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.