas!

I changed to my second aligners last night (finally!) so I decided to post a quick review. These aligners are my first with the wells for the attachments. I won't on my teeth actually be getting the attachments until two weeks from now. It is a little weird feeling and knowing I will have these tiny bumps inside my mouth for the next 15 months. They resemble the brackets of traditional braces.

One bright side: these aligners aren't hurting as much as the first did. Hopefully I'm not speaking too soon, but right now I just feel tightness. They were a little difficult to put on. The back right side just wouldn't snap on, and is still not as tight as the rest. Overall though, if this is how the rest will be, I can deal with that.

I've added a photo so everyone can see the attachment wells. I will have 17 attachments, mostly on the top front teeth (lucky me, eh?).

Sorry for the typos: writing from my phone makes editing difficult and I don't see a way to edit updates.

I'm officially an Invisaligner: today my attachments were put on. The process was long but not difficult. The dental assistant brushed my teeth with pumice paste, etched my teeth with something sour (I'm guessing phosphoric acid), then polished them before applying the template aligners which had been filled with the attachment material. The attachments are made of a clear material, so no issues with matching my tooth color. They feel gritty, which I wasn't expecting.

Now, practicing taking out the top aligners at the office was difficult, as I knew it would be. It took almost 5 minutes, when it used to take a bit more than 5 seconds. I was afraid of snapping the aligners around the canines; they were holding on tight.

In the meantime I'm still wearing Aligner 2. I will be wearing them for one more week so they can work their magic with the attachments, so I'll be in them for a total of 3 weeks. I'm SO ready to move on, but the aligners feel much tighter, as if they are new, so it makes sense to wear these for an extra week. I'll add pictures next week with Aligner 3, probably in full color.

I moved to Aligner 3 two nights ago, finally. Aligner 2 was getting so old; 3 weeks is really a long time to wear trays.

I expected some pain, but there was hardly any pain at all. The interesting thing is that only the left side seems to have any pressure/tightness. It feels as though the Aligner is only retaining the right side (minus the right incisor) in the same position it was.

I've attached a close-up, full color photo so everyone can see the attachments in all their glory. The aligners make it appear like I have an open bite, but I actually do not.

I switched to Aligner 4 last night and it's been as uneventful as Aligner 3. The only difference is that the pressure is more evenly distributed. Also, I noticed that my upper and lower midlines don't match up (never paid attention to if before, since I have bigger issues). I recall seeing an orthodontist before my current one (He was very thorough and friendly; I would have went with him, but he was extremely expensive) and he mentioned that my back bite on the right side is in perfect occlusion but the left side is not so it would need to be shifted forward. So now I'm theorizing that Aligner 3 had that left side-only pressure because it was shifting it to align the midlines.

Anyway, I'm pretty excited because The Gap is now down to 4 mm from 5 mm! This is a small difference so I doubt anyone will notice, and I almost missed it myself except that one day last week I was looking at my attachments and thought, "Ha, my front teeth are so Sponge-Bobby." Then I thought, "Wait, Sponge Bob...were they always like that...?" and measured the space and it was 1 mm less than before. Proof that Invisalign is working for me!

I could kiss my ortho, because any improvement is a huge deal for me, as I've spent my entire life barely opening my mouth. I wasn't expecting such a change with only 3 trays, but I looked at Aligner #7 and I measured the space at 2 mm (which means it would be around 3 mm, since the plastic covers spaces a little). I won't be sure until I get them on, but I'll be glad if that's the case.

Finally, I never added my ClinCheck, so here it is, showing what my teeth will look like at the end of my initial treatment. Well, close to the end, because the video goes so fast I couldn't get all the way there. It appears like I will have a tiny sliver of space between my front teeth, but I don't in the final frame.

I moved to Aligner 5 last night. So far the aligners are fitting well; no spaces between the edge of the teeth and the aligner.

I did notice that I felt some soreness with the previous aligner until after the 7th day, which is pretty unusual. Usually the soreness is gone within 3-4 days. So that was interesting, but I haven't noticed any major changes since Aligner 3. I received Aligners 3 through 7 at my last appointment and I can see a clear difference in Aligner 7 vs Aligners 1 and 2, so I'm looking forward to that.

Last night I moved to Aligner 6. Although this aligner appears to be identical to the previous 2, there is more soreness than usual, so lots of changes must be in the works. Aligner 5 I believe was doing more with the roots/uprighting because for the previous couple of aligners my front teeth looked like they were tipped 1 mm together, and now the teeth are straight up and down.

On a more exciting note, I am now on a 10 day cycle!

I found that Aligner 5 was fairly loose after the first week; if I didn't have so many attachments and the material weren't so flexible, it could probably slip off easily. So I began thinking that I would like to switch to changing my aligners every 10 days instead of 14 days. Bone does have to reform after movement, but 10 days is a safe time period, according to my research. So I called my ortho's office and asked about changing the aligners sooner. I was expecting to have to state all of the reasons why I would be a good candidate for a 10 day cycle, but surprisingly, my ortho suggested himself that I move to 10 days without me mentioning it at all. Hurray! That's 3 months off of my treatment time.

I should add that I wear my aligners for 23 hours a day on most days (I only take them out for meals, which are small), or 22.5 hours every other week when I go out to eat or have a special meal. And I use my chewie for a few minutes after every meal and a few times throughout the day to make sure the aligners are flush to the teeth and engage the attachments. I wouldn't be comfortable with moving to 10 days if I could only wear the aligners only 20 hours a day and didn't have my trusted chewies.

I'm excited for Aligner 7, which is only about 9 days away. :)

I moved to Aligner 7 a couple of nights ago and my front teeth are pretty sore. I'd noticed this Aligner looks different from the previous four, so I decided to wait to take pictures until a few days in, when the movements would fully express themselves. It looks like The Gap is down another 1/2-3/4 millimeter, not 1 millimeter like I'd thought, but it could be that it still needs time to move. It's been more difficult to get the top aligners off this cycle and the front teeth ache when I take them off, so they must be moving. The front open bite look the aligners were giving me has come down noticeably, so I'm glad about that.

I went to my orthodontist appointment last week to receive the next set of aligners -- 8 through 15 (they like to give a couple of extras just in case). The space in 13-15 look about a millimeter less than my current aligners. Anyway, the orthodontist came to check on my progress so far. He looked in my mouth for a couple of minutes and said, "I don't know what you're doing..." My heart sank: I'd been doing something wrong this whole time! Then he continued, "But whatever it is, keep doing it. Your teeth are moving better than planned. I was thinking I'd have to make some adjustments at this stage but your teeth are doing 100% of what they're supposed to and your teeth are edge to edge with the trays. I can't offer you any other advice but to keep doing what you're doing all the way to the end of treatment. Don't change it, not even a little bit."

...Great news! Except he added that my teeth are moving along so well that he will probably start me on wearing elastics soon. Bleh. I guess the only upside to that is that the sooner I start them, the sooner I can get them off. Maybe.

Anyway, I've attached a picture wearing Aligner 7. I'll try to add comparison shots at Aligner 10.

I'm on my third full day of Aligner 8. Nothing unusual to report: I had the typical soreness for the first couple of days, especially in my left central incisor, but my teeth have already stopped aching. These aligners look quite similar to #7, so I won't add pictures.

I mentioned my Invisalign routine elsewhere but I want to go into detail here because I think it's an important topic. Having aligners on your teeth the vast majority of the day and having to brush your teeth multiple times a day means you have to be more vigilant about how you take of your teeth. Having straighter teeth at the end of your treatment, but more cavities than before you started is not a great trade-off, so I'm going through all of my materials and routine, from left to right:

Squigle Tooth Builder/Sensitive Toothpaste: This is one of the most important parts of my routine. Squigle is a natural, fluoride-free, low abrasion paste. It contains xylitol, a natural sugar which has been proven in studies to lower the amount of cavity-causing bacteria and increase remineralization of teeth. It also contains soluble calcium to help remineralize. It's a bit pricey, at roughly $8-10, but I really don't think any orthodontic patient should be without it, or a similar product. Even with regular brushing, you may not get every particle of food, so this gives you much needed added protection.

I use this alone after eating, and morning and night with my fluoride toothpaste because fluoride and xylitol in conjunction have been found to enhance remineralization of teeth.

Generic Hydrogen Peroxide: I soak my aligners in half-half solution of H2O2 and H2O every couple of days or so, to keep aligner yellowing at bay.

Generic Floss: I use 1-2x per day to clean between teeth. Food caught between the teeth and under the aligners for hours at a time is the perfect environment for any cavity-favoring bacteria present to have a feast.

Dial Antibacterial Hand Soap: Great for scrubbing aligners free of build-up. i try to use each time I reinsert the aligners after eating.

Arm & Hammer Baking Soda: Used to make my homemade mouth rinse. After eating most foods, the pH of your mouth is lowered; it becomes acidic. Enamel is softened in an acidic environment so if you brush your teeth right after eating, you can wear away enamel, making you more susceptible to cavities. After all, it is the acids produced by bacteria which cause cavities, not so much the bacteria themselves. 30 minutes after eating saliva brings up the pH naturally, but 30 minutes is a long time when you have to wear aligners 20-22+ hours a day, so you can bring up the pH with baking soda, which has a basic pH.

I add 1.5 tablespoons to a 16 oz water bottle, which lasts for several days.

Aim Toothpaste: My regular fluoride toothpaste. Less abrasive than most toothpastes, inexpensive and effective.

Toothbrushes: Smaller, purple toothbrush is for brushing the aligners; it gets into the crevices better than a larger head toothbrush. The larger toothbrush is my regular toothbrush, replaced roughly every month and a half.

This is the 4th full day of Aligner 9 and I have noticed an interesting change: my overjet is disappearing! When I initially put the aligners on I noticed immediately that the back fit. Normally the aligners tend to pop off the very back molars (I have all of my wisdom teeth) unless i use a chewie pen for a day or so. Then I noticed that my teeth felt like they were fitting together differently; my front teeth felt like they were closing in and my whole felt "flat". I thought "Oh, that's nice"...Then I thought, "Hey, wouldn't that mean something for the overjet?" I checked in the mirror and indeed the overjet has made a lot more progress than I would have expected at this time. I'd been paying so much attention to The Gap and I completely forgot about my overjet. I figured it would take a much longer time.

I'd thought the aligner popping off was due to the assistant taking improper molds but now it makes more sense; the overjet pushes the aligner out an angle so it doesn't sit properly. And now I understand why the openbite look that the aligners were giving me is gone.

Now, the overjet is by no means completely corrected, but if things continue at this pace then it should be close to finished around aligner 20. Which makes me wonder if I really need the last 9/10 aligners. To be honest, if my teeth moved back too much further, I would feel trapped!

I'll be adding comparison photos as promised at aligner 10, although it may be for aligner 2 vs 10, since I may not be able to retriever aligner 1 photos from my old phone.

I'm done with one-third of my aligners! I can definitely see some changes. The Gap is solidly at 3 mm (down from 5 mm) and my overjet is reduced, although i think both of these were apparent with the previous aligner as well.

I was hoping to add comparison shots but that failed miserably because 1. the photos I took of the photos on my old phone came out blurry, no matter what I tried and 2. I don't know how to make proper comparison photos (if anyone knows how I can make them online, let me know). So I'll just upload pictures of Aligner 10, and you can compare that to the first two photos, pre-Invisalign.

Thanks to TwoPlusOne, I can now make comparison shots online. So here the photos are. The first photo is a comparison of pre-Invisalign to Aligner 10 and the second photo is aligner 2 to aligner 10. Since I was not able to add the pictures of Aligner 1, I decided these were the most fair comparisons to make.

I'm currently in Aligner 11. Initially putting these aligners on there was pain, but that subsided in a couple of hours. Interesting note: this is the first aligner, outside of Aligner 1, where I felt pressure on my lower teeth. There isn't going to be a drastic change there, but one of my lower incisors needs to be rotated slightly, and that's where I felt the pressure most. Looking at Aligner 15, there is a clear improvement in that tooth, so the work must be starting now.

In other news, I'm thinking of returning to the 14 day aligner change cycle for Aligner 19 or 20 and beyond. The reason why I'm considering this is because I don't like the way my teeth feel nowadays; tender and a little insecure. That's usually how teeth feel after moving them, but moving more quickly now, they feel that way more often. I wonder though, if they feel like that now because they've just been moved so much. Also, looking at Clincheck, I see the movement with the last 10 or so aligners is less drastic than the earlier ones, so I wonder if it's worth changing back.