27 Year Old Brit - About to Start my Invisalign Journey.

I've been obsessed with my teeth for a few years now. I wore braces as a teenager and my teeth stayed straight for a good 8 years. However, as soon as my wisdom teeth decided to say hello everything started to go a bit off-track. My teeth arent awful.. the top teeth are fairly straight, but one tooth at the front has gone crooked (also slight overjet has returned) and my bottom teeth are a bit all over the place.

I've had my impressions and my Clincheck and am due to start with my first aligner on November 10th.. just over two weeks away. It's safe to say i'm feeling emotional about it.. mostly terrified!

I need 14 aligners on both the top and bottom. I was thrilled to hear that i need no attachments as i was worried about that part. I do need IPR though. I'm going with a platinum provider and am paying £1750 + i paid £350 for the impressions, xrays etc. More than half the price quoted elsewhere so i think ive got a good deal.

So the things i'm scared about, i'm hoping i'll look back on these in a few weeks and laugh about how much i shouldnt have worried!

- Speech - i talk all day in my job!
- How my other half will react. He doesnt think i should get them, more for the money side of things, but he's very supportive nonetheless. But i do hope it's not completely off-putting!
-Damaging gums. My ortho says no, but i already have some recession on a few teeth. I hope i don't make this issue worse.
-Black triangles! Ortho says some may occur on the bottom. I already have one black triangle on the top which he plans to close with ipr. He also said he'll do ipr between my two front teeth to avoid a black triangle.
-Food and drink! I'm very social and love my food. I'm going to miss my evening glass of wine.. and CHRISTMAS! My ortho said take them out for the whole of Christmas day and enjoy the food and drink, as he does with his own, but im worried that might be a bad idea.
-I'm terrified i'll end up with worse teeth.. i hope i'm making the right choice.

I started on my first tray yesterday and had the majority of my ipr then too. Ouch ouch ouch! I didn't expect it to be THIS painful. Fingers crossed this doesnt last much longer for this tray. The ipr was uncomfortable but painless.. you'd never know from looking at my teeth though.. theres no noticeable gaps. I have to wear the first three trays for 2 weeks each, then the final 11 for 10 days each. Quite pleased with this as if all goes well it's knocked over a month off my treatment time.

I chipped a front tooth as a kid and as a result have a filling covering about 1/3 of the tooth. The dentist filled the tooth to make it look as though i have two straight front teeth, when really the filled tooth is wonky. My ortho is going to redo the filling after my treatment is done, however im nervous to see how this tooth will look during treatment. It'll gradually look wonkier before it eventually looks straight again. Eek!

My speech is a little off, however the trays look quite discreet. No one has noticed anything other than a minor speech change.

Now, i'm playing a little game: My other half knows i have been planning on Invisalign, however i never told him the day i was due to start so i could do a little test. So far he hasnt noticed im wearing them, so i'm going to see how long i can keep it a secret to test just how 'invisible' they are. Two days and counting so far!

So i'm coming to the end of day 6 and can happily say i am now fully used to the aligners. Speech is completely back to normal and the pain has gone (other than some tenderness when brushing teeth). I've stuck to the recommended wear times and am surprised to notice a slight improvement on one tooth already.

I've managed several social events with them in and without anyone noticing. I'm pleased to find i can live life more or less the same. I still get a bit self conscious speaking to people if they're looking right at me though and my lips gets quite dry now too.

I'm finding the food and drink aspect quite hard. I miss my cups of tea! I've gone from snacking a LOT to not at all. I take my aligners out for breakfast and dinner and thats it. I don't really need to lose any weight although i think a few pounds will be lost over the next few months. I never really ate lunches anyway, just grazed, but i did have a lot of tea and coffee in the day. Water isnt quite the same! I also miss my wine. I love sipping a glass of red over a movie. Now it's more a case of knocking a glass back while rushing through dinner!

Boyfriend update: He still has no idea! And we've spent a LOT of time together. We were even watching a tv show where a woman had lipstick on her teeth and her boyfriend hadnt told her.. i pointed out that he'd surely notice it and he said 'yeh, and if i was looking at your teeth cus you had lipstick on them you'd think you'd notice me looking like *stares at my teeth*'. And nothing. He stared right at my shiny teeth and didn't notice anything. This is fun!