Invisalign: Stories

I am really excited to be starting Invisalign. My parents couldn't afford braces for me when I was a kid so now being 28 years old, I can afford to take care of it. I have wanted to fix my teeth for as long as I can remember because it really affects my confidence. I feel weird meeting new people and doing what I love most which is singing in my band. I hate taking pictures, especially when someone shoots one of me laughing or talking. I'm hoping that my treatment will give me confidence and a sense of normalcy that was always lacking in my life. The Invisalign will also give me something I was always afraid of with braces... discretion. I always pictured big metal braces over my big gaps. I felt like that would make me look even worse than I already do. Invisalign gives me a lot more confidence to fix my teeth in a more discreet way, especially being an adult now.

My dental situation is that when my adult teeth came in, I never got my right and left Lateral Incisors. This left a gap in my front teeth and a bigger gap in between my right front tooth and right Canine. The ideal treatment plan would have been two implants or bridges to replace the missing Incisors. Due to cost however, we've decided on doing 1 implant on the right side. The plan is to pull my right side teeth from the canine to the molars backward; this will make the right gap big enough for an implant. The whole left side will be moved forward, closing the gap in the front two teeth. These will be reshaped so with my one implant, my teeth will all look correct. During the process, I will also have the ability to have a "dummy" tooth in my trays as my right gap increases. This will give me the appearance of a complete smile later in my treatment instead of a huge gap until I get an implant. I was very excited about that! So far my treatment is estimated to take around a year. I'll find out for sure when I go get my trays later today.

So far, I have learned through others that the first trays of every set will be painful because they will be the tightest so I will probably need pain medication those days. I also should not drink dark beverages that will stain the trays (coffee, soda, alcohol, etc). I will have to remove them to eat. This may affect my eating socially later in my treatment when my right gap is much bigger since the dummy tooth that is in my tray will suddenly not be there as I eat my meal. I'll have to see how that goes. I also was told I could do whitening at the same time because the trays for whitening are similar to the Invisalign. I haven't made a decision on that yet.

I'll try and check back in when I get further along. I hope all goes well!

I got my Invisalign yesterday! I went in and was out in 10 minutes!

So far so good! Although they are tight, I haven't gotten the terrible headaches I was warned about. I feel a little funny with the trays though. They make me talk with a lisp but I read that it goes away within a few days. You definitely can see that something is there... even more-so up close. Right now I don't have the little buttons (dots, attachments) yet so that makes it look a little more funny with these weird bubbles coming off my teeth. The dentist wants me to get used to the trays for a week before putting the buttons on. They assume it will take about an hour to put them on since I need a lot. I also get a little grossed out that the trays fill with spit so I'm constantly aware of that. Sleeping with them was no problem though.

One good thing is something the assistant told me based on her own Invisalign experience. With Invisalign, she lost a little weight. I can understand that because you become more aware of the fact that anytime you eat, you will want to brush before putting them back on. So is that handful of M&M's worth it? Probably not. So I found that to be the case already. I wasn't tempted to eat beyond my meal because now it meant more damage control.

From just wearing them from 3:00pm-5:30pm, when I took them off for supper, I already felt that my bite was different! It was nothing major, of course, but I could feel that my teeth weren't sitting on each other as usual. It didn't cause any problems... it was just noticeable.

So far that's all I've observed. I'll check back if anything else comes up, if not, it'll be a week when the buttons are on.

So yesterday was my 1 week visit where I got my buttons (attachments, dots) on. I starter at 4pm and it took them about an hour because I have a bunch. I was nervous when the drill came out but it was painless. They just had to roughen up spots on my teeth to adhere to. All in all it was an easy procedure.

My trays are much tighter now with the buttons. Not super painful but achy. What I noticed right away was that taking my trays off was more difficult. Also, the buttons themselves are really rough feeling. I’m sure they will smooth with time but I don’t like how they feel without the trays on. The real con though came with eating. On my left side, I have a button on my top teeth and a button on my bottom teeth that line up. Since I have a small overbite too, my cheek kept pinching between the buttons when I chewed so it felt like I kept biting my cheek. It happened often. I’m pretty sure it will turn into a sore in that spot. I’ll have to figure out how to prevent that in the future but I’ve only had that one meal so far with the buttons. We’ll see how breakfast goes today.

Also yesterday I found out that my tray system is going to be 16 trays. So that puts me at the beginning of April to be done. The assistant told me that 1 out of 5-10 people will need adjustments during their process due to the teeth not moving according to plan. So as long as that doesn’t happen… I’m looking at 32 weeks.

So far after 1 week…
I have been in a few social settings involving eating. Taking my trays out isn’t always a hassle when there is a bathroom nearby but when I was at the beach for hours, it was. I didn’t want to run all the way to the bathroom to go take them out so I had to discreetly find a way to remove them so I wouldn’t gross out anyone in my group. Also, I don’t always get a chance to brush my teeth after eating in social settings, so putting my trays back in grosses me out. I just have to suck it up and brush down everything good when I get home though. The hardest part is being at a party or at the beach where people snack for hours instead of having a set meal. I really don’t want to keep them out that long so it just takes a little more planning in those situations. I still have a noticeable lisp but people are getting used to it.

So far, it has all been worth it because I know the end result will be great! I’ll keep updating as I go on.

I hit my 2 week mark yesterday but with Labor Day, I don't get my 2nd set of trays until tomorrow.

So far...
I have been in pain more since the buttons were added but it hasn't been bad for the last couple of days as far as the tightness and tooth soreness goes. The worst thing is that since my last update, I have had many more sores appear beyond the one I took a picture of. The one in the picture turned into 4 canker sores in a row! I developed 2 in a row on the bottom right inside of my lip, another about an inch away on my bottom lip, and one on the top left inside of my lip.... needless to say.... it was painful to do anything... talk, eat, brush. They are mostly still all there and I will address it at my appointment tomorrow. I am keeping Oragel with me today though. I found on Google that many people develop sores from Invisalign or the buttons. I thought "no sores" was supposed to be a perk of Invisalign but I guess not for all.

I also Googled a new habit I started and found that other people do it too. I started this annoying habit of creating suction in my mouth with my trays. One person said it didn't affect them at all but in my case, it is creating painful cuts (on top of all the canker sores) in the shape of the edges my trays. I've tried to file down the sharp edges and be aware of when I'm creating the suction so I can stop.

Hopefully I can figure out a way to get everything in order. I'll update again when I have new trays.

Today I got tray 2. So far they feel tighter in my bottom left molars but nothing super painful just yet. I'm sure eating tomorrow and the next few days will be painful.

As far as the sores go, they basically said the tray is a foreign object in your mouth, the tissue will get used to it, and the sores will go away... just salt waster rinse and they gave me CoraCaine to numb up the sores. I did mention I rinse with Listerine. The dentist said that might aggravate the sores. Thing is... if I wash with salt water... I have to do it when my trays are out. So... I don't know... I don't always carry salt with me to the bathroom at work so maybe I'll only do it at home.

I did notice a big crack in the side of my top tray already. I think it may have happened at my one week visit. They tried out tray 2 on my top teeth right after the buttons went on although I was only 1 week into the treatment. It got stuck. They asked me to take it off and no matter how hard I yanked... no budging. The (fill-in) dentist finally took some tools to get it off... but I did hear him say, "Do we need to use these trays again?" Both laughing... the assistant said yes... so I have a feeling they were either weakened or cracked from that episode. I'll just have to be careful when removing them.

The good thing is that I got tray 3 to take home with me. I won't be going back for a month now. Yay! I also found out that I will have my dummy tooth starting in tray 10. So it makes a more complete looking smile while my teeth are being pulled further apart on the top right side. I will take a pic of that in the future.

I'm finally at tray 10 of 16! Here is my first tray with a Pontic (dummy tooth) in it. I got it a week early. I'm totally not used to it but people tell me it it looks great. I'm going to have it in my last 6 trays as they widen the space for an implant.

So far so good with the whole Invisalign process! I have not had any headaches or bad soreness that unfortunately I'm hearing other people experience. So far it has been awesome and I love how it's going. I'll post again when it's all finished and then again when I finally have an implant.

All done with my initial Invisalign 16 tray set. Everything went very smoothly! I will need corrections later on after my implant because my top left side didn't move over enough in the back but it's not a big deal. All in all it was totally worth it and super easy!

Went for implant surgery. It was very quick and easy. Just have to heal up for 2-4 months while still wearing my trays with the pontic.

Will update after I get my crown.