Invisalign w Acceledent!

I had braces almost 10 years ago to fix overcrowded teeth on the upper and lower. I was in braces for about 2 years and hated every minute lol as I was in college at the time and was starting to come into my own. But after getting them off, I loved my teeth! Make a long story short, I wasn't real good about wearing my retainer and over time my teeth shifted. So I have some crowding and overlapping in my upper and lower currently. It has bothered me in the last couple of years but more recently because I am getting married in Sept of this year and want to look my best! I have friends and family flying in from all over the US that I haven't seen in ages and want to look amazing.
So I did some research and scheduled a consultation with an orthodontist that was recommended to me by my dentist. He went over the option of braces and Invisalign. As I am now at an age where braces would not be cute, I told him I wanted to have option 2. So we scheduled a day for my impressions to be made for Invisalign.
That whole process of taking the impression of my teeth wasn't horrid but wasn't fun. It's almost like they put a chunk of play doh in your mouth to get impressions of your upper and lower teeth. The doh has to stay on your teeth for several minutes for them to get an accurate account of your current teeth so that they can send them out to the Invisalign people to have your trays made.
Anywhos it took about 30 mins for that. I was then told that they would call me when the trays came in so that I could go and pick them up.
It took less than 2 weeks for my trays to come in and for me to receive the call. I was sooo excited! I scheduled an appmt to get my trays the following Monday.
I want to include a photo of of my teeth prior to starting this journey.

Well I went to my orthodontic office on Mon to get my first set of trays. My Doc checked my teeth and an assistant of his explained how to use my new trays and how to remove them. She pretty much explained everything that was in the booklet that u receive with the Invisalign packet. I received 2 trays on this visit and was told that I would be getting my attachments in 4 weeks. The assistant popped my trays in with no issue.
So I scheduled my next appt for the attachments and went home.
The trays really didn't bother me until I had to take them out to eat. My teeth felt sore. Not painful but not the most comfy. And after eating, putting the trays back in wasn't an issue, but my teeth continued to feel sore. It took several days but the soreness went away.
As far as my dental hygiene, that took some getting used to. I was a snacker in btwn meals and hated the fact tht I couldn't as easily have some cookies or chips whenever I wanted. I also am a big coffee drinker and not being able to grab a Starbucks whenever I wanted sucked for awhile. Who wants to brush and floss to have a snack or coffee?! So I've come into a routine to have my coffee in the am w my breakfast and do a midday snack before dinner. It was hard at first but my stomach has gotten used to no snacking. I'm just eating fuller meals.
I've been able to keep these trays in for 22 hours/day for the most part. There have only been a few days where they have been out for maybe an hour or so longer because I was out socially. I didn't think it would be a big deal to put the trays back in after eating out, but I felt really self conscious brushing and flossing in a restaurant or bar restroom. So I just decided that I would wear the trays until after I ordered any food or drink and then remove them for the remainder of my time out. I have been able to just make up the time and have my trays in longer for the next several days.
I have noticed that with all the flossing I do now, I now have blk triangles in btwn several teeth. I guess that's a good thing as it means progress w only one tray in.
Tonight I was able to switch to tray 2! Yay! It felt like such a long 2 wks in tray 1 lol. I felt some pressure popping the new trays in, but not really any pain as of yet. We will see how I feel in a couple days lol.

So i had to re-schedule my next appmt which was to get my next trays as well as get my attachments. Something came up so I now will be in tray 2 for almost 3 weeks instead. Ugh! Well at least I'll be picking up my Acceledent device at this appt so it isn't so bad as I believe I'll be able to change trays out weekly. So excited! As far as any changes in tray 2, noticing more triangles and flossing has been so easy and quick. I've pretty much have gotten used to having the trays in at this point and have not found that I've felt any soreness just some slight pressure when I put the trays back in after eating. Will update after my next appt and some feedback about acceledent!

So I went in for my appmt today to get attachments and also my 3rd thru 8th set of trays. And biggest news is my acceledent device also arrived. Yay!! So if you've read my previous post I had to keep tray 2 in for about 3 wks bc of some scheduling issues and I was obviously over wearing it by then. I was excited to move on to the next phase w the attachments. I apparently wasn't paying close attention to my ortho bc I got 10 on upper and 5 on the lower. Ugh! I have several teeth w two attachments which includes one of my front teeth unfortunately for me. But I guess after reading all the reviews on this site and mentally preparing, it doesn't look so bad. The process of getting the attachments placed wasn't awful either. I always figured that they would put a spot of glue on ur tooth and put the attachments in one by one. But as it turns out they use a tray as a kind of mold for the attachment. So they start off with cleaning off the surfaces of the teeth, where the attachments will be placed and I believe glue gets placed, then they fill the tray with the attachments which then they place on ur teeth. They use the blue light device to set the attachments to the teeth and then they remove the tray once they r set. And bam! You get a bunch of tooth pimples lol. The excess glue gets sanded off as well as the attachment smoothed down. After this, they gave me my 3rd tray and had me practice putting it on and taking it off. Yikes!!! It was painful and definitely not the 5 seconds I'm used to for popping off a tray or putting it back on. But I'm sure ill find a method that won't be too painful or time consuming. Seems to me that working from the back and pushing the tray outwards where there's an attachment will do the trick. This tray is definitely making my teeth sore which I expected after wearing tray 2 for 20 days. But it's been several hours and now it's slightly sore but not too bad. As far as Acceledent, they showed me the components and how to use it. Since I've read up on some invisaligners who already use the device, I pretty much already knew the gist of it. So I used it for the first time today after charging it( has to be fully charged and then can be used for 3 days before next charge) and it helped w the soreness of my teeth as well as setting the tray better. I thought maybe I was using it wrong bc all my teeth weren't touching the mouthpiece but I read that it only needs 3 points of contact to be effective. My upper front teeth didn't really touch it at all. And it was weird to have it in at first but wasn't uncomfortable. And 20 mins went by really quickly! I'll post an update after a week as I will now be able to switch trays out after 7 days! I will also update about acceledent as I'm sure many ppl r interested in it who have or are thinking about getting Invisalign. I'll include some photos later when I take these trays out for dinner. Oh and in regards to cost, I paid $920 for the device which I thought was pretty good as I've seen most have paid anywhere from $1000-$2000 for it. My ortho said he only charged me what it cost him to get it so I thought that was great! I also figure that I'm his first patient to use it, so in a way I'm a guinea pig lol. What was interesting to me is that he thinks that in the next couple of years the cost will go down dramatically. Half of what I paid! And that eventually acceledent will be included in all Invisalign treatment. Anyways, I hope my info was informative and will update soon ;)