Trying to Get a Smile I Can Smile About. - Brentwood, TN

Just got my starter kit yesterday on what the dentists thinks will be about an 8 month journey. Over the course of the last nearly two years I have been trying to correct what a few years of neglect did. I had to have a lot of gum work done. Thankfully I think I caught it in time. Let that be a lesson to all. Go to your dentist regularly! Amazing how pain and major costs will motivate you. Now that I have all that fixed I wanted to work on my smile. It was not too bad but enough I did not like to smile broadly.
The new tray fits snug, but I understand the first one is mainly to get you used to it so I believe the next will be even snugger. Getting them out was the real issue the first few times. My hygienist warned me about that but said it would get easier. So here we go. My first full day. I will try to report in weekly to let you know how it goes.
Many thanks to all who post and posted here. It helped me know what I was getting myself into. :-)
Oh and I did want to say my insurance took care of half the total cost which I was very pleased with.

Hi thought I would give a brief update although it has not quite been a week. The first full day I wanted to claw these things off my teeth! :-D I so looked forward to meal times to get a break. I am now settling in and they are not quite as unnerving. Easier to take the top set off but still a bit of discomfort when doing so. No pain to speak of at all.
Trying to get used to the "routine". Also trying to make myself understand the next set there will be some pain and discomfort but it will ease.

I started my 1a tray on 7/16. The first few days there was some discomfort but way less than i had thought. Much like the first starter tray it was more of the new sensation in my mouth. Although there was some slight pain, but very little. I am trying to keep telling myself the worse is yet to come so I don't get lulled into thinking this is going to be a snap. :-)
For those reading and thinking of getting these, the starter tray you wear for 3 weeks does nothing to straighten your teeth. Those trays are to stabilize your teeth to the one position. This 1a tray now starts some movement. It has been a week now and I have not seen anything noticeable but really did not expect to yet.
The dentist gave me the 1b trays also. I wear the 1a's for three weeks then move to the 1b's so on August 6th I make the transition.
After wearing those for another three weeks I go back to the dentist. At that time I believe they add "buttons" to the trays which advances the movement of the teeth. This is where I believe the real pain will begin.
The hardest part with these is any kind of outside social life. Planning to go out after work or during lunch with friends. Having to try to get them back in after eating within a mall amount of time to get your 22 hours a day in is not always easy.
I will update if there are any changes or when my next set goes in.