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I have always been conscious of having crooked...
I have always been conscious of having crooked teeth and have not wanted to smile on photos. However, it was not until I had impressions taken by my dentist and had trays for tooth whitening made up that I discovered you could use similar 'Invisalign' trays to straighten teeth at any age as long as gums were healthy. Definitely feeling far too old for braces the 'impossible' might now be 'possible'. It was not long afterwards, that I found a local dentist I was comfortable with (always having been a nervous patient), who assessed my case and confirmed I would be a suitable candidate for Invisalign. And so my journey of 25 sets of aligners started.
I had 'teething' problems at first and needed to file the edge of tray 1 down and get some emergency dental wax but this worked and I was soon back at the dentist for attachments and trays 2-4. I had concerns after having attachments put on that I was going to struggle because tray 2 was so difficult to remove and put back in at first and I would end up with the top tray half in/half out for a while. However it did get better with time and a bit of practice. I wondered whether I would have the same problem with tray 3, but glad to say they have been much easier to take in and out. I had a breakthrough yesterday when I thought I had not got my aligners in only to discover to my surprise that I had. I find that when I am relaxed they are far less noticeable to me than if I am hungry or stressed. Happily to say I have no problem getting to sleep with them in. On occasions when I just want to rip them out I have 2 strategies (i) resist and try to forget about them which sometimes works or (ii) take them out, have a quick drink, rinse and put back in. Option (ii) is only worth it if they are reasonably easy to take in and out, but happily this seems to be the case more often nowadays. Preferred drinks on these occasions are fruit juice, tea, coffee or if really needing cheering up ice cream or chilled Limoncello! Hope this strategy works for me for best part of a year as I am changing trays every 2 weeks! Anyhow, decided to start my review today to celebrate that I am now officially 1/10th of my way through my trays - not than I'm counting ;)
I had 'teething' problems at first and needed to file the edge of tray 1 down and get some emergency dental wax but this worked and I was soon back at the dentist for attachments and trays 2-4. I had concerns after having attachments put on that I was going to struggle because tray 2 was so difficult to remove and put back in at first and I would end up with the top tray half in/half out for a while. However it did get better with time and a bit of practice. I wondered whether I would have the same problem with tray 3, but glad to say they have been much easier to take in and out. I had a breakthrough yesterday when I thought I had not got my aligners in only to discover to my surprise that I had. I find that when I am relaxed they are far less noticeable to me than if I am hungry or stressed. Happily to say I have no problem getting to sleep with them in. On occasions when I just want to rip them out I have 2 strategies (i) resist and try to forget about them which sometimes works or (ii) take them out, have a quick drink, rinse and put back in. Option (ii) is only worth it if they are reasonably easy to take in and out, but happily this seems to be the case more often nowadays. Preferred drinks on these occasions are fruit juice, tea, coffee or if really needing cheering up ice cream or chilled Limoncello! Hope this strategy works for me for best part of a year as I am changing trays every 2 weeks! Anyhow, decided to start my review today to celebrate that I am now officially 1/10th of my way through my trays - not than I'm counting ;)
Provider Review
Dr Derek van Staden
Very confident having my Invisalign done by Dr Derek Van Staden at Christchurch Dental Practice. Have given lots of 5 stars as am very happy with service I have received to this point. I did not have very many questions at first as had read a lot on line, but those I did raise were answered and Derek was able to email me my Clinchek when I asked. I have some more questions to ask at my next appointment. I will give star rating for aftercare and follow-up following my treatment.