My Invisalign Blog

Invisalign Tray 17 and beyond, the end

2011-02-28T17:52:00.000-05:00

I am embarrassed it has been so long since my last post. I apologize.

Anyway, My 17 trays of refinements compelted about a month ago. If you've been reading my blog you know the biggest issue I have had is with one canine that is having a hard time completely rotating. It has caused me to have the refinements in the first place and to have some trays crack. My ortho still suggests I get 2 months of metal braces to polish off the rotation of the tooth. I have still resisted. He offered the braces or any other work for free since the Invisalign didn't 100% do the job. He said even if I change my mind in 6 months to just let him know and he'll put in whatever orthodontics free of charge to finish the rotation.

After the final tray the canine was still not perfect. However, it is not too bad. Most people would not realize it. I look light years better than I did when I started. However, the fact that I went a year and 10 months on the treatment is a long time.

On the visit for my 17th tray he took off the buttons on my teeth and gave me a 'retainer' tray which had thicker plastic and no button placement. He said its possible I could still some movement on the canine, which I did, some. He told me to wear the slightly thicker tray 24/7 for a month to stabilize the final position of the teeth. I did this for about a week. I now just wear the trays at night. It has been great having a gap free, button free smile!

Each night I can feel the pressure from the movement from the day. It is clear in my case I will have to continue to wear the trays every night for the foreseeable future. I have an appointment tomorrow where he will give me an even thicker night time set of trays as my final retainer. This might be my last appointment or one of my last.

I one day hope to go back and look through all the posts I've made and make edits as many of the things I said have things that need to be noted in hind sight. A lot of the ways I did the treatment were incorrect. I didn't wear my trays enough. In the first set of trays a tooth fell off track and I kept moving from tray to tray hoping the tooth would 'catch up'. It did not.If a tooth falls out of line stop the treatment, go back to the last tray it fit with and stay on a tray till it moves. If you move to the next tray before the tooth has moved you'll get refinements that will set you back to the time the tooth went off track. In my case this was an extra 10 months for essentially one tooth.

I wish I had just taken an extra 2-3 weeks on the trays early on to make sure the tooth stayed on track with the movement. Also, if your tray cracks due to a stubborn tooth, as in it cracked in a pressure spot, then you need to get it replaced. If it is cracked it is not moving the tooth. If you just move to the next tray you will cause the issue I just discussed.

This will likely be one of my last posts too.. I will try to get final pictures attached but don't anticipate posting much more if at all..

Refinements - Tray 12 of 17 with pictures

2010-08-26T23:47:00.000-04:00

I am working through a rather large set of refinements. The refinements were needed because one tooth refused to rotate and drop down as originally planned. This tooth fell off track early in the original and never caught up. As a result I needed 17 refinement trays. Unfortunately, even this set of trays is having a hard time rotating this large well rooted tooth. It is becoming clear to me Invisalign, at least in my experience, does not do a good job of rotating large well rooted teeth. The tooth in question is the canine, #5 tooth on the top. It needs to drop down a little big and rotate probably 80* from when treatment first started to be straight.

The tooth has dropped some and rotated probably 40*-50*. Thats a lot of rotation but there is still a good amount of rotation needed. I am now up to tray 12 and the tooth is again off track. I can see the trays look more rotated than the tooth actually is. I have tried to go slower and leave trays in an extra week if I'm not confident in the progress. Each tray feels tight on the canine so it leads me to believe its moving since a week later the pressure is gone. However, it is clear this is not the case. Each tray is trying to pull down the tooth so there is a small space below the tooth and where it should be. I find myself biting down to push the tray up into place.

Well, tray 12 was so far off track that the tray started cracking. To those of you that have Invisalign, when your tray cracks.. particularly around where tooth movement is you need to tell your orthodontist immediately. The reality is a crack in your tray is equivalent to a break in your braces. It can mean the tray is no longer moving the tooth because the crack gives it flexibility which means it doesn't have the pressure needed for moving teeth.

Anyhow, I saw my orthodontist and he seems concerned with Invisalign's ability to complete the job when it comes to this tooth. To those of you reading for the first time, I got Invisalign to close the gap between my front teeth and other teeth. Those gaps were all closed very nicely in my first set of trays. The refinements I got were just for this stubborn canine tooth. The ortho suggested a number of options: First, he suggested a setup that involved a metal button and a rubber band under the Invisalign trays to give it the needed torque. Second, he suggested just switching over to metal braces for a couple months to finish out the job. Third, remove the button and replace on the tooth in a spot that the trays could do a better job of grabbing and move to tray 13. This option might not get the tooth all the way to where it needs to but it would be better than pushing on with the tooth and button not close to where the tray suggests it should.

He said it was completely up to me. I told him I hated the idea of metal braces and that in all honesty that I did this to eliminate the gap in my front teeth and with that gone I could potentially 'settle' with wherever the canine ends up. I asked him to order a replacement tray and I am going to revert back to tray 11 until it arrives. It should take about 2 weeks. I am going to try to go back to 11 then back to 12 and try again. I am facing a dilemma though on weather to suck it up for 2 months or so and get metal braces or to just accept the results after the refinements and call it good. To this point I have not paid a dime over the original $5000 amount, but I would think having to get braces would cost some additional money.

Well, that's my current dilemma.

On a side note, if any of you have pets or like funny pictures of animals you should check out http://www.petscaughtintheact.com/

Refinements - Tray 4 of 17 with pictures

2010-04-10T00:30:00.000-04:00

I am on tray 4 of my Invisalign refinement sets. I took some less than perfect pictures with my iPhone to show the new placement of the attachments on my teeth and show another stage in the progress of my teeth. 17 refinement sets seems like a long time, but in the long run it still isn't longer than what braces would have taken. I very much like that no one recognizes I have these things even with how noticeable they seem to me.

My bottom teeth got 5 refinement trays (even though the seemed to move perfectly with the original 7 sets). I believe they are 'over-correcting' the teeth so that when I go days without wearing the trays eventually that the teeth won't move much off track.

Not much new with the Invisalign. I am used to them, I take them out when I eat, I put them in after I eat. I keep the trays clean, mostly because if you don't they feel gross in your mouth. I am also keeping a much closer eye on the stubborn tooth that still needs rotation. I can tell though that with these refinements it is slowly turning.

Below are some pics showing where the attachments were placed for refinements as well as showing the progress of the teeth. The gap in my front teeth has been gone for quite some time now thanks to Invisalign. I am used to not having a gap now. If you have the money to do it, Invisalign is definitely worth it.

If any readers have any questions I am somewhat running out of interesting things to write about.If you have questions or any topics you think I should make a post about please leave a comment and I will do my best to respond with answers based on my personal experience.

Refinements are in - Tray 1 or 17

2010-02-14T11:23:00.000-05:00

Four days ago I got a call saying my refinements were in so I set an appointment for the next day. Once again that was only about 3 weeks for the aligners to arrive. The refinements were largely to fix one tooth that did not rotate properly with the first set of aligners. I could see early on that this tooth was falling off track yet I kept going with the treatment. I strongly recommend if this happens to you to spend an extra two weeks to a month going back a tray and making sure that tooth gets back on track. Here is why.

My refinements have 17 trays. That is 34 weeks. If I had spent the extra time up front to keep that tooth on track this would be dramatically less. Also, there were four trays for the bottom which I thought was odd as my bottom teeth seemed to go perfectly. However, I think this is actually to 'over correct' the bottom teeth so that they hold their form longer when I am not wearing the trays.

Anyway, not only did I find out that the top teeth needed 17 trays to rotate that tooth, I also learned the placement of the new buttons. There were buttons placed on teeth 4 and 5, which tooth 5 is the tooth needing rotating and 4 is the one behind it. (Tooth numbers start with the tooth in your back upper left as #1). That button was expected. What I did not expect was there was a button put on tooth 11 which is on the other side of the mouth mirroring tooth 4. Luckily it is not too much in sight. To put the buttons on the ortho had to put this cleansing liquid on my teeth and let it set for 30 seconds or so, then bonding was applied then a small mini plastic tray that looked like an aligner was put on and held on for a couple minutes while they used a blue light to 'dry' the bonding so the attachments were stuck to my teeth. The ortho then trimmed and shaped a couple of the buttons where too much bonding had been applied.

However the button put on tooth 5, the problematic tooth, was placed in a different spot. It was a bigger button this time and placed toward the bottom front corner of the tooth. I understand why the button needs to be bigger and in that spot, but unfortunately its more noticeable.

I will note it seems like these aligners are made slightly better. They seemed even clearer and the ridges don't cut my tongue. The change in button size represents a better job of rotating teeth. My point is it seems that since I got my first set of aligners 10 months ago that they have improved the program as it shows in the new refinement sets.

So, I will be using Invisalign for another 8 months or so mostly for one tooth. My front teeth no longer have a gap which is great, I feel more confident in my smile in that respect. I feel I can survive another 17 trays as I've been doing for almost a year already and they're are nearly unnoticeable compared to the alternative that is metal braces.

I will also note that I did not have to pay anything for refinements or any of the word done. I literally paid $2,200 up front and my credit card has been charged $200 a month for 14 months ending this March. I never pull out my wallet at any of these ortho visits and there have never been 'extra' charges.

I will put up pictures at some point when I have time.. glad I have so many readers! The number has grown and grown over time. I encourage any new readers to start from the beginning!

Week 22 - final set. Refinements are on the way.

2010-01-26T01:04:00.001-05:00

Above is the result of Invisalign after the initial planned trays. As you can see for the most part they turned out very well, however there is the one tooth that did not finish moving. I went to the orthodontist last week to an assessment of the results. I discussed my displeasure with the tooth that had gone off course. I also talked to him about the upside down 'V' my two front teeth had been forming. He actually did some slightly shaving of my front teeth to kind of round and even them out. He also drilled off the gripping buttons to prepare my teeth for a new set of impressions. The process of taking the buttons of is ridiculously easy. It is not painful, no anesthetic or anything needed. He just shaves them off in 2 minutes.

The orthodontist took new moldings of my teeth and pictures of my teeth exactly as he did for the initial impressions 11 months ago. While I had no problems with my bottom teeth I should be getting a new set of those anyways. I've had the same set of bottom aligners for nearly 6 months. The ortho also said Invisalign has been improving the style and shape of the buttons on the aligners to get a better grip and improve movement so there shouldn't be any problem getting the last tooth moved into position through refinements.

I will be getting a call when the refinement aligners are in. He did not know how many sets it will take but I'm not too concerned. I am guessing it will take 3-4 weeks for the aligners to get in. In the mean time I am still wearing the last set of aligners regularly but leaving them off in some key social situations.

I will update more once refinements start.

Tray 20 - food getting stuck between my two front teeth!

2009-12-09T15:23:00.000-05:00

I have reached the home stretch of my initial treatment. I am on tray 20 of 23. Overall I am very happy. It has been just 9 months since I have started and I pretty much have no gap. Over the past months I've notice that I pay a lot more attention to other peoples teeth than I used to. Probably because I've spent so much time looking at mine in the mirror I cannot help but look at my friends and coworkers teeth and comparing. I am noticing that a lot more people have misaligned teeth than I thought. I am noticing more people with overcrowding and others with small gaps I never noticed before. In all the years I have known these people I thought (and still think) their teeth looked great. My two front teeth have such a small gap now that it is smaller than that of some of these other people that I have never noticed anything before. Even though I have 2 1/2 more trays I very much feel I have gotten rid of my gap!

Looking at my old pictures absolutely makes me sick. I've said this before but I was never that embarrassed of my teeth before as I was so used to them but now I literally get a stomach ache looking at my old pictures.

Since my teeth have gotten so close together now I am now finding food, particularly meat, frequently getting food stuck between my two front teeth. This has happened before in the past months but now it is small strands of food. This is extremely exciting for me as 9 months ago I could fit my tongue between my two front teeth. I am also noticing that as my teeth get closer together the gums between my front teeth are slowly squishing and cutting to make way for the teeth. While this is not all that painful it does create a slight sting when I get food stuck between the teeth.

There are two things I am not happy with though as the initial treatments are ending. First, the bottom of my two front teeth are not flat. You can comewhat see it in my last posted picture but instead of being flat and even they instead are almost an upside down V shape. I am hoping my orthodontist can do somethign to round or even that out. Second, there is still the issue of the one tooth that seemingly did not rotate much at all. I am going to have to have refinements soley for this tooth to rotate it into place. I am so used to Invisalign at this point that I am fine with it but it is something worth noting.

Overall though, I am very happy. I am much more confident in my smile and often get comments about how great my smile is looking from all kind of people. Especially my wife... she comments on it so much now that it makes me wonder just how ugly she used to think I was!

Helpful Invisalign website links and blogs for other's expirience and views on Invisalign

2009-11-04T01:18:00.001-05:00

I know most of you are like me where before starting Invisalign I read about it as much as I could to get as much information as possible about what I was getting into. I did countless Google searches and read through a lot of people's blogs to get an wide perspective of experiences. To help some of you looking to my site for guidance here are a number of blogs I read through that you may find useful as well.

Blogs:
http://www.myinvisalignblog.com/ (My Hollywood Smile)
http://invisaligndiaries.blogspot.com/
http://langsinvisalignjourney.blogspot.com/
http://invisalign-london.blogspot.com/
http://missyinvisalign.blogspot.com/

Websites:
www.bracesreview.com
www.bestdentalplus.com
www.invisalign-reviews.com

Tray 16 pictures - Very impressed with Invisalign results so far

2009-10-29T22:46:00.000-04:00

Below is a picture of my Invisalign results through 16 trays (of 23). As you can see the gap in my front teeth has closed very nicely so far. I am very happy with the way my teeth are looking to this point. My old pictures now make me shudder, which is sad as I was never that embarrassed of my smile before.

I attended a wedding last week and took my aligners out for the reception. One of my friends of whom I had not seen in recent months made a point of telling me how good my teeth and smile are looking. It made me feel great knowing that my teeth are getting to the point where the difference is that noticeable.

4 trays in 4 weeks, accelerating the Invisalign treatment

2009-10-12T02:01:00.001-04:00

Over the past 5 weeks or so I have been switching my Invisalign aligners every week in attempts to accelerate the process before heading back to my hometown for a wedding. My bottom set of aligners have been done since tray 7 and I went from tray 13 to 16 in 4 weeks.

I talked in earlier posts about the fact that one of my teeth has fallen off track and the attachment put on my tooth (tooth #5, counting from upper left) no longer fits in the button spot of the aligner. After talking to my orthodontist he informed me this would have to be fixed during refinements and the treatment would continue as long as the trays were still fitting but to keep pushing at it in hopes it can get back on track.

My front teeth have moved as expected with the accelerated process. I did get nervous a couple times thinking I felt extra sensitivity in my teeth which made me think I was moving them too quickly but that is now gone. My front teeth are now very close together and it is very exciting. Unfortunately, the other tooth continues to be stubborn. It is so far off track now that there is some empty space in the tray by that tooth and when i bite down it pushes in that bubble type space and is causing the tray to crack on that tooth. I have to wear this tray another 4 weeks until the next time I see my orthodontist so I need this tray to last.

So far this stupid tooth has been the only real hiccup. However I cant help but believe this wouldn't have happened if I stuck to wearing my aligners to 20 hours a day instead of 'slacking' for the larger part of the treatment.

I really appreciate those who read this, it actually makes me feel like I'm helping others. Hopefully I can help those debating about getting Invisalign as well as those who already have Invisalign and want to read about the experience of others. I once again remind everyone that every treatment is different so you cannot assume what I have experienced will be the same for everyone else.

I will try to get another picture up soon. The progress is looking very nice. I really do appreciate everyone's support. I am going to make an effort to post more as I know I have been less than committed to this blog lately but the hit count on the site is showing me that there is still plenty of people interested in what I have to say. If anyone has any questions please feel free to leave a comment and I will do my best to answer.

Tray 13 - My Dog Ate My Invisalign!

2009-08-31T09:54:00.007-04:00

I am now on tray 13 and have had a few experiences worth sharing with those of you who read this that would be helpful.

First, I wrote in my last post that I have been 'slacking' on keeping my trays in 20 hours each day but have not noticed any issue. Well, I am starting to notice an issue with the movement of one of my teeth. I am not sure if it is related to me wearing the trays less than I should but one tooth is not rotating like it should. I had 3 buttons put on my teeth all to support one tooth that was severely crooked and needs to be rotated. About 4 trays ago I notice the attachment was no longer fitting into the attachment spot of the tray. Slowly but surely I would progress with each tray and notice the attachment was not fitting into the spot it should anymore and was not rotating like it was supposed to. I asked my orthodontist at my last check up and he said it did look like that one tooth was falling off track and it would be something that would have to be corrected during refinements. My front gap was still closing as expected and the trays were still fitting over my teeth correctly so he said to continue on and the stubborn tooth would be fixed during refinements.

I cannot say I was surprised, of all the teeth I though this one would be the hardest to move. It does unfortunately mean that I will continue to have attachments past my initial treatment as the attachments are there specifically for rotating this tooth. I continue to try to push on the tray and on my tooth to get it to move and I think it helps some but I cannot be pushing on it all day long.

Another experience is something I hope all of you can learn from my mistakes. First, I had a revisit of the McDonald's experience where I was at Moe's Southwest Grill and took my trays out, put them in a napkin, and left them on the table... then threw them away after the meal. Luckily a helpful Moe's worker helped me dig through the trash till we found them. Crisis averted again.

However, there was one day I took my trays out for lunch and put them on my night stand next to my bed. I came back less than 10 minutes later and could only find one of the trays... and immediately panicked. I knew what happened immediately and went on a hunt for the dog. I found her on her blanket looking REALLY guilty and she ran off. I picked up the blanket and shook it and out popped my bottom set of aligners with 4 of the back teeth all chewed up.... needless to say I was very angry. I have been done with my bottom teeth since week 7 and the bottom set was my 'final' aligners I have been wearing often to keep the teeth aligned. So, there was no option to just move up a set... I had to dig around to find my set 6 and had to call my ortho to tell them what happened. They said it would take a week to get in the new set 7 and would cost $65 for the replacement. I definitely thought it would cost a lot more so $65 was a relief to me. I got the new bottoms in and have been wearing them for a week now and my bottom teeth are pretty much back to where they should be.

My front gap has been progressing nicely the last few trays and I'm really starting to see the difference. I am going back home to my home state in late september and my parents still do not know I have been doing this so I am really hoping that can see the difference when I see them. I am on tray 13 but I think I am going to try to accelerate the processes after my next check up. On Sept 9 I will get trays 14-16 and I plan on doing 1 a week until the end of September so I will be in tray 16 when I go back to my home state so I can have the smallest gap possible. I'll let you guys know in October how this 'cheating' goes. I will then have to wear tray 16 for like 4 weeks until the next appointment but that is okay.

Well, hopefully this post was helpful and sorry the current pic isn't as clear as the other ones but you can see the front gap is definitely smaller.

Tray 9 - Long time since last post... not much new

2009-07-14T14:49:00.003-04:00

I know it has been a while since I last posted. I am now in tray 9 and all is still going well. I finish my bottom teeth after tray 7 and I am pretty satisfied with the results. There are no gaps and the teeth are straight. I can see the progress in my top teeth already and am already shuddering at old pictures of myself at how large the gap used to be. The gap now is still quite noticeable but compared to what it used to be I can see that it is getting smaller.

Each new tray on the top is not very painful as they are not moving as much each time. Overall its pretty much the same routine. I will say I have flown off the handle in terms of being a 'good invisaligner'. I am so much more of a slacker compared to what I used to be. I don't always brush after a meal.. sometimes I'll wait hours before putting the trays back in. It really seems that after like 3-5 days the tray has already moved the teeth to their new location.. and if i forget to put them back in for a while it only takes a few hours to get the teeth back to the new location. I sometimes wonder why its 2 weeks between trays instead of 1 but I guess some have more movement each tray so it may take longer to settle them. Either way... I'm no longer paranoid about leaving my trays out especially with my uppers since the movement is so small each tray anyways. I've been slacking for a few trays now and everything still seems to move as expected. I don't endorse it, just sharing my experience.

I'll post more pictures of the progress after tray 10 or so.

Tray 5 pictures of the progress

2009-05-20T23:35:00.006-04:00

Here are a couple pictures of my progress so far into my 5th tray. Overall the movement on the top has been small but you can definitely see the difference in my bottom teeth. As expected the pain at beginning of each tray does correspond to how much the teeth are moving. You can see my bottom teeth have moved a lot and that is where pretty much all the pain has been with each tray. I personally would rather take the pain and have them move faster than have them move slow with no real pain. My bottom teeth will be done after tray 7. If you want to see the 'before' pictures of my teeth in nearly identical poses see my February post with before pictures.

Near the end of my 4th tray I made a big boo boo. I went out to dinner with some people and took my trays out before I left. When I got home I immediately went to bed and totally forgot to put in my trays! The next morning when I put them back in (nearly 14 hours later) they were very tight. I am happy to report though that it took only about a day for my teeth to move back and for all the pressure on the trays to be gone. I had no problem moving to the 5th tray a couple days after.

I hope everyone enjoys the progress pictures. So far I'm pleased with the progress. It is very weird not being able to slide my tongue between my bottom teeth anymore. Last week for the first time I actually got food stuck between my two front bottom teeth that I had to floss out. I know that sounds weird, but it was a very exciting experience as that has never happened there before with the gap. I'd love to hear some feedback from readers, sometimes I feel like I'm talking to myself.

My Invisalign ClinCheck videos - computer simulation of how my teeth will move

2009-04-29T18:27:00.009-04:00

Here are the much promised ClinChecks from Invisalign! If your ortho didn't show you the ClinCheck for your case you should ask him. After all you're paying for it! On his computer with the Invisalign software he can move your 'jaw' any which way he wants and play it forward, backward, any way he wants and save off videos in any position. I had to ask to see mine and he was more than happy to show me. It is pretty cool!

The actual videos are much larger than what is shown here. Also I think YouTube skips the last second of the video because it doesn't seem to show the final result correctly. The video of my bottom teeth is only 2 seconds long and it backs out after one second which is only half the treatment!

Since this is annoying, I also am posting links to download the full files! I think a lot of you would appreciate the full effect. The site I used to host the files has a lot of pop ups so I do apologize. If someone knows a better free file hosting site let me know.

front view
upper teeth
lower teeth
360 degree before view

Please let me know if any of you have issues downloading.

This video is of the front of my teeth while biting down - how they will move

This video is how the uppert set of my teeth of my teeth will move with Invisalign

This video is how the lower set of my teeth of my teeth will move with Invisalign

360 degree look at the teeth before Invisalign

Tray 4, Day 2 - first 'check up' appointment

2009-04-29T00:12:00.002-04:00

I went into the ortho yesterday for my first appointment and to get more sets of aligners as they only gave me 3 sets to start. The appointment literally lasted 5 minutes. He asked me how the treatment was doing and if I had any questions or complications. I did not. He pulled out the giant box with all my aligners and handed me four sets and said "we'll see you in eight weeks this time".

That would have been it but I asked if it would be possible to view my final set of aligners. He did me one better, he brought me to his computer and showed me the much longed for ClinCheck computer simulation from Invisalign. I was very very happy to be able to see it. It was amazing watching it slowly transform and when it jumped back to the begging after it reached the end it was shocking how grotesque the start seemed to look after seeing the end. I will say it did seem that there was no indication my overbite would be fixed at all. If anything it seemed to get worse.

I asked him if there was any way to get a copy of the video and he said he wasn't sure but he took down my email in case. Later that day he emailed me 4 videos saying it turned out to be really easy for him to create videos from the Invisalign software. each video was about 200k in size and was awesome. They are on my other computer so I will have to post them later. I will post them on YouTube and then embed the videos in this blog so check back tomorrow. The ortho did give me the disclaimer, again, that the videos are merely simulations and actual movement could vary slightly (which I assume is where refinement comes in).

Anyway, check back tomorrow for four awesome ClinCheck videos!

I threw away my Invisalign trays at McDonalds!

2009-04-17T10:47:00.005-04:00

I just wanted to share a scary story. I was on my way to a ballgame and I stopped to eat at McDonald's with my sister-in-law. I forgot my Invisalign case so I took out the aligners and placed them on the McDonald's tray. BAD IDEA. By the end of the meal I had completely forgotten about them and we left. About 30 feet outside the building I ran my tongue over my teeth and realized "OH MY GOSH I THREW AWAY MY ALIGNERS!!" I ran back in and found the McDonald's lady just pulling out the trash bin. I told her I just threw something important away and she let me dig through the trash (how embarrassing). I did luckily manage to find my trays and I am very fortunate. If I had gone another 10 minutes without realizing I didn't have them the lady would have already emptied the trash bin and it would have been one of many bags of trash in the dumpster. I would have been looking for a needle in a hey stack. So let this be a lesson to all of you, NEVER put your aligners in anything but your case! If you forget your case put them IN YOUR POCKET OR PURSE.

Tray 3, day 1 - pain, stains, and cleaning the trays with bleach

2009-04-13T12:12:00.004-04:00

Last night I put in my third set of trays. I am supposed to switch every other Monday but I thought putting in a new set at night might be better. It is painful so I figured if I put them in at night it will be at least 13 hours or so before I have to take them out for breakfast so my teeth will have a much larger time period to adjust before the first time I have to take them out. So far it seems like it was a good idea.

The last few days of tray 2 I noticed my trays were becoming quite dirty and stained. They were starting to develop a yellowish tint which was kinda gross. I scrubbed and brushed them but couldn't completely get rid of it. Last night I put them in a diluted cup of bleach (1 cap full of bleach and 4oz of water or so). I let it set in there for about 30 minutes while I ate and when I came back they were clear again! I had put them in bleach before but only left them in there a few minutes. So, that could be a good idea of anyone having trouble getting them clear. Just put them in some diluted bleach and let them soak in there. Wash them out after you are done soaking so the trays don't taste like bleach and you don't digest any bleach.

The reason they got so stained in the first place is while doing my peroxide whiting treatment I decided to try applying some to my teeth and putting my trays in and leaving it overnight. I do NOT recommend this as the next morning my trays were all yellow and I spent the rest of the week trying to unstain them until I discovered the bleach soaking solution.

So far the peroxide whitening treatment is somewhat working. I cannot tell a huge difference yet but I am going to give it more time. I am probably not putting enough on and not letting it set long enough. My wife thinks she can tell the difference, enough to want to try it out herself.. I just don't think they're totally white yet like people with nice teeth have.

Lifestyle - eating, drinking, smoking, kissing, etc!

2009-04-02T13:11:00.004-04:00

A lot of people have the same questions (including myself) about how your lifestyle changes once you get Invisalign. I have answered a number of these topics in my past posts with my experience so far. I thought I'd post a link of another person's review of similar questions. It looks like in general this person's responses were similar to what I've discovered so far (weather I've blogged about it yet or not) so I thought I'd pass the link along.

Lifestyle - eating, drinking, smoking, kissing, etc!

Set 2 of trays! pain, nail biting, and whitening

2009-03-31T18:11:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I transitioned from my first set of trays to my second set of trays. I tried to prepare by taking some Advil an hour ahead of time and making sure I had a giant meal for breakfast so I wouldn't have to take them out for lunch.

The trays were pretty hard to get in. The top tray I managed to get in OK and immediately felt the pressure, which I suppose is good. The bottom trays were very difficult. It seemed like they weren't gonna fit until SNAP they popped in and boy did it sting! Its pretty clear the bottom 4 front teeth are doing a lot of moving with each tray.

I learned from my first set it isn't necessarily having them in that hurts but its more when you take them out or put them in, especially my bottom ones. During the first two days or so of a tray it hurts every time you take out the tray and every time you put in the tray. So, to cause the least amount of pain as possible I decided that rather than have 3-4 meals a day in my first two days of a tray I will instead try to eat two meals worth of food twice a day. A super giant breakfast at 10am with a sandwitch and then a super giant dinner around 7. This reduces the pain a lot because once there in the initial pain subsides.. they don't hurt anymore.

Also, in one of my earlier posts I talked about hoping Invisalign would help me stop biting my nails. I'm happy to say while I still try to bite them with these things in I have managed to greatly reduce my nail biting and my nails are starting to grow back. It doesn't work well biting nails with plastic rounded teeth. So, if anyone else has similar habits this was definitely a pro for Invisalign. I'd surely still be biting if I had metal braces.

I forgot to say this in earlier posts, but I have 23 sets of trays for my upper teeth but only need 7 sets for my lower teeth. I guess since my lower teeth were pretty much in line but had spacing issues it was a more straight forward fix. Based on the pain it seems my teeth are doing a lot of movement in each tray.

I've been saying throughout that the treatment will take a year. But anyone who can do math would realize that 23 trays x 2 weeks each is only 46 weeks. I am hoping that's the case but my hunch is that I will need additional 'refinement' trays after the 23 trays that will take me to the year mark (or maybe beyond). From what I've read on other blogs a refinement period seems to be common.

Finally I wanted to update on the whitening I've been trying. I purchased a 35% Peroxide whitening product off ebay for $20 and am slowly trying it out. I've tried the peroxide whitening a few times last week and it seems to be working but who knows that could be in my head. It doesn't hurt any more than Crest strips do and I don't have use them as long each time. I'm going to do more on the second week of this set of trays (when they're not as tight) and evaluate the results then. I am optimistic though from how its going and what I've read that it will work to whiten my teeth in a cost effective manner.

Invisalign on vacation and drinking soda and beer with Invisalign

2009-03-28T01:04:00.007-04:00

I just got back from vacation the last week and wanted to report some of my recent findings during the trip.

I went on vacation with friends I hadn't seen in a while but am very good friends with. I waited a full day of hanging out with everyone before talking about my Invisalign. All but one of them had no idea I had them in and I had been interacting with them all day long. I did not try to hide them and smiled in every picture like I normally do. These are close friends that would not be afraid of telling me the truth so I was happy that only one person noticed (out of 7). The one person that did notice said she only noticed when I was having a close personal conversation with her and she recognized them since her mother had them a year ago. I had close personal conversations with everyone else as well without trying to hide them and no one else noticed. So far she is just the second person to notice in the two weeks I've had them in and the other person that noticed was also less than two feet from my face when they pointed them out.

The entire trip I smiled big like I have my whole life and did not try to hide them the whole trip. I would look at every picture taken of me after and I really could not tell I had them in. Sure, on a couple of them when I zoomed in all the way on the picture on the computer I could see slightly the reflection of the ridges of the aligners at my gum line.. but who on earth does that. I am very excited that I won't have to look at these pictures 5 years from now and go 'oh that is when I had braces' and be ashamed.

I think I may have forgotten to mention in my first impressions that I definitely had a bit of a lisp in my speech. I think it was worse when I thought about it but it was there. I think in general my initial lisp has faded away and I have not actually had anyone point out anything about how I talk since those first couple days.

Now, I'm going to go into a discovery that I don't know if I want to endorse but I thought I'd share. I read on some random blog that someone actually have their ortho tell them they could drink any non staining drink while having their aligners in. I immediately posted that I didn't think that was a good idea since the sugar and so on could get trapped in the aligners and cause quick tooth decay. Then it occurred to me... would it be that big a deal if you drank a soda, or a beer, or some milk with the aligners in... then just brushed your teeth afterward? I mean... if the reason you shouldn't do it is for the health of your teeth why not just drink and then brush your teeth soon after? I understand if you drink coffee or Gatorade while you have them in you could risk staining not only your teeth but the aligners as well... but what about mt. dew? or a light beer?

Anyhow, I tried this out the whole vacation. I would drink my beer/shots/margaritas the whole night with everyone else with my aligners in and every few hours or whenever I used the rest room I'd just quick brush my teeth and rinse out my aligners then put them back in. It seemed to work just fine and I don't really understand the harm in this approach. It is certainly better than keeping the aligners out for 3 hours while I drink with everyone. The result seemed fine so I'll likely continue this approach with drinking unless I hear from someone a good reason why this won't work.

Overall my first vacation with Invisalign was a little burdensome but successful. I did constantly have to duck away to go brush my teeth and put my aligners back in and I did have one time where I forgot to bring my carrying case and had to put the aligners in a napkin in my pocket. My ortho specifically said to not put them in a napkin but I wasn't about to leave em uncovered in my dirty pocket while I ate. I also purchased a travel toothbrush and tooth paste. It was an 8 hour drive to our vacationing location so I had a few meals on the road and in the car. I actually brushed my teeth in the car twice, having to spit the toothpaste into an empty bottle.

One last thing I wanted to mention is the commonly talked about topic of keeping the aligners clean. I have been cleaning the aligners with hand soap and a tooth brush about twice a day or whenever it looks dirty. I have noticed in the latter half of the second week that the trays have gotten dirtier faster and have developed a foul smell when they are not clean. It's pretty gross... at one point when I put the trays back without doing a full cleaning I got that feeling you get when you put a dirty pair of socks on.

One last thing I wanted to talk about is that I have purchased a 35% peroxide whitening program off eBay for $20. This is a lot cheaper than the $150 program the ortho offered for their 10% peroxide treatment. It truly does sound too good to be true but the sellers feedback was very good and consistent. I just got it today and have used it one time so far but I will wait at least a week before reporting results. After I am done with the whitening treatment I will post some 'after' pictures of the whitening that you can compare with the before pictures.

I cannot wait until Monday when I get to put set 2 in. I plan on taking some Advil a couple hours before making the transition just to reduce any potential pain ahead of time.

*EDIT:*
I need to correct and clarify some stuff I wrote in the above post. First, the increased dirtiness and the 'foul smell' I reported in the second week was actually due to drinking beer with the aligners in. Soaking the aligners in diluted bleach did help but I have concluded that the very foul smell is a result of the beer. So, yes beer will stain your aligners and yes it will make them smell worse. BUT, they're only in for 2 weeks at a time and the smell and dirtiness can be reduced with advanced cleaning methods. Don't let beer drinking prevent you from getting Invisalign. I will still drink beer with my aligners in but just be aware there are consequences.

First tray, 13th Day. My follow up on cuts, dry mouth and pain

2009-03-28T00:50:00.003-04:00

It has now been almost 2 weeks and I am almost done with my first set of aligners. I wanted to give a follow up on some of the issues I stated in my previous post. The pain was all but gone after the first couple days. At this point I don't feel any real pain anymore. Sometimes I can feel my teeth are tender when I bite down on food to eat while I have them out, but in general the pain I had when I first put them in is not there.

My tongue has adjusted to my aligners for the most part. It now tucks in my mouth slightly differently than it used to. I don't find my tongue scraping against my aligners and the wounds have healed. I had to file down some of the rough edges on the outside of my bottom aligners. I used a nail file from some nail clippers to scrape away and smooth the ridged edges from my bottom trays and now it does not scrape up my lower gums.

One thing I am still having issues with is I do still find my mouth drier than it should be. Granted, its not nearly as dried out as it was the first couple days but I am still not keeping my mouth closed as much as I should and I still feel the need to drink liquid and use chapstick to keep my mouth and lips moist. At this point I'm kind of used to it so its not a big of a deal.

Many of you asked about cost vs traditional braces. I go into detail on comparing metal braces, ceramic braces, and Invisalign in my first blog post

First tray, 3rd day

2009-03-18T14:07:00.003-04:00

I thought I'd give an update after having in the trays for a couple days. I am definitely having some different thoughts than when I first put them in. First of all, I had previously said it wasn't painful... it definitely got a lot more painful that first day and second day. Anytime I took them out and went to put them back I could feel my teeth were very tender and it hurt to put em back in. I took some Tylenol and the pain eventually subsided but you definitely feel the pressure on the teeth which I suppose is good.

Second, my tongue and gums have taken a little bit of a beating. the ridges at the end of the trays scrape up against my front gums and the back edges my tongue consistently insists on exploring/scraping against. As a result I've got some open wounds on my tongue and inside gums.

Since my tongue is still not used to it I find myself with my mouth slightly open a lot and as a result my mouth stays dry. I have been drinking water a lot too. Now that I'm used to popping the trays in and out I find myself fidgeting with them and popping them in and out and in again. I don't know if other people have had the same issues or not.

Last night I 'cheated' for the first time. It was st. patties day for goodness sake, how on earth am I supposed to keep my trays in for 22-23 hours if I plan on drinking beer for 3 hours! At any rate, I had em out from 8-11ish on top of the two earlier meals I had in the day. I honestly don't think its a huge deal but I don't know how else to get around that dilemma (and don't say 'just don't drink beer on st. Patrick day').

I do understand now why they recommend this treatment more for adults. The reality is you're spending $5,000 for a voluntary correction. Frankly, it can be a pain in the butt to have these in all day and if you're not motivated to straighten your teeth, aren't a responsible person, or you don't have good self discipline... or you don't have your own money invested in this it can be very easy to just say screw it and take them out. Lack of responsibility and discipline with this can quickly lead to ruining the treatment and wasting a lot of money.

Anyhow, those are my thoughts for now.. I haven't gotten too many questions from readers so I'm starting to wonder if anyone actually reads this. If you have a question or comment please feel free to leave a comment!

Pics with my Invisalign in vs without them in

2009-03-16T23:25:00.005-04:00

Below is a picture of me without my Invisalign in.

Above is a picture of me WITH my first set of Invisalign trays in.

Ortho pictures that were sent to Invisalign

2009-03-16T22:51:00.007-04:00

Below are the digital pictures that wee taken at my appointment where I was fitted for Invisalign and then sent to Invisalign along with the teeth moldings.

First Impressions after getting my first tray

2009-03-16T10:29:00.005-04:00

Well, I just got home from getting my first trays. The first thing the did was tell me I needed 3 attachments on my teeth. Luckily they were on teeth that are relatively out of sight. They are on teeth 3, 4, and 5. If you count your upper left back molar as #1 and count forward you can feel which teeth I'm talking about. The reason for this is because tooth #5 is very crooked and will need to be rotated a lot, much more than any other tooth. I kind of figured I'd need attachments for that tooth. I'm just happy that's the furthest forward the attachments had to be.

They gave me my first set of aligners and had me try them on to make sure they fit. Then they propped open my mouth again with one of those mouth stretcher devices and put a 'deep cleaning' solution on those 3 teeth. I think the buttons are made of the same material as they use for tooth colored filling. They put that material in the button spot in the aligners then put glue on my teeth then had me put on the aligners. They then used same instrument they use when you get fillings to 'harden' the buttons into place. The doctor also shaved off a little enamel from those teeth to help give room for the rotation. Shaving off enamel does not hurt at all, they didn't need to give any anesthetic or shots or anything. I just leaned back and he used the drill thing to quickly shave off the edge of a couple of my teeth. It was quick and painless.

The assistant then went over the Invisalign pamphlet with me talking about all the things I'm sure most of you have already read such as making sure you wear them 22-23 hours a day. Brush every time you eat and clean the retainers. Don't drink anything but water when the aligners are in because they will stain. Never leave the retainers out where a pet/small child could get a hold of them. Never wrap them up in a napkin or anything because you will throw them away. Basically any time you take them out put them in the case they provide. She went over a number of other topics and gave me my first 3 sets of aligners. I will have another appointment in 6 weeks where they will check in and give me the next few sets.

I asked them about whitening programs. She said any bleaching/whitening program can be used with Invisalign. She said over time the bleaching can hurt the material of the aligners but since you only have them in two weeks at a time it is not an issue. She said their office had a whitening program with 10% peroxide that cost $150. I told her I would look around and see what other programs cost. I'm sure I can find something cheaper than that. The doctor also pointed out that it would not whiten in the spot the three attachments are and that I would probably have to go back and bleach those teeth after Invisalign is over to blend them in.

That was pretty much it for the appointment. It took 30 minutes. I have had them in now for about an hour and here are some of my initial thoughts. First, looking in the mirror they aren't too noticeable. The gap between my teeth there is a little plastic between there that I can notice but I'm sure only people looking close up would see and they'd probably just think you have some saliva stuck between there. I cannot see the three attachments unless I smile really big and even then its not that noticeable. Overall I think they're pretty Invisable and as long as I don't act paranoid about them I'm sure most people wont notice. I have only told my wife about the Invisalign so I am very interested to see who notices over time (and I'll let you know).

Another thing I am noticing is my mouth is dry! This is probably because they feel a little weird so I tend to keep my mouth open more than I should. You can drink water with Invisalign so I have been drinking lots of water to keep my mouth wet. I'm sure as my mouth adjusts the dryness will go away, I just keep having my mouth open to keep my tongue away from the plastic I guess.

Another thing I notice is I am paranoid I don't have them in all the way. I keep pushing them in more with my hand. I think this is because I'm really not feeling a lot of pain/pressure on the teeth and I've read so many people that felt pain in the teeth at first. Personally, if I don't feel the pressure I don't think its pushing hard enough to move my teeth!

The back sides of the aligners aren't as form fitting to my teeth and kind of have a ridge at the end that my tongue keeps finding and playing with. Another thing I just have to get used to.

Overall I'm pleased. Everything is pretty much been as I've read. I feel a little bit of pressure on the teeth but nothing unbearable at all.

OH, one last thing. I asked my doctor for the initial pictures he took and sent to Invisalign and he said he would email them to me. So once I get those in I will post these on here so you guys can see the pics they took during the appointment I had when they fitted me for Invisalign. I'll also take some pictures with my aligners in and pictures of the rest of the stuff they gave me in my first visit. If you guys have any questions I didn't cover please comment!! Also, don't forget to digg ;)

The Ortho called, my Invisalign trays are in!

2009-03-15T23:10:00.001-04:00

I got a call from the Orthodontist on Thursday saying the Invisalign trays have arrived and they were ready to set up an appointment! I cannot believe how fast they arrived. I was fitted on February 18 and they got in on March 12. That's about 3 weeks, incredibly fast! So, that should answer some peoples question about how long it takes for the Invisalign trays to arrive. I set up the appointment for Monday, March 16 at 9am. The lady said the appointment will take about 40 minutes to go over the computerized demonstration of my case and show how my teeth will move as well tell me everything I need to know about how to use my Invisalign trays. I will post after my appointment about what was covered. I cannot wait to get started!

Also, if you are reading this and find it helpful please try out the 'digg' feature in the upper right of the posts. I really want to help others with their decision on Invisalign or helping those using Invisalign with information and advice from my experience. There are lot of great links in this blog and encourage you to check them all out and get as educated as possible about Invisalign and other teeth treatments!