Well, I’m a week in and feeling pretty fantastic, all things considered. I can get my trays in and out swiftly and easily now, and they feel fairly comfortable, snug rather than tight, and the feeling of pressure has gone completely. In fact I have actually started to forget they are in and can finally concentrate on other things again, which wasn’t always the case in the first couple of days.
The thing that I am finding hardest is having the self discipline to keep them in for as many hours as you need to to get a good result. I am aiming for 22 hours a day, but frankly my social life keeps getting in the way! If you go out to dinner for 2-3 hours you’ve already blown it, unless you have no lunch or breakfast, and believe me that is never going to happen!
Yesterday we went to the beach, which was great fun but difficult with my Invisalign. I didn’t fancy getting sea water into them after the warnings the orthodondist has given me about germs in a swimming pool, so I only went waist deep into the sea, and couldn’t properly swim. Picnicing on the beach, which is always something of a trial with all the sandy fingers involved, is doubly difficult with Invisalign. I hid in our beach tent and got them out of my mouth and into my case without too many problems, but somehow whilst reinserting them I also managed to collect a few grains of sand between the trays and my teeth. I spent the rest of the afternoon crunching my teeth together and couldn’t decide whether it was horribly unpleasant or actually quite fun. It brought a whole new dimension to the term sandy crevices!
I managed to get myself in the social pages of our local paper this week. One of those things where the photographer hangs out at a party and takes shots of the guests to publish. The party was the opening of a flagship store of an upmarket lingerie company that a friend of mine has invested some money in. I happily posed and only about an hour later realised, in a fit of panic, that I had been standing in front of a wall of lingerie that might look somewhat questionable in a paper being read over the breakfast table. Actually though, when the picture came out the background was cropped and looked fine. My teeth, however, looked spectacular (well, compared to real life!). The photographer had insisted that we had to smile, so I am doing what I had thought was my specially perfected, teeth minimising, smile, but you can still see them. All I can say is thank the lord for photoshop (and a kind photographer!) Maybe this time next year they will actually look like this!
I’m the one on the left!
My orthodontist is 
>Hi there! I really enjoy reading your blog!! I’m in London and also am undergoing invisalign treatment! It’s fantastic, isn’t it? I’m on my 5th day so not far behind you. Lets share our experiences esp we’re in a similar stage!!
>Yeah, when I get my invisalign I think I’m going to aim for 22 hours. At least 20 if not 22. It’s great that you are getting more comfortable with the invisalign. You are very pretty by the way!
>I'm curious about how invisalign corrects an overbite. I have one, and one orthodontist said after invisalign, it would be a lot worse. Are you using anything in addition to invisalign?
>Hi Martin,
I don't know the technicalities of it, but my ortho seems quite convinced that we can acheive what we want. I do know that my bottom arch needed to come forward more than the top go back.
We are only using Invisalign, apart from for one small bit where we need to line up the tooth that grows along the bottom of my mouth.
Many orthodontists told me that mine couldn't be done. One even offered jaw surgery instead- which I wasn't prepared to have.
Thanks for your really helpful blog, I really wanted to get invisalign but was slightly worried that they wouldn’t be able to help me but my teeth are very similar to your in that i have some crowding problems and an overbite due to the fact that my bottom arch didn’t develop as much as the top. I was also told the only way to get a ‘perfect smile’ would be with jaw surgery. But honestly I just want teeth that appear straight and normal, so I can feel more confident. Your blog gives me hope that I might be able to achieve this with invisalign
P.S. sorry for the long comment, I just wanted to show my appreciation