My Go Kit

I have one of these that I keep at work, and one in my truck. It's a water bottle that I got at Walmart, but the top screws off. I think it's designed so that you can put ice in it. But I use it for all my supplies that I need for my Invisalign. There's a toothbrush, toothpaste, and rubber bands. When I take my trays out, they fit in there nicely too. Any kind of hard container would do, but I like this because at a glance it's just a bottle of water, and doesn't draw attention to fact that I'm heading into a public restroom to brush my teeth.

Pain and Discomfort Update

I did a lot of whining about the first week, so I wanted to give an update on how it is now that I'm in the middle of week three.

The first week was horrible, and just as I was getting through the pain, it was time to switch out trays. Putting in the new trays was like starting all over. Popping them in the first time made my teeth ache something awful. But it passed in a couple days. Also, the first tray I used had the hooks for the rubber bands removed, so I had some serious soreness and irritation with the new trays because of this. Those suckers will get you! Surprisingly, this also passed after a couple days and hasn't been an issue since.

Switching to the third tray caused no pain at all. Maybe this can be attributed the Acceledent device working, making my teeth more comfortable with the pressure. Whatever the reason, I now have virtually no pain at all anymore. Biting with my front teeth into something tough still sucks, but other than that I'm good to go. 

As far as the general discomfort of having them in my mouth, I'm getting more used to it. I'm not exactly to the point where I no longer notice them just yet, but I'm not thinking about them 100% of the time anymore. Last night I actually forgot to put my rubber bands back in and it did feel quite weird without them. It's amazing how quickly we get used to things, I've only been wearing them for a little over a week! 

So to sum up, if you can get through the first week, you're through the worst of it and should be fine.

My New Routine

What I used to do:
     Get up, brush my teeth. Make coffee, drink it on the way to work. Make breakfast, eat it in the truck on the way to work. Get to work, make more coffee, slowly sip it until late morning. Order lunch, eat it at my desk. Grab a diet Pepsi from the vending machine, slowly sip it for awhile. Switch to water. Have a snack sometime mid afternoon. On the way home, treat myself to a salty snack or maybe even some ice cream. Get home, have dinner. Follow up with some beers. Maybe have a late night snack. Brush my teeth, go to bed.
What I do now:
     Get up, remove trays, brush trays, brush my teeth. Eat breakfast at home, brush my teeth, insert trays. Drink only water until lunch. Remove trays, brush trays. Eat lunch. Brush teeth, insert trays. Have no diet Pepsi. Have no snack. Drink lots of water. Use Acceledent in truck on the way home. Get home, remove trays, brush trays. Have dinner. Brush teeth, insert trays. Try to suck down a couple beers through a straw. Remove trays, brush trays, brush teeth. Go to bed.

So how exactly am I gaining weight? I guess because it's winter and the holidays.
     
   

Will Coffee Really Stain My Invisalign?

Now the only question is if it's safe to drink it with them out, or if it will really stain the attachments. I don't intend to find out.

Acceledent...What's in the box?

Here's everything that came with my Acceledent device. We have the device, a wall charger, a USB cord, a nice case, a mouthpiece, and some literature (which I did read, but it was useless). I've said before that there's no way this should cost more than about 80 bucks, but now I take that back. It should only cost about 20 bucks, and have an optional 60 dollar carrying case. I mean, they way over did the case. It is really nice and looks great tucked away on the top shelf of my linen cabinet where it will never be touched by human hands again. I guess I should just think of it like a college textbook. You're not paying way too much for the paper and binding, you're paying way too much for the research that went into it.

Invisalign...What's in the box?

Here's everything that came with my Invisalign. There's a box that contains two cases for holding trays, and instructions (which I haven't read). A couple bags of rubber bands, some wax, a pick that can aid with tray removal, and my first eight sets of trays. Not much to it, right?

Attachments and space

Here you can see some of the attachments, and the space they made between my front two teeth.

First Impressions

As I mentioned earlier, the first thing I did was have a salad and knock one of my metal buttons off. In retrospect, I should have started with something a bit more soft. When the trays are out, all the attachments protrude, and they're really rough and tend to catch stuff. I feel like food is just stuck all over the fronts of my teeth while I'm eating. It helps to rinse with water several times throughout dining. As weird as the trays feel in my mouth, it feels even worse with them out, so there really is no relief.

And the trays do feel weird. They feel like a giant obstruction. Sometimes I suddenly become keenly aware of them and have the instinct to just rip them out of my mouth. It's hard to describe the sensation, almost like a sudden claustrophobia. I feel like they are really cumbersome, and that people must notice them when I talk. 

Now let's talk about the pain. The inside edge of the lower tray is a little rough and my tongue rubs against it when I'm talking, so it has created some general soreness on my tongue. Same thing with my gums and lips. The soreness from the pressure of the tooth movement is not bad, I mainly only notice it when I put the trays in after they've been out for awhile. THAT can be painful. It also hurts to bite with my front teeth. For instance, if I were to bite into a sandwich, cutting with my front teeth, it would hurt like crazy. Instead, I've gone to either pulling my food apart into bites, or at least only putting a little pressure with my teeth, and then kind of tearing off a bite instead of biting right through. I have been taking quite a fare pain pills.

I'm consciously trying to not fixate my tongue on them. The natural instinct to to explore them constantly with my tongue, but I'm trying to avoid creating any extra soreness by doing this. If I catch myself doing it, I try to switch to rubbing against only smooth surfaces instead of the edges. 

Also, they interfere with normal salivation, so I feel like I have dry mouth most of the time, especially towards the front. At first I was chugging water left and right to compensate, but after so many trips to the bathroom I realized I had to dial it down a bit.

Overall it's a bigger deal than I thought. I can't wait until I get completely used to them and are no longer even aware that they are there. 

The day has come!

My Invisalign trays finally came in, and I went to get them. The visit went like this:

First, they took molds again. I'm not sure why, but whatever. They were the kind that set in just 30 seconds, so it was no big deal. One of them ended up with a bubble in it though, and we had to redo it.

Next, they put some polish on my teeth. Kind of the same deal that happens at a regular cleaning. They also did some scraping with dental tools. This was to prepare the surface of my teeth for the attachments.

Then the orthodontist used and instrument to grind a space between my upper front two teeth, and one other place on my upper teeth. This did not hurt, even though it did get into my gums just a touch in one spot. This process is to ease the crowding, and the orthodontist said we would be doing it in many more places along the way, but just the two places were needed to start.

Next comes the attachments. This is the moment I have been waiting for. How many would I get? EIGHTEEN! They said that's an office record. Hurray for me! To apply them, they simply put some glue in a tray, and had me wear it until it sets. We used that tray earlier to practice taking in and out a bit, but after the attachments were fixed, it was much harder to remove them. They also used some kind of UV light rod to help the glue set, moving it from place to place around my mouth.

Then they gave me first set of actual trays to try. They were surprisingly difficult to put in. They felt very strange in my mouth. With the trays in, they attached two metal buttons to my upper teeth near the back. These are to attach the rubber bands to. WAIT WHAT? Rubber bands? Ya. No one told me about this. I will have two rubber bands that attach to these buttons, and to hooks on the front of my lower trays to attempt to correct my mild underbite. I don't have to wear them right away, and in fact they cut the hooks off my first set of lower trays so that they wouldn't jab my gums and bother me too much while I'm getting used to wearing them. One of the buttons popped off right away and had to be redone. (The other one actually came off the first time I ate, and I have an appt to have it replaced as well.)

They gave me my Acceledent device, fitted me with a mouthpiece for it, and gave me some simple instructions on how to use it.

Then they showed me the computer model of what the process will look like. This was super cool to see my teeth move around and eventually morph into perfect placement. It made me excited about the process again.

Overall, I have 44 trays. So this means roughly just under a year and I'll be done. A lady that works at the office is also using Invisalign and told me she has 90 trays, so I guess I'm lucky. The whole visit took about an hour and fifteen minutes.

The Waiting is the Hardest Part

The anxiety builds while waiting for the call from my orthodontist. I feel like they probably fed my data to the computer and it had never dealt with such messed up teeth before, and it's just bogging down the system trying to figure out how to deal with it. It's probably just sitting there with a progress bar right now that says something like "4 days 22 hours 10 minutes remaining"

Photo credit mathworks.com

Getting A Little Freaked Out

I'm getting a little freaked out waiting for my braces to come. I sort of rushed into this Invisalign deal without actually doing any research on it. As I said before, Invisalign wasn't really on my radar because I heard that it was so much more expensive. After my orthodontist told me that wasn't the case, and that Invisalign was the better treatment option for me, I signed on. But now that I've had a chance to look into it a bit, I'm feeling a twinge of regret.

First, the model they showed me in the office had a couple attachments on the teeth. They pointed these out to me, and told me they can be used to help position the teeth. It looked to me like they would be helpful to lock the trays in position too. But again, there were two on the model I was shown. After reading more about the process, I now understand that the number of attachments depends on your particular case, and could be anywhere from none to basically all of your teeth. I've read where it's not uncommon to have 20 or so. This was not really explained to me. It's not a deal breaker for me though, because I was already prepared to have traditional braces put on, which would mean an attachment on every tooth anyway. I guess it's just the anxiety of wondering what my treatment plan will look like and how many attachments I'll need that has me spooked.

Second, my coffee routine will be ruined. I have a Keurig in my office at work, so that should tell you how important coffee is to me. It's not that you can't drink coffee with Invisalign, it's just that you can't drink coffee with the trays in. You must keep the trays in for 22 hours a day. I only have a couple large coffees a day, but I'm drinking it from 8 to 11 or so in the morning, so obviously that won't work. The reason for the coffee ban is that since the trays are plastic, they can warp when exposed to hot liquids. Plus whatever you're drinking will get all inside the trays, and with coffee I've read that they will almost instantly stain. And even if you take the trays out, the attachments can stain too. My orthodontist spoke to me about soda, and told me that all I had to do was make sure that I brushed after drinking it. I don't drink much soda, so I didn't really give it much thought. For some reason I didn't think about coffee. This could be a major adjustment for me. Come to think of it, this may make having a couple beers in the evening just as difficult. 

Third, I hadn't really thought about what Invisalign on the go would be like. With only being able to have them out a couple hours a day, this basically means only while eating, and then brush and get those suckers back in right away. This means brushing your teeth wherever you might be. Not just at work, but also at restaurants, friends houses, or whatever. I'll need to carry a travel pack with dental supplies pretty much everywhere I go. And snacking is pretty much out, because it's just not worth the trouble. I'm picturing ferocious eating sessions where I'm gorging myself and chugging beverages in a hurry. Not ideal. We're going on vacation in a couple weeks, and if my trays come in before then, I think I'm going to talk to my orthodontist about delaying until after we get back.

And strangely enough, I hadn't even thought about kissing and making love to my wife. She said she had certainly thought about it though, especially when I was thinking metal braces. I guess this is an advantage as I can just take them out when needed, but here again I am restricted by time. So if it takes too long at dinner between salads and our meal, it could really ruin date night.

I guess I'm just experiencing normal jitters. It's just that I put a lot of thought into getting braces, and after watching my son go through it I knew exactly what to expect. Then I was thrown a curveball with Invisalign that I just wasn't expecting. I'm sure it'll be fine.

The Cost

I know you're wondering what in the world all this costs. So here we go, full disclosure. At my orthodontist, traditional braces treatment (from the beginning molds to getting the permanent retainer) costs just over $5300. This was right in line with what we paid for my 13 year old's braces at another office. Invisalign is $5418. The Acceledent costs an additional $800. To me 800 bucks to shave off an entire year was a deal, but I still can't help but think that as simple as it looks, the device shouldn't cost more than 100 bucks. But I guess they were selling for double what I paid just a few years ago. So for me the grand total came to $6218. I have no insurance that will cover this, so I'm paying it all out of pocket. They will take $250 off the bill if you pay in full up front, or they will finance it in-house with zero interest for a reasonable amount of time. We ended up setting it up so that I pay $1018 down, and $200 per month for 26 months.

Consultation Visit

I went to the orthodontist for my free consultation visit. They took pictures, then X rays, then the doctor did an exam. I have all my wisdom teeth, and was extremely nervous that he would tell me that I would have to have them and possibly others pulled to make room. GREAT NEWS! He said I could keep them! This was a huge load off, because I have heard so many horror stories about how awful having teeth pulled is that I wasn't sure I would go through with this whole thing if that's what needed to be done. Turns out, my wisdom teeth are just fine. There was plenty of room for them, they are healthy, and they are NOT the source of my crowding issues. Huzzah! The ortho said I have what's called a "full complement" of teeth, meaning all 32 are present and fine. He said this is actually pretty rare. Instead of pulling any teeth, he will make room by filing a tiny bit off in between all of them using some kind of special tool.

Now to discuss the problems I do have. He said I have a tendency for an underbite. Apparently, your top teeth are supposed to close slightly over your bottom teeth. Mine match up pretty evenly, or even sometimes the bottom close over the top a little. He said the actual fix for this would be to break my jaw and reset it back a bit, but that it wasn't bad enough for him to recommend that course of treatment. But what does concern him about this is the possibility of the bottom teeth to fall forward while making room on the bottom and making the underbite even more pronounced. Because of this delicate situation, he recommended Invisalign.

I had no interest in Invisalign mainly because everything I ever read about it said that it was considerably more expensive than traditional braces. Turns out this is not true at all. The Invisalign treatment was less than 100 dollars more than the old fashioned way. But most importantly, they are much more precise, which is why he nudged me that way. With Invisalign, computer models can dial in exactly where my teeth need to go, whereas with traditional braces they still kind of just adjust them manually, using their best guess and eye-balling it. I asked about speech issues, because my job requires me to make presentations across the desk from my clients. He said that 2 out of 10 people using Invisalign have speech issues, but that they're not severe and I would get used to it. He offered to make me a retainer to wear for awhile to see how much it bothers me, but I declined.

He said the whole process would take every bit of two years to complete. However, they have a way to speed it up if I wanted to, called Acceledent. It's a device that gently vibrates your teeth and jaw and somehow makes it easier for the teeth to move through the bone. You just place it in your mouth for 20 minutes a day, and it cuts the time in HALF.  Shave off a whole year? Yes please. I went for it.

Then they took me back and made molds of my teeth to send to Invisalign. First they did a lower, then an upper, each taking 4 minutes to set up. Then they took one of my bite, which only took a few seconds to set. She had to do this one twice, as the first one got messed up. Some gunk got in my beard, as well as of lodged in my teeth. Overall, no big whoop. Now we wait 2-4 weeks for the molds to get sent to California where they are fed into the computer, and it makes the trays.

So it's Invisalign with Acceledent. Not at all what I was expecting to sign up for, but I am excited!

A Little Background

I'm currently 37 years old, and I've had issues with crooked teeth ever since I was a tot with a propensity to keep my thumb between them. One of my very first memories was my father telling me that if I didn't stop sucking my thumb my teeth were going to grow to the floor. That thought terrified me and I kicked the habit cold turkey. A questionable parenting technique for sure, but you can't argue with the results.

Fast forward a few years and few cavity fillings later and I found myself at an orthodontist office at about 9 years old having some apparatus installed to spread my upper teeth a little wider. That went ok I suppose, but when the day came that a decision needed to be made about braces, I freaked. I literally remember sitting in the orthodontist's chair and pitching a fit to avoid the dreaded process. Another round of questionable parenting ensured that I got my way on the issue, but this time the results were not so favorable. Here's what my teeth look like now:

So probably not the worst set of chompers you've ever seen, but it's no picnic in there either. Across the top, you can see the tooth just to the right of my front tooth is actually completely sideways. The opposing one on the left juts out quite a bit. The incisor on the right is very protruded, and then all the molars kind of point inward. Across the bottom the crowding has caused the tooth just to the left of the front one to slip clear behind both its neighbors, and all the rest to be mis-aligned.

So I now have a teenage son in braces (we didn't give him a choice) and I realize that it's really not that big of a deal. Watching his smile improve has been an inspiration for me. He has done quite well with them, and I'm sure I will too. Time to go back and see what it would take to straighten this mess out. I asked my mother in jest if she would still pay for them, but unfortunately she said no.

I do want to address something here, and that is that I don't feel in any way that my teeth have held me back in life. This has not been detrimental to my career or my love life. I have not even been particularly self-conscious about this. I also have been very blessed with healthy teeth that have given me no trouble. But I am in such a position now that I can splurge a little, and correcting my smile is something that I wanted to treat myself to. For that ability, I am also very thankful. But if this course of treatment was not feasible for me, that would be fine too.

Wish me luck!