26th Trays

Here are pictures from my 26th trays.  I went to the ortho last week.  The only issues I'm having are still those two teeth next to my two front teeth coming down.  Otherwise, I'm on track to go back in November!  At this point, I'm thinking I should be done with everything in May!

#25

I switched to my 25th trays on Tuesday (just in time for my first day of school Wednesday!)  They are super-tight on some of my front teeth!  I also have big gaps to fill in this time around, so I've been chewing my chewies a lot lately.  I have just over a week until my next orthodontist appointment!  Crazy!

Next weekend also marks a year since I had my oral surgery to start this whole process.  I'm almost a full year in!  (That means I have less than a year to go!  Awesome!)

Unrelated:  I keep having horrible dreams that my teeth are falling out!

Here are my picture updates:

#24

Here are pictures of my 24th trays that I put in a week ago.  My top front teeth are really hurting with these, but the pain has gotten better with days.  The biggest movements that have to take place are with my lateral incisors.  I had HUGE spaces in my trays when I put them in last week.  The spaces seem to be getting smaller.

I took these pictures at night, so they are kind of weird in terms of coloring.

22 and 23 and Comparisons

I switched to my 23rd trays today and realized I never wrote about my 22nd.  I guess I don't have a lot to update.  I went to the orthodontist two weeks ago (to get trays 22, 23, 24, and 25) and scheduled for another appointment in September.  The ortho told me that everything is going well and that I'm obviously following the rules.  He also noted that I'm over halfway finished.  Alright!

Here are picture updates for 22 and 23



22:  bite













22:  side bite

 22:  other side bite

22:  smile














23:  bite














23:  side bite














23:  other side bite (look at those two front teeth!)












23:  smile










And now some comparison shots!

Here is my bite at tray 2 vs. tray 23:

Here is one of my gaps at tray 10 (when the fake tooth "bubble" was first removed from my top trays) and at tray 23 (the back tooth is moving forward a bit!):

And lastly, here we are at a wedding last summer and at a wedding THIS summer!  (Enlarge the pictures to see a HUGE difference!)

21st Trays

Between finishing the school year and moving, I forgot to take pictures of my 20th trays.  Oops!  I don't have a lot to say about them, either.  I could really feel them in my two front teeth.

I put my 21st trays in on Tuesday.  They were surprisingly more fitted than most of my trays up to this point.  One thing that I observed quickly was that there isn't really space below my two front teeth to move like there has been with previous trays.  Usually, that is the most space left for movement!  I had to leave one set of trays in for an extra week for my two front teeth to move into that space.  This time around, however, the space seems to be below the teeth immediately next to my two front teeth.  Maybe that means they will move downward and more in line with my two fron teeth?!

Here are pictures:

I feel like my overbite is improving, but I really can't tell.  I do know that my jaw pops a LOT these days!

You can see the space below the smallest tooth in front.

I have had a change in my gum structure a little bit.  For a few months, when I took my top trays out, I somehow kept scratching the gums above my little tooth in the middle on top.  Over time, that made the gums wear away a little bit, and now, some more tooth is exposed than it was before.  I'll post a comparison shot of this at some point.  Scratching that gum was not very pleasant (and I didn't do it on purpose!), but I'm not really upset about the result. :)

Current smile.  This has really changed in pictures.

Here's my whole mouth.  As you can see, there are still a number of teeth that need some serious shifting.  My bottom teeth are getting close to being aligned, though!

My next appointment is on July 7.  I'm looking forward to that so I can see where I'll be in 10 weeks or so!

Trays 18 & 19 and Comparisons

I've been so busy lately, I don't have much to say about trays 18 and 19.  They weren't as bad as 17!  I move to trays #20 this Tuesday.  After that, I'll have two weeks of #21, and then I have my next ortho appointment!

Here are pictures from 18:

And here is a comparison shot of top tray 5 to top tray 18:

The two front teeth have changed a lot.  They clearly don't point as far inward and down anymore!

Here are pictures from #19:

And here is a comparison of #2 top to #19 top:

See how much bigger the teeth appear to be!?

Trays 16 and 17

Work has been so crazy-busy the past month that I haven't had time to update on my last two sets of trays.  I'm currently finishing up #17 and will head to the orthodontist on Tuesday for my next appointment.  Everything seems to be going fine from my perspective.

My 16th trays were not bad at all.  They didn't seem too tight, and I didn't have the first few days of soreness that I usually have.

I certainly paid for that enjoyment when I put in trays #17.  They were TIGHT.  They may have been the tightest that I've had in months.  My teeth hurt for DAYS after putting in the new trays, and ibuprofen was no relief.  One of my two front teeth really hurt, and it still has its days.  One of my "fangs" also hurt pretty badly for awhile.  I still seem to be making slow progress.

One of the coolest things that you can see from my pictures of top tray #17 is how much my two front teeth have changed.  They used to point so far inward!  They also appeared very tiny because of that!  Check out the comparison shots below of tray #3 and tray #17.

Such an amazing improvement!  I can't wait for my next appointment to see what my trays look like 8 weeks from now. ;)

The only general update that I have is I love the water flosser and think it was an excellent investment.  I do, however, still continue to use ribbon floss with every brushing, and that has caused some irritation with some of my back teeth/gums.