21 Years Old, Gaped Teeth, Starting the Invisalign Journey!

I have had gaped front teeth all my life and have wanted to get braces/fix my teeth ever since I was about 15 or 16. My parents wouldn't get me braces when I really wanted them when I was younger and self conscious about my teeth. I used to always smile without showing my teeth then after I got out of high school I didn't seem to care as much but the way my teeth looked was still something that bothered me. Now I am 21 and I'm not on my parents dental/health insurance anymore so I gathered up the courage to finally do something about my teeth. I got a referral from my dentist for Gruelle Dempsey Orthodontics in Cincinnati, OH and I made an appointment for a free consultation and that's where my journey began!

The price wasn't a huge deal because to me, this is something that would be worth it and would make me happy for a lifetime! The cost of mine is around 4680 before my insurance. My insurance is giving me 1500 so I'm only paying roughly 3000 which is split between monthly payments for the next year.

The orthodontist is estimating that I'll have to do the treatment for about a year. The way I think of it, a year of work putting in for this treatment is better than doing nothing and being self conscious of my teeth for the rest of my life. I started my treatment May 22nd 2017 and got 8 sets of trays that I switch out every week and have to wear the trays everyday for 22 hours, only to take out when I eat and clean my teeth. I'm excited to start this Journey and see where it takes me and to share it with you all! I'll try to update with every new tray I put in or whenever I feel like sharing something! : )

First update: I've had my Invisalign in for about 4 days now and let me tell ya, it's been quite an adventure. I'll first start off by saying that the first day with the trays in was rough because my teeth were in so much pain (I typically have a high tolerance for pain) and I was popping Ibuprofen every hour, not to mention I was at work all day working in customer service and having to talk. The second day, the pain didn't get much better and I was rethinking all my life decisions at this point. I woke up on the third day and most of the pain was magically gone. I don't know what happened but it was nice to not have to feel the pain of your teeth moving every second of the day. I started to forget I even had them in. This is now the fourth day and on the scale from 1-10 I'm about a 1 with pain, it only hurts when I push my tongue against my teeth.

So with my treatment I have to change into a new tray every week and I've heard a lot of stories of people having one tray for two weeks. I also had to have attachments (buttons) put on my teeth that kinda make my teeth looked a little jacked if I don't have the trays in. When the Orthodontist said I had to get attachments put on I was not prepared for them to be on almost all of my teeth, especially my front ones. If you don't know what attachments are, they are like little "clear" mounds of some substance they put on certain teeth to keep the trays in place and direct movement. That was an awful description but that's the best I could describe them haha, I have pictures in my previous post of them.

Anyway, the biggest change for me with this is I can't drink anything besides water or eat as often as I normally do, well I guess I could if I wanted to brush my teeth 40 times a day. You can't eat or drink anything besides water with the trays in but if you take the trays out you can eat or drink whatever you want, as long as you shove it down your throat because you only have 2 hours out of the whole day you can have the trays out. Then you have to brush your teeth every time before you put them back in. So imagine me in the bathroom at work with these retainer looking things on the counter and brushing my teeth nonchalantly while customers and employees walk in giving me weird ass looks. Guess that's what I have to do unless I want to starve at work.

Since you probably don't know me, I am addicted to energy drinks and soda and really just caffeine in general, and I've had nothing but water all week *applause in the background* I may be slightly dying (or my soul at least) but that's an accomplishment for me considering i drink caffeine everyday but it's just not worth it to have to take my trays out to drink it then brush my teeth and put them back in. This Invisalign really makes you think twice about if you're really hungry or you really want that soda. I've been eating less now so maybe that's a good thing.

Hopefully I can just get used to the change and the pain will be minimal but I know it's gonna be long year. I keep checking my teeth to see if they look different, they don't obviously, but a girl can wish. I'm just impatient and want to see change now haha. I start my second set of trays in 3 days so I'm hoping it won't be as painful as the first two days were.

This is something that my orthodontist sent me and it's my treatment plan and I took a screenshot of what my teeth look like with the first tray and what they'll look like with the last tray.