44 Year Old Going for Invisalign for 12 Months..... United Kingdom, GB

Thanks for commenting/replying! In terms of my bottom teeth - I am going to see what happens during the journey. My upper teeth have always been the issue. I have been reading that a few people say that at the end of their treatment they go in and are given 11-20 more trays!?? How depressing is that? Is this normal? I will take a look at the community more.....I am based in the UK and can't find anyone else in the UK (not that this matters of course :-)) Thanks,

Hi Nicky! Congrats on starting your treatment!! Well, sorry to say that refinement trays are very common. Some people do not need them, but the majority do. Sometimes teeth just don't move as they are planned out by your dentist/ortho. The good news it, the time really does go by rather quickly. My original treatment was 19 trays (well 19 on top and 28 on bottom but we stopped at 19 and did refinements) and I got 15 refinement trays. I started my treatment March 2013 and only have 5 more refinement trays to go! Once you get used to the process and get your schedule and routine down, it will start going by a lot quicker. Take some pictures every time you change your tray so you can see the progress... it really helps with motivation! :) I started my treatment on my 41st birthday - now 42. I've just posted an update in my review and you can see how far I have come. :) As far as the teeth grinding - I catch myself grinding a lot. After the first few days of tray wear the sensitivity and soreness should go away and won't wake you at night. Until then maybe some Tylenol or Advil etc to help. The trays keep your teeth protected from the grinding and there is no worry of damaging your trays from the grinding. Wish I had a better answer for you! :)

Yeah, it's interesting about how our members are scattered.  We have a large number of Australians right now--apparently there's been an advertising blitz for Invisalign there--but the Brits I know here on RealSelf are doing braces or Smilelign.

As far as grinding/clenching, the doctors say there's generally nothing to do about it, other than trying to de-stress, like you said, and actively thinking about not doing it.  The bite issues are generally resolvable as long as you work with your doctor.  They can use a combination of trying different types of retainers (like Hawley or bonded retainers instead of the clear trays, which some people just cannot keep in their mouths without clenching (guilty!)), different lengths of retainers, and equilibration.  They were able to resolve my open bite issues, though it took a long time. :)

You have lovely teeth now :-)....I suppose if refinement trays are needed I will go down that route too! I have only done a week now and apart from worrying about cleaning the trays, and a slight earache which may or maynot be related....things seem to be going ok. 1 week down 45 weeks to go!

BTW, I forgot about another woman from the UK.  She's called Katherine87. :)

Hi I am based in the uk. ( London) I had my first tray fitted 3 days ago and Just came across this site . I have the knobbly bits on the aligners where the attachments will go on my next visit. Main impressions so far is that I am aware of the knobbly bits under my lip and so feels more uncomfortable or irritating than pain ful. I expect will feel more when the actual attachments are on the teeth. Good luck. Keep thinking of straight teeth. Louise.