18 Years Old, Just Some Overcrowding That I Wanted to Get Started Fixing Before College! - Glen Ridge, NJ

The first few days were rough, and I honestly regretted my decision at first. But after the first week my mouth no longer hurt, the cuts quickly healed, and I find that my oral hygiene has improved a lot as well because I need to brush and floss before putting them in again. Overall I love it because nobody even notices I have it! I did have a terrible lisp the first 4 or 5 days but after that it's completely gone. I find it very helpful to use a nail file to soften the sharp edges at the open part of the trays to prevent cuts and sores before putting them in for the two week duration.

I am three weeks into my treatment and on my second set of trays. Next week I am scheduled to go into my dentist's office to get tray three and to have my attachments put on. I recently found out that these attachments do not go into the tray but are glued on to your teeth! I am definitely skeptical of this as I had no idea, and I am worried that they will be obvious when my trays are not only in, but out as well.

When I do go out on a saturday night I take out my trays and what I loved about invisalign was that nobody would ever know that I had it, they would just slowly notice that my teeth were straighter. Now I'm scared that they'll see the attachments and have no clue what they are. I have a friend who has some kind of hard thing on one of her teeth and I'm not really sure if it is plaque build up or something else (I've never wanted to ask), but I don't want people to think that about me.

I have fairly white teeth and have begun using a whitening toothpaste and mouthwash to make sure the trays never make my teeth appear yellow. My dentist also mentioned that putting bleach in the trays to whiten teeth is included in my treatment if I wanted it. Now I'm worried that when I take the attachments off, there will be yellow spots, kind of like why they tell you not to whiten when you have metal, traditional braces.

I wish I had taken a better look at my ClinCheck (the play by play of how your teeth will move and change every week), so that I could remember where the attachments go and how long they stay on for. I'll ask my dentist when I see him next week for the attachments, I'm just really hoping they don't stay on for long because I really don't want yellow spots or to have these weird plastic things glued to my teeth for almost a year!

I am very happy to have gotten invisalign because my sister has metal braces and I didn't want to be the one with bad teeth. I am also British and I hate the stereotype of bad teeth, so I know this will boost my confidence a lot. Invisailgn will be so worth it, but going to college and making a good first impression with people in the fall is very important to me as well.

P.S.- I forgot to post a photo on the right side of my mouth without trays last time so I'll add it here.

I literally just got back from my dentist's office and received trays 3, 4, and 5 as well as my semi permanent attachments which I will have until December and the end of my invisalign treatment. As I was in the waiting room, I was reading some of the reviews on this site for attachments and it made me extremely nervous. However, I can say with extreme confidence that this in office procedure was absolutely painless and I was not uncomfortable at all.

The whole process took about 15 minutes tops, and I had 12 buttons/attachments put on. I read that people experience extreme sensitivity or discomfort during or afterwards, and I felt none of this. I didn't even feel them putting the attachments onto my teeth, I just felt them blowing air and water onto my teeth. Although I'm not thrilled with how they look (but who would be?), it could be a lot worse and I know that it will be extremely worth it in the end.

The color of the attachments match my teeth pretty well, but for some reason the attachments are more noticeable and much whiter than my teeth on the right side of my mouth. This may just be because those are are where my most crooked tooth is though. I was worried that because I have started using whitening toothpaste and mouthwash that the buttons/attachments would look yellow on my teeth, but it's a little of the opposite. I'm happy with this because I know that if I continue to use the whitening toothpaste and mouthwash that it will lead my teeth to match the attachments more. Also, my dentist assures me that whitening with buttons is absolutely fine and won't leave any marks if I'm just using toothpaste and mouthwash, and that even people with braces shouldn't be worried, although I'm still a bit concerned.

The only real problem I am having is taking the trays out and putting them back in. I find that using my nail to pull the back of the trays is the best way, because I can easily pull them off from there. I feel like the attachments will come off every time I do this, but my dentist assures me that most people who have problems with buttons have them immediately upon getting them. If one of them falls off, he says its not a huge deal and to notify him if it does.

Another thing that I don't think I'll get used to is how the attachments feel without the trays. They feel kind of gritty and some people experience sharpness and say it causes their gums pain. If this happens to you its probably a positive because you'll be more motivated to wear your aligners often. I'm hoping that some brushing will take away the gritty feeling! I am also please to report that the attachments are much less noticeable without the retainers on. Although I wished they wouldn't be too noticeable with the aligners on (because they're on the majority of the time) , they are on my right canine, and the others are too if I smile wide enough, but I usually don't smile that way lol. However, it's really not too bad and anybody who already knows you have invisalign wouldn't notice.

Finally, I don't feel any real pain, just a little discomfort from the trays being kind of tight. I actually left my second set of trays at a diner yesterday during lunch (!) so getting a new set today saved me $150! I wasn't as good about wearing my second set of trays as I was with my first, and I can tell by the tightness of tray three, although the buttons may have added to that. I have a bit of a lisp again, but I'm confident that will subside just like it did the first time. The pain or discomfort after attachments is nothing compared to the initial pain I had when I began the invisalign process.

Sorry for such a long post but I know I searched for tons of attachment reviews before I got them. Feel free to leave any questions or comments! I love sharing my invisalign story and getting pointers or feedback from others!

A part of me feels as though this process is moving at the pace of a snail, and even though I know it will be worth it in the end, I'm not really seeing any results. I know that because I only got my attachments two weeks ago I shouldn't expect to see much, but I have to admit it is a little disappointing.

I have recently started slacking with the amount of time I've been wearing my retainers, and yet tray 4 fit perfectly yesterday (aside from a little bit of tightness that is to be expected) so I'm kind of discouraged that these trays aren't even doing anything noticeable. My dentist is super nice but he's not an orthodontist which worries me slightly only because of all the negative reviews I've read about not going with an orthodontist. I know I shouldn't be so negative, but it's hard :/

I'm very happy to be on tray 4 and hope that the rest of this process will go by quickly so that I can enjoy a beautiful smile! I'm going to post a pic of my teeth this week without retainers , but I've been comparing it to old pictures and my problem teeth look even more crooked! It's very frustrating and I'm hoping it's because my teeth are shifting and that it'll help them move into place, but if you look at the two pics side by side the difference is obvious and it depresses and discourages me a little. I'll post one from now and before and please comment and let me know what you think. The main tooth I'm talking about is the top (my right) canine

First of all I'm so sorry I forgot to update last tray, I was super busy! But hopefully now I'll be able to see some real changes from the pictures of tray 4. I've noticed recently that I don't wear my trays as often but I'm still able to to fit the next tray quite comfortably. I went to my dentist to get trays 6,7, and 8 on tuesday and when I put in tray 6 he said it fit perfectly! I'm definitely not saying you can get away with doing less than the 20-22 hours a day recommended, but don't beat yourself up if you have a busy week because chances are (especially if you wore the trays more often at the end of the treatment) that bad habits during one tray will not effect your invisalign process at all.

So my senior prom is next week and I think I'm going to be using the crest 2-hour whitening strips beforehand. I've used them before, but never while I had the attachments/buttons on my teeth. Although my dentist reassures me it shouldn't make any difference, I'm a bit cautious. Luckily my attachments won't be off until december, so my teeth will have time to go back to their normal color that best matches what's under the buttons. I'm thinking maybe I should switch back to non-whitening toothpaste when I get closer to the end of my process, any thoughts?

I also feel kind of bummed out because not only do I not see any real progress, I don't feel any. I don't feel like my problem teeth are ever really being moved by the trays and there's never really a tightness on them. My top right canine is super rotated and like I stated in my last post it almost looks like it's protruding more. I also have noticed that on some of my teeth my gums have almost receded… It's like there was a little blood and they were sore while brushing for a few days and now the gum line is higher on some teeth (I'll post a pic along with this. It's only on one side and the easiest way to see it is by comparing the gum line on my two front teeth).

Lastly, my dentist is recommending that I don't put a permanent wire behind my teeth to keep them in place after invisalign, but I feel like if I go through all of this I might as well do something to keep them this straight! He reassures me that I'll be able to keep up with wearing my invisalign retainer after the treatment to keep them in place, but why can't I just get a wire? He said something about people developing dental problems from not properly being able to floss or clean their teeth with it, but my friends with wires don't have any problems. I just don't want all of this to be for nothing!

Sorry for the long post everybody! I'd love to hear any feedback or answers to my concerns as I feel like I'm not seeing any progress, although that may be because I look for it everyday. I promise to go back to posting every two weeks as well!

Hey everybody sorry I forgot to post tray 7, but I've been wearing it for just over a week now. It is truly amazing how fast these trays can go by, I thought I was still on tray 6 until I looked at my iPhone calendar! I have been noticing subtle changes with my teeth, but no real progress which I'm sure is normal since I'm only on tray 7.

I'm actually kind of bummed out about my bottom teeth because they are very overcrowded and there is no room for them to do any real rotating or moving yet. I know I am getting IPR shavings done (I'm pretty sure those are what they're called), but my dentist says I won't need them until just before tray 20 which seems so weird to me…I just don't understand why they wouldn't do them sooner if my bottom teeth can't move at all from what I can see. Does this mean I won't see any progress until tray 20 for my bottom teeth??? If so I'll be pretty upset. I'll have to ask my dentist when I see him to try out tray 9.

Another reason not having the shavings done until tray 20 is worrying me is because I don't think 3 trays (6 weeks) is going to fix them the way I want. And if it only takes three trays to move them then what the hell did I waste almost 40 weeks of bottom tray wearing for! Very frustrated because even though I'm not that upset about how crooked they are, if you look at my bottom arch you can see that there is no visible change in the past 12 weeks. I know there is no room for them to move, but then why didn't the ClinCheck schedule my IPR shavings earlier. All my bottom trays even look the same :(

Oh well, so far so good I guess. I just wish that I was seeing some actually changes because some other RealSelf people I follow I see progress with and they are only on tray 4 or 5. Sorry for the pessimistic post you guys, because I do think that this whole process will end up being worth it. I just have some doubts and I'm letting the negative reviews I see haunt my nightmares!!! Above are photos so let me know what you guys think or comment if you have any questions/comments!

I am so sorry for the late update, but I just graduated from high school and my schedule has been crazy! Just to recap, my main problems are bottom and top right rotated canines, bottom left slightly rotated canine, and overcrowding in the center teeth on the bottom. I have to admit that I have been a bit bad on wearing my trays, and have even gone a few days without wearing them sometimes. I know I know, this is extremely bad for my invisalign process. But I swear I am back to the way I first was! I even put my trays back in immediately after taking these pictures, whereas normally I'd wait until posting this… or until I went to bed.

Although (like I say every two weeks) I haven't noticed any significant differences, I did look at a picture of me before all of this and notice that my smile now seems more even. I am happy to report that invisalign has made differences in my smile, even if for now they are minor. It has improved the whiteness of my teeth thanks to the treatment my dentist included (free of charge!), and of course my oral hygiene has improved because of the frequent brushing and use of mouthwash to strengthen enamel.

The pictures above are after my first day with tray 10 in, and I can't believe how fast this whole thing is going! I love waking up and seeing on my iPhone calendar that it is time to change trays, that's how fast it goes! The main reason I did this was to improve my smile for college, and although my smile won't be fixed until December/January (and thats not including retainer time which I know will be worn pretty much 24/7 for a few months), I am confident now that I can do it! I am scheduled to get my IPR shavings done just before I leave for college (hopefully) as they need to be done before tray 20. Honestly though, they'll probably be done when I come home for thanksgiving break as that date is much closer. Either way, I am glad to finally be in the double digit trays!

I still have yet to bring up the courage to ask my dentist to send me my ClinCheck, although I'm thinking I should just email him. Thank you for all of your support and please comment below-- I love hearing questions or feedback!