My braces are off!

The day has come! The orthodontist has removed all of my buttons and attachments. It feels so weird, as my teeth are all smooth and slimy. To remove the hardware, he basically just reached in with a pliers of sorts and broke off what he could. It felt weird, but didn't hurt. Then he took a dremel type tool and ground the glue off. The combination of cold air from the tool's exhaust and the heat from the friction caused a bit of pain on the teeth where he needed to spend a little extra time, but it wasn't a big deal.

Then he took another tool and did some shaping and smoothing, mainly on my front teeth. He evened them up a bit, and gave them a rounded edge. This took just vibrates, kind of like the tool they use to cut off casts. It tickled.

Next they did a mold of my mouth to create the permanent retainers. I was told to keep wearing my last set of aligners, and scheduled an appointment for the following week.

Update!

The newest aligners are a set of 12, which isn't too bad. I'm a few trays in, and have been monitoring the progress of the trouble tooth very closely. This has resulted in the personal decision to wear each aligner for more like a week and a half instead of just a week. This seems to be working, but it is dragging out the time it will take to complete the program. I had an orthodontist appointment scheduled for this week, but since I'm not very far with the treatment I have moved it out another month. I sure hope this works, but either way after this I'm done!

The waiting is the hardest part: PART IV

I was faced with a decision, my treatment plan was over, but I still had one tooth that just wasn't right. On one hand, my teeth look so much better than before. But on the other hand, when I close my teeth together, there's a sizable gap in one spot, and it's all I can focus on. So after a lot of debating, I decided to take the doctor up on his offer to correct that spot with some traditional bracing.

However, that's not what happened. He decided that it would be best to stay with Invisalign and just do another scan. This is now the third time that we've done this, so I've had a total of four different treatment plans. I'm really not sure why he changed his mind about the traditional bracing and decided to go this route again, or why he expects different results this time, but I have to defer to his judgment.

Now I'm waiting for my new aligners to come in, and to see how much longer my treatment plan will be this time.

Big decision to make

Well I'm on my very last aligner, and now I have a decision to make. It's actually the same decision that I was faced with a little over a year ago: Should I get braces?

I have just the one tooth that has refused to cooperate. The rest look great, and will probably look even better after some sculpting by the orthodontist with a dremel.

On one hand, they look pretty good, and certainly 1000% better than they did. For reference:

But on the other hand, The gap IS noticeable. What's worse, every time I look at my teeth, I will automatically zoom in on that spot. And it's not like the offer to get it fixed will be on the table any other time. I need to decide now. I just don't think that I'll be happy with my investment knowing that it didn't go as planned.

My final appointment is in about a week. I need to decide.

Regular Visit...possible bad news

Yesterday I had a regular visit at the orthodontist. He said that it seems like my teeth are where they should be at this point according to the computer model. He was a little concerned about my repeatedly stubborn tooth maybe not tracking already. He advised me to make sure that the tooth fills the air bubble before switching out aligners, even if that means wearing them for an extra couple days.

I asked what would happen if it didn't cooperate again, and he said that we may end up having to "do some bracing." Apparently, pulling a tooth down is a particularly difficult move for Invisalign, but is a really simple one for traditional braces. He said that after 10 more weeks of  Invisalign, if that tooth still isn't where it should be, I may have to have braces for a few months. He made sure to reiterate that this would be at no additional cost.

But seriously? I might have to get braces after I'm done with my braces?

The waiting is the hardest part: Part III

When I last updated this blog, I had three weeks to go and then I would have a re-scan to correct a couple teeth that had gotten off track. I wasn't sure what to expect as far as how much time this would add to my treatment plan, but boy did I get a shock yesterday when I had my visit. SEVENTEEN more aligners to go now. They also added SEVEN rubber band buttons to the two that I already had, so I now have NINE metal pieces in my mouth. They had taken all the clear attachments off my upper teeth at the last visit when they scanned me, and now they have added ten of those to the top, and an additional couple on the bottom.

I am disheartened. I really had only anticipated maybe another 4-5 weeks. An extra 4 months is just crazy. Honestly my teeth look pretty good now, I just didn't think there was that much work to be done yet.

The main thing they seem to be focusing on is my bite. They told me that moving the teeth is the easy part, but getting them all to line up together on the top and bottom is tricky. This is why I have so many more buttons. They are really going to focus on dialing in my bite by utilizing elastics. At times I will be wearing 4 rubber bands at once.

Again, I am impressed with their commitment to making sure that I am happy with the end results. But man am I bumming right now with how far I have to go.

Just 3 weeks to go. But....

I have three more aligners to complete my treatment. However, I've already been told that after that they'll do a re-scan and send to Inivisalign to start a new series to correct some uncooperative teeth. The same tooth that has always given me trouble is way off course, as is one of my front upper teeth. The attachment came off that one, and the orthodontist decided to not bother to replace it since we'll be re-booting my treatment plan anyway. I have no idea how much longer this will mean the process will take, but I wouldn't think it would be too much. Anyway, I'm just glad they're adamant about making sure that the end result is one that I'll be happy with.

This is a good time to discuss how my habits have changed over time. I'm no longer quite as worried about adhering to a strict 22 hours per day policy. Usually, I have them out for at least two hours just in the morning while I have breakfast and sip a couple cups of coffee. Some days I forget to use the Acceledent. When I go to a restaurant, rather than brushing and all that, I usually just kind of rinse with water and pop them back in after eating and then brush when I get to a more convenient location. In short, I've gotten used to the whole thing and don't freak out over details quite so much anymore. I'm really comfortable with them now. But I still can't wait until it's over.