My Invisalign Experience So Far :D - Tampa, FL

I am 19 years old and had braces when I was in middle school/high school. I unfortunately did not wear my retainer, and of course all my teeth shifted. I have spacing on my upper teeth, and crowding on my lower teeth plus an over bite. I went in today to pick up my aligners. I have 28 for both upper and lower. This appointment I received 2 aligner sets to wear for 3 weeks, then on the 6th week I go back to get attachments, IPR, and more sets (they are going to give me 5-6 sets next time. So far this first set is not really tight, so no pain, just a little uncomfortable so it will take getting use to. I am VERY excited to start my journey :). I will update every time anything new happens, or if I have any issues! If you have any questions feel free to ask!

05/07/13 Today it has been 1 week of wearing my first set of aligners. I have gotten pretty used to it, and have been wearing them as directed perfectly. I did have 2 areas on my aligners that were poking me really badly, but after putting ortho wax on the 2 areas I haven't had any issues (even though it is kind of annoying to keep using wax, but oh well..I don't feel like going to the ortho to have them shave it down). I have two more weeks to go because my first 2 sets of aligners I was directed to wear them 3 weeks rather than the usual 2 weeks. After these 2 sets I will be wearing the rest of them for only 2 weeks.

Something I did want to touch on is cleaning aligners. I have read a lot about people saying their aligners get an odor so I wanted to share how I care for mine, because mine still have no odor and are still clear. Every morning while I eat breakfast, and every night while I eat dinner I take my aligners out, rinse them in water, then let them soak in Efferdent denture cleaner. After they soak I rinse them off with water again then pop them back in my mouth. For meals throughout the day, before I eat I go to the bathroom to take my aligners out, and I rinse them under water BEFORE putting them in my case, then after I eat I brush, floss, mouthwash, then I rinse my aligners again under running water, then pop them back in.

I never brush my aligners, I never need to. & I do believe from countless reviews and videos..etc.. that brushing them can cause microscopic scrapes in the aligner and can harbor bacteria which can produce an odor. The important step in my cleaning process is never taking them out and setting them in my case without rinsing off the saliva. If you just let your saliva sit on your aligners while you eat, an odor will definitely probably develop. Also soaking the aligners twice a day, once in the morning, and once at night is what really keeps them fresh and kills bacteria.

Anyway, I have been sticking to that cleaning regimen religiously and have had no issues, so If you are having problems, maybe give that a try. I will update in another week :). If you have any questions feel free to ask!

05/20/13 Tonight I just put on my 2nd set of aligners! I am definitely thrilled to have a nice new aligner set in my mouth! When putting the new set in, there was definitely a lot of pressure but I would not call it pain at all. However, when I take them off in the morning I will update you guys on how it feels! I have a feeling I will be in pain later. I popped to ibuprofen just in case. I am so excited that my progress is starting to get on a roll! By the way, something I'd like to note, I am still cleaning my aligners the same way, but do sometimes brush my aligners with a toothbrush (WITHOUT toothpaste). I wasn't doing that before, but I noticed a buildup of residue eventually. So brushing them with the toothbrush with water helped with that and I have had no odor (along with soaking them every morning and night in denture cleanser, and rinsing them under water when taking them out to eat throughout the day). I will update you guys about how I adjust to the pressure of this set, and post a pic of my teeth 1 week into wearing the aligners :). On June 3rd I will be going to the ortho for my attachments, IPR, and 5-6 sets of new aligners.

05/20/13 To my surprise I felt no pain this morning when I took my aligners off! They are tighter obviously than my last pair, but besides that they are comfortable :). I am happy so far with Invisalign & I'm so glad I chose to go this route. I'll update if anything comes up, or after my next ortho appt. on June 3rd! :D

I just got back from my orthodontist appointment! I got several attachments on the sides of my teeth, and a little IPR done. The process was very quick and simple. I do notice however that on the right upper, the last tooth in the back, the aligner is not gripping, and just hanging off a little bit. I told the lady when she first put them in and she gave me a chewie, but it seems to not be working. It just simply isn't gripping the tooth. Has anyone else experienced this?? Anyway, I was given 6 new aligners, and my next appointment is in August. I am so excited!! & so far no pain (I just got all this done though only about an hour ago, so we'll see how it goes). I will post pictures of my teeth without my aligners later on today, so you can see the attachments and IPR.

Last night I put in my fourth aligner, this is the 2nd aligner I've had with my attachments. Of course when I put the new aligner in it was tight, but no pain whats so ever. I believe the last alinger hurt worst after a day or two, but so far so good with this one. I feel I am really getting used to changing them out every 2 weeks now & I really look forward to it because I know it gets me a step closer to a better smile :). I am feeling lazier sometimes though, like when I go to eat, I sometimes don't brush my teeth and put them in a quickly, but still I have been wearing them very consistently. I'll upload some new pics of my teeth soon, I do not believe there are any noticeable changes yet, however I do notice when I bite down I feel like it feels different, like my bite has changed. Also, I sometimes get food stuck in between my two front teeth, which never happened before invisalign, so that gap must be slowlyyy closing up.

This is aligner 5 out of 28, a couple days before having to switch into my 6th aligner. So far so good :).

Ahh slacked off a little bit with my updates, just got super busy! So didn't get to post a picture of my teeth with aligner 6 in, but changes not noticable anyway! These are pics of aligner 7, almost time to put in my 8th aligner in, which is very exciting because it is the last aligner I have till my next ortho appointment (which is August 26th!) I can't believe I started In the beginning of May and now were already in August, time is flying! Can you guys see any changes in my teeth yet?? I have been told by a few people they can see a difference, and I think my gap is really coming together when I don't have my aligners on, & when I have them off it is a bit smaller than in the beginning. Oh, and by looking at my pics I noticed actually if you look on my bottom row, they are straightening up a bit to. So exciting!! Anyway, If you have any questions feel free to ask! :)

Just picked up aligners 9-13! Appointment was quick and easy. Had my 2nd round of IPR done, this time on a couple of my front bottom teeth, which is very noticeable without my aligners in. But I'm okay with that since it'll motivate definitely motivate me to keep my aligners in at all times ;).

Sorry for not keeping up as much! Anyway, I'm on aligner 13 now, have had it in for 1 week. I go in to get my next set of aligners on November 5th. Probably will have more IPR done at that visit as well. Any questions just ask :).

Went to orthodontist today, got aligners 14-18. My next appointment is January 13th. What I am most excited about is he smoothed out the edges on my two front teeth!! He said obviously when my treatment is done he will go back and do the same to my other teeth, and touch up over what he did today, but I think what he did makes a HUGE difference. I almost couldn't believe it when I saw it. You would have to look at previous pics to see the difference. Any questions feel free to ask :). I'll update again in another 2-4 weeks or so.

I am just about to put my 20th aligner in so I thought I'd take pictures with my teeth on aligner 19. Last time I went to the ortho on Jan 13th I was only given two aligners because after these two the next four aligners I will be wearing rubber bands which is supposed to help my bite. My next orthodontist appointment is on February 17th. Also notice I did not put "19 out of 28" in my title. This is because I was told I won't be going up to 28, more like 25 or so but It will depend on how things look of course. I said somewhere in these posts that he ordered 28 because he ordered extra to try to avoid refinements. However, everything will depend on how things are looking. My cut off date is apparently August which I was told is the time when my treatment will be considered over and I would have to pay for anything additional after that. Kinda worries be a little but as I was not told about my August cut off date. Haven't done the math to see where I should be in my treatment or how long after that is after I would be done with all aligners but I'm trusting my orthodontist, really have no choice. I'm sure I will love my ending results as I already am loving the results thus far. & my ortho is a perfectionist so I'm sure he will make sure everything is looking as good as they can. Aligner 20 (which I'm about to put on) will not be much different than this update, so I will update again in 2 weeks to show the rubber bands!

I actually had missed my last ortho appointment, made another, then missed that one to.. A little to much of life was happening. Luckily I am not tooo behind. Today I picked up aligners 21-24, all of which I will be wearing rubber bands (2 months). My bands as you will notice in my pics go in the opposite directions of each other. This is supposed to fix my midline to shift it to the left, and correct my over bite. Exciting news, after these four aliners ALL my attachments come off!! Then I will proceed with about 2 more aligners and I should be done. I will have about 2 more aligners after that to correct anything If needed, and If my orthodontist and myself are still not satisfied after all 28, we can re scan my teeth and order more. For the rubber bands they just bonded another attachment that is a small metal piece, the rubber band hooks on to that, then hooks on to a hook made into the aligner itself. If you have any questions let me know! I have lots of pictures.

This morning the little metal attachment on my upper right side that hooks the rubber band fell off this morning when taking off my aligner! First time anything has ever fallen off, so couldn't wear my rubber bands at all today. Going to ortho tomorrow at 1:30pm to get it put back on!