“Stick Through Invisalign the First 2 Weeks, and You'll Be Fine. - New Jersey”

Hello everyone,

First off, thanks to everyone for the helpful and detailed reviews of your invisalign treatments. I must have read every single review on RealSelf the last 5 months. It helped and still helps a lot. Now time for my partial review of this product.

Right now I am about to start tray 7, so I am nowhere near to being done with treatment. I have a year of aligners and then 4 additional months of wearing a retainer. This was the plan proposed by my elite provider orthodontist. I highly recommend going to an ortho, and a preferred or elite provider at that. Some of these horror stories I hear from people going to dentists scare the heck out of me.

There is much to write about in just 2 months of invisalign wear. I will try my best to keep this first post short and clear though. I wear my aligners for only 10 days before switching to the next aligner in the series. My orthodontist says this is how he does his treatment. I was a bit surprised at first, since almost everyone switches after at least 2 weeks. But, oh well. I'll listen to the elite man.

As you can see from my title of this review, the first 2 weeks are key. It's almost the first week if you can get through you will make it fine. My first day of invisalign was a pretty miserable day. I had 13 attachments placed on my teeth. When my ortho first put the attachments and the aligner in, I thought it was no biggie. After about 2 or 3 hours it just started to get so irritating. My lips dry. The aligner scratching the bottom part and sides of my tongue. Constantly salivating, or conversely drying up. I had a little lisp. I constantly felt like I was playing with my mouth and tongue. I would not get my mind off of the aligner and how bothersome it was. I really thought to myself, "what on earth did I just get involved with, a whole year of this ****."

Everything started to bother me about invisalign the first week. 3 or 4 attachments broke off the first day. I felt like I didnt want to eat anymore because I feared taking the aligners out. I thought more attachments would break, or I would break the aligner itself because it was so tight.

With all of this, I still knew to just calm down and wait. I had realself reviews playing in my mind, telling me give it some time. It will get better as other people have stated.

Well here I am 6 aligners after, loving this treatment. I just cant believe how accustomed your mouth can get to this plastic aligner. I am already at the point where I feel weird when I do not have the aligner in. lol My ortho has told me to file the aligners down with an emery board. I was a little upset he told me to do this myself, since Im paying almost 6 G's. But whattaya gona do. So now before every new aligner I file away. I am getting better and better at filing. As from what I've learned so far from filing, you do NOT want to file the aligner as if it is a nail that you are filing. File the aligner towards one direction only. If you just file back and forth, you will still leave sharp and pointy edges on the aligner. I hope this is at all clear what I am saying...

What else... Chapstick is a must. I have chapsticks everywhere. At work, in my cars, by my bed, computer, etc. lol You get used to brushing and flossing after every meal, you get used to brushing at work/public places, you get used to taking the aligners off and putting them back on, you get used to the slight pain/more like pressure, that is associated with each new aligner for the first 2 days. You get used to all of it!

Improvements - I can see a lot already. My teeth seem like they are all lining up. As if they are getting into a position to just fall into place. I have spacing and an overbite issue. No visible results in the overbite department, but the spacing has already been decreased. :)

I have two teeth that need to be pulled down. Forgot what that term in called. lol Im an accountant, not an ortho. I see some improvement with those teeth as well.

Lifestyle - I am 24 and this really has not been an issue for my lifestyle. I am still able to go out on weekends and do what every other youngster my age is able to do. For two different occasions I went out at night without my aligners on for about 5 to 6 hours each. There was no major problem with that. It just feels a bit tighter when you put the aligners back in again. They quickly adjust.

Quick note, especially to the ladies intereseted in invisalign - some seem to always have this question about kissing: Kissing is very possible. lol absolutely no problem kissing somebody. And as one girl has stated, if a guy doesnt want to kiss you because you have invisalign, you should know what to do with him...

Well, thats all for now. I will update when the time is right. If you have questions, ask away.

Thanks for reading ;)