Invisalign: Stories

I'm 45 years old. I had traditional braces when I was a kid, but not wearing my retainer, the teeth moved again-- and now it's worse. With a bit of overcrowding and an off-bite that will get worse with time, I decided to do Invisalign.

I'm on day 3 of tray 1 or 23. 46 weeks didn't sound like a long time, but I'm only on day three and I'm regretting my decision. Wearing the liners is nothing. They barely hurt and it's fine. It's taking them out that's killing me. I have about 6 attachments that I wasn't told about--not that it would've mattered I guess. But trying to take out the bottom trays is incredibly difficult and painful. On day 2 I was sobbing in front of the mirror trying to get the trays off.

I've looked at every video I could find and read all the tips, the papertowel helps to pull the liners off my molars, but the front attachments refuse to let the liner be removed that the pressure on the front bottom teeth is unbearable. Further, my ortho insisted I have one of my bottom front teeth removed and not only do I now have an unsightly hole, but I coudn't stop this process now if I wanted to.

I knew I couldn't eat with the trays in, which I was kind of looking forward to, because I work from home snacking can be a problem and I looked forward to cutting it out. However, I find myself only eating once a day now because the thought of removing my liners kills any desire to eat.

To make matters worse, I hear about people's teeth becoming loose in the process and already I'm scared to death that I'm going to pull out the bottom teeth removing the tray--but of course everyone tells me that's not going to happen...

I pray that by the end of my first week things will have gotten better, but for now I'm considering this one of the biggest regrets of my life.

Today is my 5th day. Yesterday I dreamt that my bottom tray popped off easily, but real life wasn't so kind. I took the tray off to eat last night--my second meal of the day. The tray is still very tough to remove due to the buttons, but the pain was at least less; although my bottom lip usually gets caught between the tray and button causing it to bleed, which isn't fun, but at least the sobbing stopped.

When I wake up I just brush my teeth with the trays in and swoosh some Listerine around to kill at least some of the germs inside the trays. I have luke warm green tea w/Splenda for breakfast. I read that it's not acidic, so it shouldn't hurt my teeth. I figure when I eat tonight I'll take the trays off and do a full cleaning of both. I have to hope that all the water I drink throughout the day is helping to prevent any cavity issues.

The false tooth they put inside the bottom tray to hide the huge gap in front of my mouth falls out when I remove the tray and day before yesterday it fell out while I was wearing the tray, so I've given up on it. So now I have a blank spot where my tooth was. I'm very sad about that, but the only thing I can do is wait for tray #2 and hope the tooth stays in that one.

I have finally made it to the end of my first week with tray 1. This has been the longest, emotional-charged week of my life. I actually took my top tray out without the use of the papertowel for grip, but still had to use it for the bottom. The bottom is still a little difficult to remove, but nothing compared to what it was. When you get to be my age, the years fly by--however, I think I just found the secret to making time stand still: get invisalign.

Tonight is the big night, I move on to tray #2. I'm still having difficulty removing the bottom tray even two weeks in, but I think that's just something I'm going to have to deal with--or hope I happen upon a trick I haven't figured out yet.

I haven't noticed any movement in my front teeth at all, but I have noticed my bite is a little different. Sometimes I actually feel like I'm biting the sides of my tongue with my molars, but I'm not... It's a rather uncomfortable sensation.

I'm still only eating twice a day (oatmeal with my liners on) and removing my liners only for dinner. Though today I gave myself a treat and made a nice breakfast since there's a 15-17 hour gap between dinner the night before and my first small meal the next day. I'm counting on not being able to take off my new trays tomorrow... Fingers crossed it won't be that bad.

Well, I can't report on my new tray, as neither of them fit. It looks like my right upper incisor moved past the point tray #2 or #3 needs it to be. Only the left side snapped on, and it required a bit of force to get it to do that. The lower tray didn't budge and given my missing tooth and the fact that after two weeks I can barely remove my current tray, I didn't force the issue. I have an appt with my ortho on Saturday, so we'll see if I need new impressions, which would be incredibly disappointing because I waited a month to get these.... Given that I wore my trays for 23-23.5 hours a day, my compliance won't be the issue here.

Well, it looks like I'll be wearing my first set of trays another 2 weeks. Even though I've been wearing them for 23-23.5 hours per day, they still have a lot of retention in them and my ortho feels I need to keep them on longer. Oh, well.

In regards to the difficulty in getting my bottom tray out due to the buttons, she said if they continue to give me a hard time, we can remove some of them for a while, but I'd rather not go through all that again, so we'll just keep things as they are.

I'm still two days away from my ortho appt and finding out if I get to move on to tray #2. Despite wearing them another 2 weeks, the trays still have a lot of retention in them and I still can't remove them without the use of papertowel for grip.

The bottom tray is still a challenge to remove, and I noticed my bottom teeth are a little sore. I'm coming to the end of my first month and it feels like my sixth. Still being on tray 1 isn't helping me, as progress is the only thing motivating me and right now, I'm not making any.

Well, I FINALLY got to move on to tray #2. It took my ortho a few minutes to get them in--I think at one point she had a her knee on my chest so she could lean with all her weight :)

I haven't tried to take them out yet -- it took us a good 10 minutes to wrestle them off my teeth yesterday, so I'm not expecting it to be easy. They don't hurt much at all, which is good. The good part was she finally shaved one of the buttons down on the bottom tooth that was causing most of the issues with my first tray, though it hasn't solved the problem, I'll take whatever help I can get.

I was also given tray #3 -- which I should technically already be on. I'm hoping 2 weeks will be enough this time and I can get back on schedule.

After putting my new trays in Sunday night, I was surprised on how easily they popped out Monday morning -- I did notice, however, they were a bit more difficult to remove later than night. Short of having my pontic fall down the drain, things are ok. I'm feeling better about taking the trays out and since the button has been ground down a bit, things are much easier.

I did, however, have a gum incident today. My ortho keeps encouraging me to chew a lot of sugar-less gum. I don't know if you've tried it, but I look like a dog with peanut-butter stuck to the roof of its mouth. It's really difficult to chew gum with the trays in. It also tends to snag on the back of the tray. Anyway, today I bought the gum called "5". I put it in my mouth and within seconds it literally melted to my trays. I kept pulling it off and trying to chew, but it was impossible. Eventually, all the gum was literally adhered to the top and bottom tray... I had to remove the trays, and using very cold water SCRAPE the gum off. Guess my husband just scored a 3 pack of "5" gum...

If anybody knows of a good brand of sugar-free gum that doesn't create a mess and is fairly easy to chew, I'd love to hear about it.

Finally, one week in on aligner #2. Things are much better. Today I was able to take the trays out with just my fingers and no papertowel. My teeth have been a little sore, but nothing unbearable -- no visual change so far.

I assume my problem with my first set of aligners was due to the fact that I was constantly taking prescription anti-inflammatories for my knee -- and teeth only move if they're inflamed. So I was helping one issue, while causing another... I get knee surgery on Friday, so hopefully any pain killers I have to take won't affect my teeth...

Well, I finally moved on to aligner #3. Snapping it in last night was a challenge and it felt like my bottom teeth were going to break off, but I did it.

They didn't give me too much trouble removing them this afternoon, though it's the first time my top teeth have been sore and my two front bottoms are extra sore. I had knee surgery on Friday, so I think I'm going to take advantage of the pain killers and take care of two issues at once :)

I'm closing in on week 2 w/ tray #3. I had my first cleaning since getting Invisalign and was a little nervous that my Periodontist would say I made a mistake about the tooth removal. The cleaning went better than expected, my teeth and gums are doing very well and the worst place I ended up with tarter was the least imaginable -- the teeth on either side of my missing tooth-- who knew? So now I'll just focus more there. I told him about my fear with the loose bottom tooth being next to the gap and pulling it out and he assured me not to worry and that I made the right decision by doing Invisalign. That made me feel better -- though I hope he's right about the tooth :)

I see my ortho on Thursday, so we'll see if she has anything to add.

I put in my 4th set of aligners on Sunday night. Now knowing that it takes a little effort the very first time you put them in, I was a bit more aggressive. It's amazing how tight they are for the first few hours. My teeth were a bit sore until just this evening, but eating dinner wasn't a problem.

I'm never really thrilled about the prospect of taking the aligners out any time soon after changing them, so they were actually in for 24 hours straight before I took them out for dinner tonight--having said that, I just realized that it also means I've gone 24 hours without eating... Except for a few fingers fulls of creamy peanut butter and water this afternoon :) No weight loss yet after more than 2 months of this, but oh well.

The gap of my missing tooth is slowly closing. I notice the pontic is much smaller. By the time I get to tray 6 it's not much more than a sliver, so at least I'll see some real change at that point.

I'm three days in for tray #5 of 23. Getting these in were fairly uneventful. I'm noticing a lot more irritation with this set than all the others. I've tried filing them down, but haven't found full relief yet.

At this point taking them out has become so much easier -- I'm not sure if it's me or the trays -- though these are pretty tight still and I had some issues removing the bottom tray today. I noticed my lower tooth has tightened up again, which is good. The gap is slowing closing.

Coming to the end of tray #5. This week I've noticed it's harder to take out the bottom tray. I'm back to using the papertowel for grip. So I guess that answers my question from last time as to whether the trays are looser or I'm getting better at taking them out--it's the trays.

Looking forward to moving on to #6.