Invisalign - Started January 26, 2015 - Charlottesville, VA

I'm just starting my journey with Invisalign. I received my first trays on January 26th and will have a total of 41. I change every 10 days. Normally, I would be putting my next tray in tomorrow night, but my orthodontist wants me to have 7 teeth pulled before moving to the next aligner. The oral surgeon was out of town this week so I'm scheduled for oral surgery on February 9th. I'm NOT looking forward to it! The first tray hasn't been too bad, but the ortho said this first tray was just to get me used to wearing them. I have attachments on top and bottom but none on the front teeth so far. They don't bother me. I'm a bit nervous about the next tray. Not only because my mouth will still be healing after surgery but also because of the reviews I've read about them being initially uncomfortable. The orthodontist wants me to try to wear tray 2 at least 3-4 hours a day right after surgery and move back up to 22 hours as quickly as possible.

My motivation for deciding to do Invisalign was cavities. I'm 45 years old and have never had cavities but all of a sudden had 5!! That was it for me. I've always known my teeth were extremely crowded with overjet but I honestly didn't give it much thought because they were healthy and braces cost so much. The dentist told me I've done an amazing job preventing cavities up to this point but that it was a losing battle and the only way to avoid more in the future was to straighten my teeth. Soooooo...here I am. I'm so excited to have a group of folks to go through this with and have found everyone's stories so encouraging. Thank you all for being out there!

Wow! All of a sudden yesterday I started getting sharp, shooting pains in my left ear. I made an appointment with my PCP today to make sure it wasn't an infection and she said my ear looks good, so I'm wondering if it's from my teeth. In November I had ear and nose pain and pressure that my PCP couldn't figure out. She tried treating me with a round of steroids and an antibiotic but no change. She finally suggested I ask my dentist to see if he thought it could be from a tooth even though I had no tooth or mouth pain. He suggested having my right upper wisdom tooth removed and that took care of it. I'm wondering if the left one is causing me trouble now. I'm actually starting to look forward to my extractions on Monday :-(

Well I survived the extractions! :-) My nephew and I went in together and both had appointments for 8:00 a.m. At 9:20 we were in the car on the way home. He had 4 wisdom teeth pulled and I had 4 pre-molars (I think they were called pre-molars but not sure) and 3 wisdom teeth pulled (had the other one pulled in November). It's so nice to have someone to go through this with!!

My mouth is still pretty numb but it is starting to wear off and the pain is creeping in. Completely manageable with the pain meds though. The dentist gave me a bilateral ice pack to use for the first 48 hours (20 minutes on, 20 minutes off). I'm hoping to go back to work Wednesday. I have not attempted to put my next set of aligners in yet and am terrified at the thought of doing so. I'm going to ask my sister to call the ortho and ask if I can wait until tomorrow to try. I sound like Elmer Fudd when I try to talk right now so it would probably be a very frustrating conversation for them if I called. LOL!