48 Y/o Female Just Starting Treatment

So...

I did get better at wearing my trays, but then my teeth weren't moving as expected. I've read reviews from other sites and see that what happened to me does happen to others occasionally, so I'm just writing a brief update to let others know.

At Tray 19, my top teeth began to not fit in the trays at all. My ortho asked me to continue, but by Tray 24 or so, everything was totally off. I was wearing my trays 20-22 hours a day at this point, but I could never get them to fit right. Went back to the ortho; he wasn't satisfied either, so they did a new scan and fitted me for a whole new treatment plan.

I took almost eight weeks off from wearing the trays altogether during this point while we waited for the new aligners to come in, and then received a whole new set of aligners. Originally, I was set on a schedule of 34 trays for the top and 38 for the bottom and this began in late November of 2016. I stopped treatment at Tray 24 in January of 2018.

So that was, well, disappointing.

...Until the new trays came in. I received the new trays in late March. This time I'm on a cycle of 50 (!) trays, but I do change them every seven days. The ortho also put on five more attachments. And, even though I was disappointed to see how many more trays I had ahead of me, I couldn't believe how much better these fit. I truly do forget that I'm wearing them most of the time. That NEVER happened with the old set.

I'm now on Tray 8 of this new round of Invisalign and things could not be going better. The trays fit so much better than even the first trays in the first round did. In my first go-round, there were these strange bumps behind my front teeth that made talking impossible. My new trays are perfectly smooth front and back. The attachments make the trays align to my teeth so much better, and I suspect that each tray is making very small adjustments, so that even though there are more trays, the fact that I'm switching them out each week makes the overall adjustment smooth and seamless and going quickly.

There was no extra charge for any of this. My provider charges a one-time fee upfront and any changes that have to be made are included in this.

So, here are my thoughts for those thinking of getting Invisalign, a cheap imitator (smile direct), or currently having bad luck with their Invisalign:

1. Be upfront and honest with your provider. Tell them when things are not right. What I've learned is that your Invisalign should not be ill-fitting from the beginning and they should not have weird bumps that make talking impossible.

2. When choosing a provider, make sure that your provider will include the costs of any future adjustments or changes that need to be made. I did shop around and went to three different Invisalign providers before choosing my current one. He was the most expensive, but he made it clear that all costs--everything, including any adjustments and refinements--were all included. Now I'm so happy that I did this.

3. Understand that our teeth may not move the way the clincheck predicts that they will move. The reason I was a tough case from the beginning was because of some bite issues with my back teeth. Even though I have a prominent overbite and some crowding of my lower teeth, I chose to do Invisalign at my age because my dentist told me that I quite likely would lose my back teeth if I didn't fix my bite. I suspect that my teeth were perhaps a bit more stubborn that clincheck predicted, which is what caused the issues from the beginning.

4. I can't imagine doing this all online with something like smile direct. You need to have a orthodontist in your life when you are straightening your teeth. You need to be able to see someone who will look inside your mouth and make expert adjustments. Even if it's half the cost, you're still throwing away all that money if you have a case like mine. Choose an orthodontist and do it right.

I hope this helps a few people as they are making decisions about Invisalign. Choose your provider well. Make your feelings known.

Went to the dentist last week and my gums are in worse shape than they were before. Plus it was a different hygienist and I think she was really eager to get after some plaque that had been there for awhile. Ouch!

Anyways, I'm doing better with wearing the aligners, but still up to 18-20 hours a day, not the full 22. I'll keep working towards it!

So here's something fun, though: I was cleaning out my closets and drawers and came across my first aligners set. I couldn't even get it on my teeth! Sometimes I feel like not much progress is being made and I can't see it, but this was proof that my teeth have moved significantly since November. Yay!

Definitely on Tray 14 (I checked this time!) and I'm really trying to stick to at least 18-20 hours per day with Acceledent every day. It's the after lunch time that's the worst for me, so I've got to figure that out somehow.

I'm going to ask a somewhat unrelated question to see where it gets me. About two weeks after I began treatment with Invisalign, I began experiencing pretty intense headaches. Eventually I was diagnosed with "primary stabbing headaches," which is a form of migraine. I'm being treated with medication that works well for me, and the headaches are mostly gone now, but I have been wondering if perhaps the headaches aren't partly a side effect of the Invisalign treatment. I do clench my jaw, and my jaw is pretty tired and pops when I wake up in the morning.

Does anyone else have this?