Female from England - Teeth Very Overcrowded and Crooked, Crossbite

I have not liked my teeth for years but have never really been in a position to do anything about it....this time last year (December 2015) I decided that my 2016 New Years resolution would be to fix my teeth. It has taken a whole year of work to get my teeth to a point where the dentist/orthodontist would even consider braces but at the beginning of December (7th) 2016, I finally got Invisalign. The orthodontist recommended Invisalign to me and I was happy to go ahead with it but to be honest I really didn't mind what type of treatment I had as long as it would help me.

I have had approximately 21 attachments on my teeth (this includes the front but that's ok with me as I'm pretty laid back about it)....I also had IPR on 5 teeth and will go back in a few months for some more (and then again twice more after that).

The attachments have been there since the day I was fitted with tray 1 so I cannot compare my experience to one without attachments which in my opinion is kind of a good thing really as I have been forced to just get used to them.

The first tray was really very hard to get used to. The tray itself wasn't really painful (just felt right) but I developed awful ulcers and sores - one in particular got really bad and I honestly wondered what I had got myself into. I was in a lot of pain (the sore then got infected which made everything worse)....I went through Bonjela and also salt rinses and Corsadyl mouthwash like they were going out of fashion! My lip swelled very badly and I honestly felt really low. I also developed a very bad lisp but this has definitely improved. I will update shortly with my experience of the tray 2 changeover and some pictures....

Well as the title tells you, I have just put tray 3 in (I will have 28 trays altogether)....I will rewind a few days and then will tell you how I got on with my new tray....

Tray 2 went well - there were some days when certain teeth were so sore but I can only seen this as a good thing as it just means they are slowly shifting to where they should be....the last few days though the very back left hand side of my lower teeth has become so sore, almost like I am cutting a wisdom (the wisdom is partly through but I don't think it's that) - instead it seemed like the tray was no longer fitting and the end of the tray was digging into the back of my mouth/gums - ouch. I ended up clipping a tiny bit off the tray at the very end as this part only sits on my last molar. This relived a lot of the pressure but annoyingly I need to wait for the sore to heal a bit now. Still, it won't take long hopefully as I took action at the very beginning of when it started to dig in....

Ok, so I have literally just put tray 3 in, it's nearly 9pm so it won't be that long until I go to bed really so following advice from other Invisalign users, this is a good thing as I will be in bed during the worst part of the tightness (and hopefully asleep too lol)....these trays were really hard to get on and I was there ages trying to make them fit as they just didn't feel like they were the right size....have finally done it though! Yay! Teeth ache a bit but hopefully they will be ok very soon.

I will leave it as long as possible before I eat like I did when I changed from tray 1 to 2 - hopefully that will help me as I am scared to take the trays out and then put them in again :( I will wait until tomorrow afternoon and will just brush over the trays with my toothbrush/toothpaste in the morning.

I wish my front teeth would show more movement sooner but in order to make more room, my back teeth need to move first....grr....

Ok that's it from me, I will check in again soon x

Ended up back at the dentist a few days ago as I was in agony with my back teeth and gum right at the back near the wisdom. Turns out it seems that my gum is growing over the wisdom and it must be getting bits caught in it which caused an infection....or it could be that there is an abscess under one of my molars. Either way, I came away with antibiotics and have been taking them this weekend.

This tray (3) definitely seems harder to get on than the rest but I'm doing ok....I have some pictures to add but most of them are on my laptop so I will add them when I get a chance. For now though, here is a picture of my teeth with my aligners in (top and bottom) and with all of my attachments (and I have a lot!) - 2 on one of my front teeth and the rest of most of the other teeth have one each. For those of you who don't want the Invisalign to be noticeable, this picture will show you that you can see it's not that visible even with the attachments. I think my teeth look thicker if that makes sense?? Also, I actually think the aligners make my teeth look better - without the aligners they are really very bad. I'm actually embarrassed to put the pictures on so that's probably why I'm delaying it but I promise I will definitely sort out some photos with no aligners in that I took during my first tray and some updated ones too. As I said before, there isn't any difference yet but I am hoping there will be soon....you can see from this image that the tooth next to my front tooth is so far behind my front tooth that it is almost hidden and the tooth the other side of the front teeth protrudes out at an angle....

The other picture is one I have just found of my lower jaw (excuse the angle) and it shows how my teeth are uneven and also I have the gaps at the back where the 2 molars had to be removed due to them being milk teeth with no adult teeth growing underneath them. They had began to fuse to my jaw bone....