On trays 14 out of 18, almost done! (NEW PICS)

Wow, as if I haven't updated since, like, November 16th. Sorry, guys! The longer I waited to update this thing, the less motivated I was to actually do it lol Well, I'm currently on tray 14 (top and bottom) out of 18. I had to wear trays 13 for about 5 days longer than usual, since my orthodontist's office was closed last week for spring break, but I went in this past Tuesday and got my last attachment put on (my right lateral incisor) and some extra IPR work done between the spaces on either side of my left lateral incisor (wasn't planned but we've been doing it the last few times I've been there, as the spaces have been tighter than planned, and we don't want it hindering the movement). Trays 14 were a bit tougher to put on initially than the others trays - the bottom one was surprisingly tricky, but the top one was harder with the new attachment. Taking them out the first time was also a pain in the ass lol But I still managed to do it in less than a minute.

I've been wearing them now for 3 days and about 90% of the tenderness is gone. For the first two days, several of my targeted teeth (with attachments) were SUPER sore when removing the trays, and I had to eat soft things. But when I had the trays in, there was barely any discomfort.

I only have 4 more trays left (15, 16, 17, and 18) and to be honest, I'm not 100% sure if my lateral incisors are going to be COMPLETELY straight by that point; my left one in particular still has a tiny bit of straightening out to do, and my right one now needs to be pulled down by the attachment. But my Ortho says that they're where they should be, so I suppose I can be surprised by these next 4 trays lol I know that regardless, when I'm done I'll need bonding anyways (after whitening them) to even out the shape of all my teeth, as the length of some of them doesn't match then length of others, so really, as long as they're BASICALLY straight, I think I'll be happy with them. I haven't yet decided if I'll go for refinement trays, if Dr. Dagasso even thinks I need them. Who knows. It wouldn't be the end of the world; I know for sure I wouldn't have much to do so I doubt I'd have to wear them for THAT long.

Dr. Dagasso is always very happy with my progress every time I go in. He always comments on how my teeth are exactly where they should be at that point (sometimes even a bit better than he'd expected), and the last time I went in, he joked about how I should write a pamphlet on how to wear your trays correctly, since clearly I'm doing something right since my results are - I guess - better than some of the other patients he's seen.

For the longest time, I didn't see any changes in my teeth and was convinced it wasn't working. I knew in then last couple of months that we teeth were much better than they had originally been, but it wasn't until I came back on here a couple of days ago and re-looked at the photos I put up here from before treatment began. YIKES! What a trainwreck compared to now - and THAT'S when I realized exactly how far my teeth have come in the last 7 months. I look forward to when they is all done and I can whiten my teeth and bond them; hopefully they'll look twice as nice as they do now. :)

Whoops, on the last two pics, it's meant to say "Tray 14/18" NOT "Tray 14/16"

So I'm two days into Tray #5, and doing fine. My upper top right teeth have been sore and achy since yesterday, which is a good thing cause my right canine is still working on being brought outwards. I was a little discouraged going into my Orthodontist appointment on Wednesday (when I would be getting my next set of trays); I was finishing up tray #4 and as silly as it sounds (contradicting my last update), I was comparing tray #4 to tray #1 and didn't really see any difference, nor did I see any change in my actual teeth. When I went into my appointment, I mentioned my worries to his assistant, and she showed me on the computer imaging of my teeth what teeth have moved and by how much since the beginning of my treatment. Specifically, my right canine and the teeth around it have made more movement than I thought; I was really surprised and said, "It doesn't look like it's moved that much!" and she said that it's a combination of the changes on the screen being smaller in reality than on the bigger computer screen, but mostly that they're so gradual that it's normal not to notice. But that brought me some hope.

Then Dr. Dagasso came over checked out my teeth and asked me to put in Tray #5, which I did (boy it was tight) and then used some Chewies to snug it down. He checked out how my teeth fit with the new trays and he was pleased, saying that they're moving just as he wants to see them move, and they're fitting well with the new tray. He originally wanted to give me trays 5 through 7, but then my next appointment would have fallen around Christmas, so he gave me tray #8 as well, and my next appointment is the first week of January. A bit of exciting news, is that according to Dr. Dagasso, my right lateral incisor (I think it was my right) should be almost completely finished turning outwards by the end of tray #8, which means by the end of those trays, I should be able to at least see noticeable changes when compared to my teeth before treatment. Even though he'd completed all my IPR work during my last visit, he noticed that the spaces between my later incisors and my canines was really tight (there was never IPR work stated to be done there), and he worried that the tight spaces would make it difficult for those teeth to move properly, so he performed a bit of sporadic IPR on those teeth, which I have to admit was the only time it was unpleasant. It hurt a tiny bit and I had to rinse my mouth afterwards cause it made my gums bleed (although it pleases me to know that they were bleeding because they were knicked and NOT due to them being unhealthy anymore lol), but the spaces there are definitely bigger now, so hopefully it won't be a problem for them to move now.

Anyways, when I got home, I had my first sort of breakdown since the night before I started treatment, lol. After Dr. Dagasso told me that by the end of Tray #8, one of my incisors would be finished turning (pretty much), I had high expectations for what tray #8 would look like in comparison to #4 (which was still in my mouth, as I don't switch my trays until night time). For the first ten minutes, I couldn't see a difference. It was really disheartening and I started crying from frustration. But my fiance sat with me and said that he definitely saw a difference and tried to point out exactly where different teeth were making progress, but in my impatience, I couldn't see what he was talking about. I think I was also really overwhelmed with my school semester too, so I just needed a cry. After I calmed down, I looked at them again and I can see a difference - I think I also set my expectations way too high because it was like I was expecting to see my teeth look perfectly straight or something, when the reality is that by tray #8, I'm still a tray away from only being HALFWAY done treatment, so there's still a lot more to be done.

So anyways, I switched to tray #5 that night, and it was really tight, but I have to admit that compared to trays 3 and 4, the initial pain for these trays was almost non-existent. Tray #3 was so aggressive that I felt the initial pain for days, where tray #4 wasn't as bad, but the initial pain kept me up for the first night. When I went to sleep the night I put in tray #5, I slept like a rock until I had to get up in the morning, and my teeth didn't even hurt until later on in the day. The only thing that hurt yesterday (aside from my upper top right teeth being achy and sore) was removing my top tray. It wasn't terrible, but it certainly did hurt when pulling them off the sore teeth. Today it hasn't been a problem though. And I have to say, yesterday and today, I have felt strangely calm and positive about the whole thing. Again, I don't want to jinx it, in case I'm just seeing things I want to see, but now when I look at my teeth, I do admit that overall there looks like SOMETHING has changed, even if I can't exactly pinpoint what it is.

I'm thinking I might not update again until after my next appointment in January, because my hope is that I will be able to update with new photos that will actually show some notable changes (keep your fingers crossed), and I'll have lots more to update on. So, having said that, I'll update again on January 7th :) Have a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year ;)

P.S. Does anyone know how to delete photos from our uploads? I want to remove the one that show my whole face but I don't know how lol