Extremely Detailed Timeline of my SDC Process - DONE

Hello all! I would like to update everyone on my SDC journey.
I completed my last (18th) tray sometime in May. As you can see from my pictures, my bottom teeth are perfectly straight now! I am so happy!
I browsed through some of the other reviews on Realself.. and let me just say: You will NOT start see major improvements until AT LEAST halfway through your treatment. Don't get frustrated and think its not working at month 3. Those first few month, the trays expand your bite (in the case of crowding) so there is room to move your teeth around, so you don't see much improvement. In my experience, the most drastic changes occurred in the LAST TWO months of treatment. Be patient everyone.
Okay, now that I'm done ranting, let me talk about post treatment:
Continue to wear your trays for the 17+ hours they recommend. I relapsed a bit and didn't wear my retainer (I didn't purchase the retainer, I just use my last tray from treatment) for a few days due to travel and my teeth moved SO much. I had to basically redo month 6 (trays 1, 2 and 3) to get my teeth straightened again. I am now much more consistent with wearing my trays all day. Only wearing them at night is NOT enough at this stage of my treatment. I've had this last tray in for maybe a month and if I take them out for an afternoon event, I see my problem tooth shift back a bit by the evening. WEAR YOUR ALIGNERS!
I'll update everyone again once I get to the point where I don't have to wear my trays as often. And hopefully at that point I will contact SDC to get a retainer. Feel free to ask me any questions!
Thanks for reading!

Hello all! I'm about to finish my 5th month of 6 soon, so I'd like to share with you some updates with my progress.

I think the photo evidence I have provided here tells it all! Look at the progress between month 3 and 5!! I can't believe it! I was kinda disappointed with the lack of visible progress in my first 3 months (9 trays), but once month 4 hit I began to see a lot of improvement! I just put in my last tray for month 5 (very tight), and I think my bottom teeth are near perfect. I would be happy if I stopped here even. But I do have one more month to go.

I will include some of my notes here to help anyone who is reading:
1. Get a small pair of scissors to cut excess plastic that is rubbing against your gums or lips. Once I feel slight irritation the first full day I wear a tray, I start cutting! This prevents the irritation from turning into a full blown wound. I find little safety scissors perfect for the tight angles of the tray. Some months the trays are well trimmed, others aren't.
2. A few days into a new tray, my teeth with feel "loose." This really freaks me out. I can literally wiggle them with my fingers. I googled it and apparently it is normal. Once you have worn the tray for a few days, your teeth with stiffen into its new position. Wear your trays as long as possible everyday or your teeth won't stay in the new position!
3. I've read some places (Invisalign forums) that some orthos "OK'ed" any clear liquid to drink with trays in.. but I also read that any sugary drinks can get trapped under trays and basically sit next to your teeth! This could potentially damage your enamel, so be weary of drinking juices, sodas etc with your trays in. I know in my previous post I said I drank coffee with the trays in, but I have now stopped because of this reason.
4. I never received my month 4 package.. So I chatted with SDC reps online and from the tracking (which I never received an email for.. after month 2 they stopped sending me "your trays on on the way -tracking" email) we deduced that the package was misdelivered or stolen (who even took them, I hope you're happy). They happily sent me a new set and even expedited it because they had to be reprinted. After the chat, a rep called me to confirm everything. I didn't have to pay extra or anything, but my treatment was delayed a week and a half.
5. With the reprinting of month 4.. I feel like they may have done it wrong? I'm not sure how to explain this but they just didn't fit as snug as previous months.. like I could very easily lift my trays in and out with my tongue for all 3 sets of trays. I did feel my teeth move, and clearly they moved in the right direction, they just weren't as snug. Maybe this was a deliberate part of the treatment? I'm not sure.
6. Now that I'm on month 5, the trays are back to their regular snugness.
7. My trays fit, except at my canines... I'm not sure if these teeth are moving at all. I could do an overlay at the end of my treatment to see for sure, but honestly I don't really care. My bottom teeth are the only ones I really want to straighten.
8. A tiny space has formed between my front two (top) teeth because the treatment indicates my whole bite has expanded. I don't like this.. food gets stuck in there and sometimes when I rub my tongue against those teeth, one of my taste buds will get stuck between the gap. The gap is REALLY small, not enough to see, but I can feel it.

So I have just switched to my 5th tray (of 18). I’ve included a picture of my bottom teeth, where the most work is going. I don’t notice much of a difference yet. I will include a list of things that I have learned during my first month of treatment. I hope this helps you all!

1. My treatment begins by pushing all my teeth forward. This sorta exaggerates the crookedness. They do this to make more room for the straightening process. But I am confident things will straighten out (haha) because my teeth fit perfectly into each successive aligner.
2. Coffee does not stain my trays, but I drink it with a straw. I drink a lot of coffee all day. This is a habit I simply cannot give up.
3. I do not brush my teeth after EVERY meal.. I don’t have time for that. I just make sure when I am in the comforts of my own home I clean them really well. So that means in the morning, after work and right before bed. Sometimes I clean up after lunch at work, but not always.
4. If I go a few hours without wearing my aligner and pop them back in, I can definitely feel the teeth had moved. Wear your aligners as often as possible people!! I average 20+ hours a day.
5. During my first tray, I noticed a little lisp, but my friends did not at all. (Maybe they were being nice??) I believe talking with my trays in is definitely harder to do, like a bit more strained. If I know I have to talk during a meeting or something, I will take them out.
6. When I have my aligners in I tend to clench tight or bit really hard when I’m not doing anything. It’s hard to explain. I’ve read that other posters have experienced the same thing. I hope this will not lead to TMJ
7. I actually don’t enjoy having my aligners out. My bite is slightly different and my teeth will squeak when I bite down hard. It’s sorta uncomfortable because I am not accustomed to the position of my teeth, since they are constantly moving. Having the aligners in kind of masks this feeling.
8. When putting in a new aligner, I do so at night before bed so I can have them in uninterrupted for as long as possible. Usually, the aligner doesn’t sit perfect at the molars, like it feels like you can’t close your mouth the whole way. Then by morning the molars sit perfectly. I will feel a bit of discomfort for the first day or two, then it goes away. I probably feel the most “pain” when I take my aligners out and eat those first few days because the teeth are moving and are sore. Compared to the pain from braces, this is absolutely nothing.
9. After wearing a tray for about a week a biofilm builds up on the aligners that brushing with a toothbrush and paste does not get out. Invest in some cheap denture cleaning tabs to clean these off.
10. I get mailed aligners in sets of 3, where I wear them for one week, then one week, then 2 weeks. The thickness of the plastic material changes as the month goes on. I read that the company uses this thickness changing technique to speed up the treatment process safely! Impressive!
11. At the beginning of my treatment I was afraid that the aligners were too big for my teeth. I noticed there was a bit of space between the teeth and tray.. Like I could see spit accumulate in the space. But now that I am 5 trays in, I noticed that the plastic is now perfectly molded around my teeth, no extra space! I bet they slowly adjust the size to acclimate your teeth to the aligners which basically replaces the need for those starter trays (they used to send these out, but not anymore). I am quite impressed with their treatment technique, if you can’t tell already.
12. I use MI paste, which is a remineralization paste that supposedly heals little cavities. Without a tray the paste basically washes away after a few minutes, but now I rub the paste on my teeth at night then put the tray over it to extend the amount of time the product is against my teeth until morning. I have x-rays from before treatment, so in a few months I’ll get new x-rays, which I will post here if there is proof I’ve healed my cavities. (They’re not really cavities. The doctor said it’s erosion of enamel which is common in 18-30 year olds. I’ll show you all later in my x-rays) MI paste also helps alleviate my teeth sensitivity, which has definitely improved since using my paste/tray method.
13. The “Glo-pop” teeth whitening system has made my teeth a bit sensitive, even though they’re advertised as sensitive-free, not as bad as Crest whitestrips I’ve used in the past (The pain from Crest was UNBEARABLE, Glo-pop is not at all like that).. So I use the glo-pop stuff once in awhile to minimize sensitivity, so I haven’t notice a difference in my teeth whiteness...

I hope this helps!