Then and Now

Here are some pictures to compare what different views have looked like throughout this process.

My bite from tray 3 vs. my bite from tray 9.  Look how much wider everything has gotten!








My smile from the initial photos vs. my smile right after finishing tray 8.  How different are these?!

Bottom teeth wearing tray 5 vs. bottom teeth wearing tray 9.  Look how much the hiding tooth has moved!  The gap really has widened.

My smile from a picture in December 2013 vs. my smile from a picture in December 2014.  Subtle but good changes!

Ninth Trays!

I made it through Christmas wearing my 8th trays.  I feel like I did a lot of rinsing/swishing water instead of brushing until later on with those, though.  That was simply more convenient than going and brushing my teeth anytime I wanted a fudgy bon bon. ;)

I also felt like I was a little more lax with time constraints the past two weeks.  Overall, I'd say I probably averaged the 22 hours per day with my trays in, but some days, it definitely didn't feel like that.  To make myself feel better about that, I drank grape Kool-aid with my aligners in today, knowing that I would change them tonight.  They didn't change color at all!

My tenth aligners start in 2 weeks, and after that, I'll be taking another trip to the orthodontist!  I noticed that my ninth trays are the last set with the fake teeth bubbles on the upper tray.  Number ten just has space there!  (which I'll post in a few weeks)

Here are my current picture updates.  I think that for my next post, I'm going to post some cool comparison pictures where I can finally see some changes!

 Current smile without (left) and with (right) aligners.  Not bad, eh?  It's really coming along!

Current bite.

Side view.

Fake tooth bubbles will be gone in 2 weeks.

Other side view.

Eighth Trays

I put these in tonight.  Here are my observations:

-They seem tight right away.  Usually the tightness sets in the next day.  Uh oh.

-I feel like my bite is wider from the front view now.  I've compared my old pictures to my new pictures, and that's what I could come up with.

-I like my progress.

Pictures:




My bite.  Seems wider, right?  I can see more teeth than I used to see.

Side views. Still working on closing the gaps.

Current smile.  Still working on that gummy region.

Funny views of the bottom and top.  That lower tooth behind the rest is getting closer!  That gap is widening.

Clenching and Grinding

I started this post on November 22 but haven't had time to finish it.

A few weeks ago, I was on my sixth trays for about two-and-a-half weeks while I waited for Thanksgiving to pass.  After that, I could have my next orthodontist appointment and move to tray 7.

I'm not sure why, but with my sixth trays, I felt like I was constantly clenching and grinding my teeth.  I couldn't stop!  I don't know if it was related to the shape of my trays or what.  I would do it in my sleep and while I was awake without thinking about it.  By the time I realized what I was doing, I had a horrible headache.  This happened for many days.  Eventually, I started to feel twitches in my right temple.  It sort of felt like pressure, but it also felt like a muscle spasm.

I became worried after feeling that pressure for a few days, so I, of course, took to the internet.  It turned out that I (thankfully) wasn't the only person ever to feel those sensations.  I also confirmed my suspicions that they were related to my clenching and grinding.  I put my fingers on my temple (where the pressure was) and bit down.  Sure enough, I felt my muscles there contract as I clenched my teeth.  I could also feel my temporal artery throbbing.  Awesome.

I had to pay attention hardcore the next few days to make sure I stopped grinding my teeth.  Once I broke the habit, the sensations went away.  Occasionally, I would feel something weird in my temple region, but then I would realize that I had gone back to those habits.

I'm glad to say now that I haven't had these issues in awhile.  I'm feeling much better and very relieved!

Christmastime Comparisons

Here is a picture from Christmastime last year and a picture from yesterday.  I used to think the picture from last year was really good!  I'm already so much happier with my smile, and I'm only three months into this!

2013

2014

Seventh Trays and Lower Attachments

Today was the day when I finally got to return to the orthodontist to get lower attachments and my next few sets of trays.  Awesome!

I had to wait a few extra days for this appointment because of Thanksgiving (my appointments had been on Wednesdays), so I had my previous trays (#6) for extra time.  I tried really hard to keep them as clean as possible.  I also kept them out for longer periods of time since I had so many extra days.  (I went to a party, a wedding, and Thanksgiving dinner during those weeks.)  I think everything went well with those trays!

This morning, I had five attachments put on my bottom teeth for a total of ten (I think?) overall.  Adjusting to my upper attachments 6 weeks ago was difficult because I had a hard time putting in and removing my trays.  Doing that hurt for about 5 days!  I'm currently going through the same process with my bottom attachments.  Removing my bottom tray is really hard right now because I have attachments on 4 teeth in a row, so finding a place to grip them to lift them off seems impossible.  I always feel like I'm going to pop off an attachment!

Because I now have my upper and lower attachments (and probably because my orthodontist said I'm "probably following the rules to the tee"), I received my next four sets of trays this morning, meaning I don't have to return to the orthodontist for another 8 weeks!  Crazy!  My next appointment is January 26.  The first thing that I did when I got into my car, of course, was check out my tenth trays, which I'll be wearing at the end of January.  They don't look a TON different than the rest, but I can definitely see the alterations.  You'll just have to wait until then to see them!

Here are my picture updates:

(These have natural lighting like my earlier tray pictures because I took them in the middle of the day.)

Current bite.  Nothing much new to report here.  Mouth seems wider.

Bite from one side view.  You can tell my two front teeth have moved quite a bit from the inward-facing angle at which they were pointing initially.

Bite from the other side view.  Gap closing a little bit more (maybe?)

Current smile.  Fangs seem to be lower-ish.

My mouth all opened and stuff.  See if you can spot the ten attachments!

These are the four bottom attachments in a row.  They look like those bubbled on bottom.  I found myself biting my lower lip a lot tonight at dinner because of those suckers.

The single lower attachment on this side.  So lonely...

Sixth Trays

I put in my sixth trays yesterday.  I could have started them on Wednesday, but my next appointment isn't until December 1, so I'll have them in for a few extra days, anyway.  (I find this to be a good thing since I will be able to have them out longer on Thanksgiving.  Hello, pie.)  These trays are proving to be pretty tight.  My teeth have been hurting since I put them in last night.

Before I got my aligners, I saw someone's blog post comparing her first trays to her sixth trays.  I was so excited to do that someday.  I took some pictures last night to compare.  And here's what I got:

See the differences!?

Yeah, neither do I.

I can notice some very minor differences between the first tray (left) and the sixth tray (right).  Because the differences seemed hardly noticeable, I decided to compare the trays from a different aspect:

Here is a cool difference!  The widths of the trays are quite different.  The sixth tray (right) is much wider than the first tray (left).  I tried to line up one side of the aligners so you can see the difference in the width on the other side.  I didn't even know that change was happening in my mouth until I compared the two!

Another exciting change:

The gap between my lower teeth is increasing, making room for that tooth hiding behind the others to come forward!  The bottom tray is my first tray, and the top tray is my sixth tray.  As you can tell, there is a noticeable difference in that gap.  Awesome!  The bottom trays look pretty similar otherwise.

And now, here are my typical pictures.  Changes are difficult to spot! (even for me)

 -current bite viewed from the side

-current bite viewed from the other side











-current bite from the front














-current smile.  Does it look different yet?

I'll have one toothpaste, hold the mint!

Since having Invisalign for over a month now, I find myself sometimes brushing my teeth 4 (or sometimes 5) times per day!  I've always been a little bit sensitive to mint (and spearmint makes me INCREDIBLY nauseous... even if someone next to me is simply chewing spearmint gum), so brushing that many times each day with a minty paste is getting old very quickly.

I went to a Halloween party where I got to pick a prize from the prize basket.  I, of course, went with the WATERMELON toothpaste!

Watermelon?!  Is it even good?  Is it still minty?

Yes, watermelon.  It is wonderful.  It tastes like some kind of watermelon gum, except the flavor never expires!  (let alone after 3 seconds like most fruity gum)  It is not minty at all.  It's this green goo/gel stuff.  I also use it to clean my aligners like I would any other toothpaste because I don't want to clean my mouth with something fruity and then put minty trays in my mouth.  Bleh!

After getting the watermelon toothpaste, I decided that I should probably invest in some more fun flavors of toothpaste, or else brushing would become a hassle for me.  Fruity/non-minty flavors are usually found in toothpastes for kids, so that's where I started my "research."  I wanted to make sure that using kids' toothpaste isn't (in some way) harmful for a 25-year-old.  I read that many of those toothpastes have less fluoride in them so it's safer if kids swallow it.  That was pretty much the only difference that I found.  I'm now worried about not fulfilling my fluoride requirement for the day since I brush so many times and since I will still be using adult toothpaste for a few of those brushes.  (AND fluoride rinse at night!)

Last night, I bought two new toothpastes (with coupons!):  Hello Kitty bubble gum flavor and Crest for Kids Sparkle Fun flavor.  I remember Sparkle Fun flavor from when I was younger, and I really liked it.  I haven't tried it yet to see if it's the same.  Bubble gum flavor is pretty legit.  It's not super bubble gummy, but it's still better than many of the minty flavors that I can't take during the day.

So... yeah.  Here's to better flavors of toothpaste during this journey!

Fifth Trays

Life has been so crazy-busy lately that the two weeks with my fourth trays seemed like forever.  I even had to check my calendar last week to make sure it hadn't been two full weeks since getting them.  I still feel like it's been a really long time since I've changed trays.

Needless to say, I am pretty excited about changing to my fifth trays on top and bottom.  My fourth trays were getting pretty gnarly.

These trays feel different than some of the others did at first.  Yes, they are tight, but I also feel like I can push the top and bottom down more in front when I bite my top and bottom teeth together.  I also feel like I have far less empty space to fill up in these.

My teeth are definitely moving.  Some of my back teeth are being moved forward, causing strangely large gaps.  I used to have to put a lot of pressure on my flosser to get my back teeth, but now, I have absolutely zero resistance when flossing between some teeth.  There are gaps that trap large bits of food!

This time around, I'm including my normal pictures, as well as inside views of my top and bottom teeth.  Enjoy!




 -My current bite.  Some attachments are visible.

-Side view of current bite.

-Other side view of current bite.

-Current smile.  Not much has changed.  I find it hard to imagine this smile with actually straight teeth!

 -Open wide!  These are my bottom teeth right now.  See that tooth behind all of the other teeth?  Yeah, I guess it's been pulled to the front at some point.  I'm excited to see that in action!

My aligners have text on them to indicate that they are Invisalign and to show which number tray they are... which is really awesome because I have twice mixed up trays after the excitement of receiving them at the orthodontist's office.




-Here are my top teeth.  This view was actually kind of eye-opening for me.  I knew the teeth adjacent to my two front teeth were hiding a little bit, but this gives me a better idea of how much they are hiding.  I feel a little more secure in their seemingly small size now. ;)

The two teeth just ahead of the teeth with text on them are those that are moving forward quickly, hopefully to the close the gap that oral surgery left.  You can sort of see the gaps here!

Fourth Trays and Attachments

Today was my six-week appointment to get three new sets of trays (4, 5, and 6) and attachments on my top teeth.

My orthodontist said everything was looking good so far.  I had to get 5 (I think!?) attachments on my upper teeth that help the aligners grasp the teeth a little bit better.  The process of getting them was extremely quick and painless.  The little attachments are tooth-colored (so they are somewhat difficult to see).  I will get some more (6, maybe?) attachments on my lower teeth in another 6 weeks.

For this appointment, I was really excited about getting my future trays to see the shape of my teeth at that point.  Before I pulled out of the parking lot, I had to take the sixth trays out of the bag and compare them to the third.  I can definitely spot the differences!  I can't wait for the end of November when I will be wearing those trays!

This afternoon, I looked at my calendar to see when my process would be finished according to the projected "80 weeks" by my orthodontist today.  I should be finished (ish?--refinements?!) by March 2016.  Alright!

And here are the pictures of everything:

 **Pictures of my current bite, as usual.  Try to spot the attachments!

**The difficult-to-photograph attachments.  There are three in the top picture and two in the middle picture.

I'm attempting to point to one in the bottom picture.

**My current smile without (top) and with (bottom) Invisalign.  The attachments are a little more visible here.

Fillings with Invisalign

For those of you who are searching the internet for information about getting fillings with Invisalign, read this:  yesterday, I got three fillings with Invisalign.

I have read a number of posts online that say one cannot get fillings with Invisalign because they will affect the fit of the aligners.  This was not true in my case!

With that being said, I would like to point out that I strongly recommend going to a dentist who also specializes in Invisalign even if not affiliated with your orthodontist.  Read on for more information.

I found out at my dentist appointment in September that I had some small cavities on the chewing surfaces of my teeth that needed filled.  This was not surprising to me at all since I had not been to the dentist in probably 7 years.  My dentist told me that day that she would be able to fill them without affecting the fit of my aligners.  She said they could call my orthodontist just to be sure, but this was their protocol.

(I called my orthodontist just to be sure.) :)

My appointment was yesterday, and I didn't really know what to expect.  I also wondered how long everything would take since I would have my aligners out of my mouth the whole time.  I started with 4 novocaine shots to numb my mouth.  I had what seemed like quite a bit of topical anesthetic, so I couldn't really feel the shots--especially in comparison to those in the roof of my mouth during oral surgery in August!

After I was nice and numb, we went through with the fillings.  The dentist "cleaned out" the cavities first, which required the use of some drill-like tool that seemed to vibrate my skull.  The vibrations didn't bother me as much as the volume of everything.  It was so loud!  I wish I had some ear plugs or music or something!  That was pretty much past my noise tolerance--and I'm a teacher! :)

After all of that was finished, I waited a bit and then had them filled.  Lucky for me, the fillings are tooth-colored, so you can't even tell they're there!  How cool!

After a little over an hour, my teeth were good as new.  The dentist put my aligners in and then had me bite down to check that they were okay.  She even took a mirror to my mouth to be sure they were fitting in the back.  And they were!  I wasn't sure at first (and was concerned because of other blog posts I've read about this going horribly wrong), but everything was fine later.  My aligners fit like they did beforehand!

My mouth was considerably numb after everything.  I had a little under two hours before my next class afterwards, but the numbness didn't really subside until later in the afternoon.  (Thus, I taught the first day of flowchart proofs with a numb chin/lip/tongue, trying not to slur my words too much!)  I'd say I pulled it off well.

So... curious minds of Invisalign patients out there, worry no more!  Fillings can be done with Invisalign!  Of course, all cases are different, but it worked JUST fine for me!

I have 5 days left of tray 3.  Next Wednesday, I get some fancy attachments and more aligners!  Hip-hip-hooray!

Why I'm Loving Invisalign

I got my school pictures today.  On the day they were taken, I had my aligners for about a week--so not a whole lot of movement had happened.  They were affecting my bite, though, in a way that I hope my teeth will turn out in the end.  Just compare last year's and this year's smile!

Last year:                                                                            This year:

Such a difference!  I love my new picture!