25 Year Old Fixing Crooked Front Teeth with Invisalign Lite - Brisbane, AU

I've gone through phases of feeling self-conscious about my teeth for my whole adult life. I have crooked front teeth, and my top and bottom left lateral incisors bite directly onto each other. After recently finding out that I grind my teeth (both in my sleep and when I'm mad!) and because of the contact between my teeth, I can look forward to eventually grinding them down to almost nothing, I finally decided to get them fixed. The longevity of my teeth is something that I'm happy to invest in, and I'll be glad to finally be satisfied with my smile cosmetically as well.

I never even considered getting braces - I'm way too vain for that - so Invisalign was always going to be my orthodontic choice. I'm being treated at Imagine Orthodontics here in Brisbane, and so far everyone has been awesome! I had my scan on Wednesday and will be back in 6-8 weeks for my first aligners. Dr Papas is brisk and friendly, and I appreciated that he didn't insist on fixing another orthodontic imperfection (one of my premolars is rotated 90 degrees), as he thought it was completely unnecessary and would extend my treatment by more than a year as well as costing a helluva lot more.

Right now I'm looking at a six month treatment with Invisalign Lite. During my scan I asked the dental technician what I thought might be a weird question - when Dr Papas was doing the treatment plan, would he be able to keep the gap between my front teeth? She laughed and said yes and put a note on my account. I felt silly asking but I'm really glad I did as I've become pretty attached to my slightly gappy smile, and I'm kind of superstitious about it. I guess if I'm getting a cosmetic treatment it might as well look exactly how I want it to!

I'm excited to share the whole Invisalign experience here, as I've already learned so much from everyone else. Not really looking forward to the hassle of removing/cleaning the aligners at every meal, but I figure six months is hardly anything really, and I think I can cop it. Wish me luck!

I got my aligners today! I have a total of 14, which hopefully (as I'm using AcceleDent) means my treatment will be about 5 months - less if my teeth naturally move pretty quickly. They gave all 14 to me at once, which feels like a huge responsibility. I'm scared of losing them! I've been given instructions to change aligners every 10 days. My next appointment is in six weeks, when they'll assess how fast my teeth are moving - if they're going good, I can change aligners every week. Here's hopin'.

I have six attachments: three on my top left, two on my bottom left and one on my bottom right side. The dental hygienist at Imagine is amazing - everyone there is soooo nice! The resin they used to make the attachments still feels a bit gritty on my teeth, but that will buff away eventually (I think/hope?). They showed me how to put in and take out the aligners - not as hard as I thought it would be! - and so far they've only felt a little tight, not sore. My jaw feels a bit weird, like it doesn't know where to sit, but I'm getting used to it.

It's only been about five hours since I got my aligners and I've already eaten twice (!!). Brushing and flossing after every meal is definitely going to be the most hassle of my Invisalign experience, but I'm hoping I'll get into a routine. I'm lucky because I work from home and can take my time keeping my teeth clean.

Overall the aligners feel really good - no sharp bits, no sores forming in my mouth (I'm prone to mouth ulcers!), and the attachments don't cut my lips up when I eat. The attachments have changed the shape of my teeth a little bit so I had a shock the first time I ate - that horrible grinding feeling of tooth-on-tooth - but it didn't happen again. There is much more spit in my mouth than I am used to, so I'm swallowing a lot, and also swallowing a lot of air - hoping I will stop soon! - and I have a bit of a lisp. Lucky my boyfriend thinks it's pretty cute. As long as I keep practising I think I'll have it under control in a few days).

I'm really glad I read through so many reviews of Invisalign here, because I was prepared for the worst - cut lips, unintelligible speech, lots of pain - and I've been pleasantly surprised! I'm too excited about fixing my teeth to keep it to myself, so I've told pretty much everyone I've seen since the orthodontist appointment. Because the attachments are on my front teeth, I think it's not as "invisible" as it might be otherwise, but I've really had to point out that I have something on my teeth. Either people haven't noticed or they're being very polite - either is fine with me!

Will keep updating through the next five months. I'm going to email Imagine and ask if they can send me my projection video - it was really exciting seeing my teeth straighten out and I want a copy!

...and I think I've settled into a kind of routine! I am in the same boat as many others doing Invisalign in that my eating habits have changed a lot. I try to only eat two meals a day - a quick late breakfast and a much more leisurely dinner. I know there have been a few nights where I've left my trays out longer than the hour or so I allow myself, but otherwise I think I've been pretty good at sticking to the 22 hours minimum.

I lost an attachment during tray 2 because my upper and lower lateral incisors bite onto each other and I chomped it right off. That felt extremely weird, but my ortho fixed it up a couple days later and I've been more careful when chewing since!

I've noticed a crack in my lower tray on this set of aligners, but have been assured that they'll keep doing their job. A nice thing about changing the trays every two weeks or so is that any damage done to them isn't permanent.

I have noticed some slight tooth sensitivity but it's very, very tolerable. What's a little more bothersome is my jaw pain - I grind my teeth in my sleep a lot and I think having something in my mouth to chew on makes me do it even more! So sometimes I wake up with a very stiff jaw. I'm hoping I'm not destroying my aligners or interfering with my treatment by bruxing - I'll ask my ortho at my first follow-up appointment, which is in a few weeks.

Overall, I'm really happy with how everything is going. Can't really see much change in my front teeth yet but it's early days (or that's what I keep telling myself). No-one has noticed unless I've pointed out that I've got my trays in, and I actually prefer to wear them than not now.