I am not a writer - I apologize in advance. Quite frankly, I don't like writing. However, I've committed to chronicling this journey with my teeth for a few reasons: 1. see progress (especially on those days when I feel like nothing is happening), 2. encourage others, and 3. maybe I'll develop a love for writing :) Here goes nothing... Background: As a child, I had really spaced out teeth. However, the plus side to that and somehow a miracle, I never had cavities despite the amount of candy I ate and the brushing I did NOT do. My mother must have been quite surprised at this blessing. Anyways, in my senior year of high school, I finally got braces. My mother was opposed to it but the ortho said I needed it and insurance covered it so boom! I got those metal bad boys on my teeth and I was well on my way to straight teeth. My teeth must not have been that bad because my braces were only on for about a year! Or maybe my teeth weren't stubborn and just moved where they were told. My first semester of college, I had the braces on but I don't ever remember feeling awkward or anything. A few things did happen though: 1. My gums were always swollen (I'm not even sure why) 2. My oral hygiene was still crap. I ate whatever, only brushed once a day and flossed if I felt like it. 3. I NEVER got retainers. Present day: Based on #3 above, you can figure out what happened. My teeth had a party and spaced out. Definitely not where it was prior to the braces in high school - but spaced out nonetheless. More specifically, it was just the top row. My bottom row stayed all nice and straight with the exception of the middle two being slightly overcrowded but totally nothing major. I saw my prior ortho and I'm sure he knew what would happen because I never got the retainers. He suggested just [ceramic] braces on the top, nothing on the bottom, 6 months max! Whoa...that's awesome! I asked about Invisalign and he said, it would take longer and was more expensive. So I actually said yep let's do it, scheduled an appointment and was ready to take the plunge. As the appointment was getting closer, I was getting a bit anxious and decided to seek other opinions. Not because my ortho wasn't good but honestly I think it's better to at least get 2 or 3 opinions. To make this long story shorter, I went with a new ortho because 1. He's an elite provider and even teaches other orthos how to do Invisalign. 2. He's a cool guy and definitely knows his stuff. 3. Price was obviously more expensive than just getting traditional braces but since I have it now, I'm so glad he convinced me to go with Invisalign. I'm going to try to dig up pics of my before and try to include in my next post. But as of today, I'm on Day 3 of Tray 1. I am on a 13 tray journey!! woohoo! Until next time... Updated on 22 Jul 2015: I'm currently on Day 9 of Tray 1 and I can honestly say, it gets better! I got 13 attachments, including two on one of my front teeth - bummer. However, I don't even care. It makes it not so invisible because I catch people staring into my mouth when I talk but I honestly don't care. At some point you get over it. At least it's explainable and legit and not embarrassing like a piece of spinach stuck in my teeth. Getting the attachments put on wasn't a bad experience for me. Other members have mentioned how horrible it was, but I honestly didn't mind. What bothered me slightly was when the hygienist was scraping off the excess bonding agent on the teeth, the particles plus smoke from it got to me cuz I inhaled it by accident. I just told her to stop so I could catch my breath. No biggie. I also got some minor IPR done which I also didn't think was bad. I was so freaked out by things I had read that when it was done, I was like "oh". It honestly wasn't eventful. But that's me. Some things to note for this tray: 1. Days 1 - 3: It sucked taking the trays out because I felt I was pulling out my teeth. I think I took a pain reliever on one of the days but it sucked. But not enough for me to regret the decision. 2. Everything had to be eaten with a fork and knife. Some of my friends laughed at me. However, my teeth were too sensitive to bite down into ANYTHING. 3. Fortunately, I didn't get any mouth or tongue sores. I didn't file the trays. So either this tray just didn't have rough enough edges or my mouth and tongue are just gangsta like that. I'd prefer to believe the latter :) 4. Eating out is ANNOYING! I'm a slight germaphobe so public bathrooms gross me out. So I've just included in my portable cleaning kit, some Dentek floss picks and mouthwash to use and then brush as soon as I get home/work. 5. My dental hygiene has gone from 0 to 10. I use to brush once a day (sometimes twice) and floss once in a while to brush and floss after every meal. So that is like at least 3 times a day. When I go in for my cleaning, I better get a gold star! 6. This was NOT a starter tray - I already feel my bite changing! I guess I only have 13 trays so no time to waste! That works for me. I think those are the major things. I get to switch every 10 days so I will switch to tray 2 tomorrow before bed. I'll also attach some pictures but boy it's hard to get some visible pictures using the front camera on the iPhone. Hopefully these are clear enough. Unfortunately, I mastered not showing all my teeth in pictures so I don't have good before. So I just took some with the aligners out. Let me know what you think! (oh and excuse the chapped lips - it's the Invisalign struggle!) Until next time.... Updated on 24 Jul 2015: Now that I'm on Tray 2 (update on that in a few days...), I feel like I can share my cleaning routine because it's been tried and true on the first tray. I compared my first and second trays and I must say it looked dang near the same - no discoloration, no odor....So here is what I do on a daily basis (I will list all products at the end): Morning (when I wake up - around 6:30am) - I brush my teeth and soak the aligners in a water/mouthwash1 solution. I lightly brush my aligners while I'm swooshing some mouthwash1 and pop them back in. I do not floss. Morning (after breakfast @work - around 9:30am) - I take about 15-20mins for breakfast. I brush my teeth, floss, swoosh some mouthwash2. I lightly brush my aligners under running water. I do not soak the aligners. Afternoon (after lunch - around 1pm) - I take about 30-45mins for lunch. I repeat same thing I did after breakfast - nothing different. Early evening (if I go out to eat) - I just rinse with water and use a dental pick for a quick floss. Evening (around 11pm) - I soak my aligners in a retainer solution for about 15mins and give them a good scrubbing. I brush my teeth, floss, swoosh mouthwash1. Some days for an added minty bonus, I will soak the aligners in the water/mouthwash1 solution after I've scrubbed them. That's about it. On weekends, if I'm home I just do the same routine for lunch as I would do at work but with mouthwash1. And since I can't stand brushing my teeth in public restrooms (except my job of course), I've just resorted to carrying dental picks for whenever I eat out :). Toothbrush: Colgate Plus soft bristle Toothpaste: Sensodyne Extra Whitening Mouthwash1: Listerine Naturals (clear solution) Mouthwash2: Generic Duane Reade brand Floss: Reach Mint Floss Retainer Solution: Retainer Brite Dental Picks: Dentek Comfort Clean Floss Picks Updated on 2 Aug 2015: Tray 2 was pretty uneventful. I felt pressure on Day 1 but other than that it's been whatever. My lisp is almost gone and sometimes I forget it's in there. Eating out is a pain and there's a lot of planning on my part but it's not too much that it hinders me from going out to eat. Pics included. I change to Tray 3 tonight! I can't believe I'm already 15% done. When I look at pics, I don't see changes but my bite is different so I know things are happening. I'll just be patient. :) Updated on 13 Aug 2015: Talk about uneventful. Except for the first day where I felt a little bit of pressure, it's been rosy. Almost to the point where I worry they are not working. I only have 13 trays so when will I see some progress?!?!?! Sigh. Patience IS a virtue. I switch to tray 4 tonight! I'm 23% done! woot!

I always felt self conscious about my smile, so much that I avoided it (especially in pictures). When I was younger the dentist told my parents that I didn't need braces and that it "gave me character" ha. Well as I got older my back molars came in and pushed my front teeth together even more and I really didn't like it. It looked like I had buck teeth. My ex-boyfriend use to even make jokes and call me babs bunny. So I started researching invisalign and found Dr. Goodman through the invisalgn website. I considered a few other doctors who were cheaper but I didn't want to waste time or risk not having good results as this procedure is still relatively new... at least I consider it to be. I went in for my consultation and immediately felt comfortable. Dr. Goodman listened to my concerns and didn't make me feel silly for wanting this done. (Some of my family members felt I was wasting money as my teeth were not so bad). Anyway, I didn't even bother going to see any other doctors because I knew Dr. Goodman was the one! Getting the impressions was the worst part. Just youtube it.. I honestly couldn't stand it. And felt really bad but the first time the woman put the try with the mold stuff into my mouth I thought I couldn't breath and I slapped her hand away. She was so patient with me and understanding though. Honestly, if I had to deal with someone like me in that moment I don't know what I would have done. So basically the rest of the procedure is pretty straight forward. Dr. Goodman gave me about 3 sets of trays each visit and I would wear each one for 2 weeks. At the end of the whole thing I was still a little concerned about a few things and so he recommended me to a dentist who used bonding to extend two teeth and then he ordered me a few more trays finish up. After that was done I was still concerned with the length of my two front teeth so he filed them down and I couldn't be happier. At the end of the whole thing I did pay a lot of money. Not just the base fee but consider the gas back and forth to so many appointments over 2 years..and I had to take off work for those appointments too ( about an hour only but its still time off). Then I paid for the bonding and one cavity that developed during the procedure.. which I consider myself lucky because I had read that many people got about 8 cavities. My cavities were in my molars which are hard to reach so not sure I should blame invisalign. The total was around 8k. It was worth it to me.. I smile everyday and never worry. And now my friends and family comment on how beautiful my new smile is.