Decided to Get Invisalign at 29 - Fort Worth, TX

Before:

My teeth are not that bad. In the mirror, I have a pretty good smile. For some reason, when photographed the pictures draw attention to the imperfections. I have a deep bite that covers the crowding on the bottom when I smile. Still, I was interested in getting them straightened. I researched online and made an appointment.

Consult:

I don't know what the titles are of the people that work at the ortho's office so I'm just going to call them all assistants. At my consult, an assistant showed me a model of the Invisalign and talked about it. They wanted to know if I was interested in traditional braces maybe or just invisalign. I asked if traditional braces would be a lot faster but was told that Invisalign would be about 6 months faster. The only reason I would consider traditional braces is if it would be *much* faster, so that settled that.
I spoke with the Dr. and told her that black spaces, which she called triangles, were completely unacceptable and that I would rather not do anything than have spaces. They took the images for the Invisalign company.

Starting Invisalign:
2 weeks after my consultation they called to say my trays were in, and set an appointment to get me started. An assistant put on the attachments, which were mentioned only in passing at the consult, but I was expecting from my online research. I have 10 total: 2 upper left, 3 lower left, 3 upper right, and 2 lower right. Without the aligners they blend very well with my teeth.

The process of putting on the attachments was unpleasant but not "bad". The stuff they use to prep the teeth is disgusting. The Dr popped in to see if I had any questions, the assistant gave me 2 cases and my next 3 sets of aligners and that was it.

Make sure you have an emery board, tons of chapstick, dental wax, and retainer brite if you are starting Invisalign. I will write more later.

I've had Invisalign for 8 days now. They are significantly more comfortable though still an annoyance. Something I didn't really think about but should have is that my teeth/mouth do not feel "normal" when I take the aligners out. You will feel the opposite of the pressure the trays are putting on your teeth, and the attachments, and potentially bite weirdness. The attachments rub, and since you are supposed to keep the aligners in as much as possible, your cheeks don't have much of a chance to get used to it. It's better now than it was though.

I had to file down the bottom front edge of the bottom aligner because it was cutting me. That area is now a cloudy white, which is not visible there but something to keep in mind. I am going to order the "chewies" for the new set if aligners. I did bite my teeth together a lot for the first few days, I don't know if its going to be as bad with a new tray vs starting.

I have 19 aligners on the top and 31 on the bottom. My ortho still hasn't uploaded my images yet but I will post them if I can when they do.

Just put in the third set. Like last time, it feels like my teeth are being crammed apart (like making arch wider). Last time it was gone by morning and I expect the same this time. With set 2, I was uncomfortable for several days and then it didn't feel like they were doing anything for the rest of the 2 weeks. I'm assuming that's what it will feel like at each change.

The assistant that put on my attachments suggested drinking (iced?) coffee from a straw with the aligners in. On the first set, I tried that, and they looked super yellow by the end of 2 weeks. For the 2nd set I left them out and just tried to drink fast. They are not as yellow but they still look dingy. The biggest difference is that on the lower tray of set 1, they cracked up to the middle of 1 attachment pretty early on. Since it was small, I just started pulling it out from the other side. When I was comparing them just now I noticed a small crack on the other side too. There were no cracks in set 2.

Overall, to sum it up in 1 word, I would say "annoying".

My ortho has uploaded my images but the clincheck still is not working.