Invisalign: Stories

I started my aligners this past Monday. I go to a premier orthodontist who I really like, she was also the orhto for my teenage daughter who wore metal braces for 2 years. I'm 43 years old and have been self concsious of my overcrowded teeth since I was young. Now was the time to do this for me. I have sensitive gums and I've had bad dental experiences in the past so I went in as a very nervous patient. It definitely helped to have the chance to get to know my ortho over the past two years with my daughter. I had slimming done on 6 teeth, it was not bad at all. I have 10 buttons. I feel like they make the aligners more noticeable. I couldn't believe how tight my first tray was, I'm at the end of week one and the tray is much more comfortable but boy are my teeth sore. I also had a hard time the first day, I kept gagging as a result of feeling a mouth full of plastic. The gagging went away by the next day. My other biggest adjustment has been my speech and extra saliva. I speak a lot in my job and I feel like I'm trying so hard not to have a lisp that I'm clenching my teeth and trying to hide them. I think that is making my problem worse. My ortho has found that changing to a new aligner every week has worked out better for a lot of her patients and that is what I'm doing.....the result is I have many more trays (68 in total!) ....I will do my first change tomorrow night, I hope it won't be too bad. I hope my speech improves and the saliva lessens. I dread the thought of 68 weeks but when I close my eyes at night I dream of being able to smile and not be so self conscious. That will make this all worth it..