My Invisalign Blog

My Invisalign Braces Experience

One Year In Invisalign Braces – Not There Yet!

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It occurred to me yesterday that it is almost exactly a year since I started wearing Invisalign and whilst I won’t be throwing the little plastic fellas a birthday party exactly, I thought it might be useful to reflect on how well the year has gone.

One year in Invisalign braces - image of fireworks.

One Year In Invisalign!

Firstly, have my teeth changed? Hell yes. When I look at that horrendous before picture in my right sidebar I’m not surprised that I never showed my teeth when I smiled. I’m actually just surprised that I left the house at all!
Not that I have perfect teeth now, in fact, I still have probably as long to go again, if not longer. But I’m happy with that because I can see that things are moving in the right direction.
So to reflect on the good things to have come out of this whole process:

  • My teeth look much, much better already. The thing that has made a particular difference in my opinion has been the widening of my upper arch. I knew that it needed to be done, I just didn’t know what a difference it would make.
  • The tooth whitening. This made an enormous visual change to my smile and I plan to do some more when I am finished and all of my attachments are off. It was also a great boost at the start of the treatment. I can highly recommend the nitewhite that I used with my trays.
  • My orthodontist is great, which is a huge relief. It was such a process to find a good orthodontist that I’m thrilled that it worked out so well.
  • Wearing my Invisalign isn’t painful in any way. Of course, there is some pressure and tenderness at the beginning of some trays but there is no rubbing and chafing, no sores, nothing. I expected this to be much worse than it is. I’m not sure what I expected exactly, but I think it involved ulcers, sores, waxes and many other horrors that I haven’t had to deal with.
  • My oral hygiene has dramatically improved. I feel guilty now if I only floss three times a day. I hope this carries on after treatment at least to some extent. It’s also gratifying to actually be able to get the floss between my teeth, it used to be an exercise in physical force just to get the stuff between my teeth and out again without it breaking. These days I don’t even think about it.
  • I just haven’t found wearing the things an ordeal. They aren’t that noticeable, they aren’t that inconvenient, they just aren’t very difficult. Such minor inconvenience for such a great result seems a pretty happy balance to me.

Of course, not every aspect of Invisalign wearing is rosy … off the top of my head these are the things that I don’t like about my braces:

  • I’m not as compliant in wearing my Invisalign I should be. I know that is my fault and not the fault of Invisalign but it still annoys me. Mainly it is just laziness and forgetfulness, less than admirable traits.  Still, it gives me something to add to my list of New Year’s Resolutions.
  • I forgot to get my attachments removed before my upper refinements and then I forgot to ask my orthodontist why we didn’t remove them. Of course, there may well be a sound orthodontic reason for it, but I don’t know it so it annoys me!
  • I keep losing the damn things. I’m sure if you’re a regular reader your pretty au fait with my inability to hold onto my Invisalign aligners, but honestly, in the next year I don’t want to go scrabbling through any more restaurant dustbins. Yes, it happened again last week. No, it wasn’t pretty.

On reflection, there isn’t really anything that I would change about my Invisalign decision. Of course, I am yet to see the end result and that might change my feelings, but at what I assume to be about the halfway point I am thrilled with how things are going.

On a final note I just wanted to say thank you to the 65,000 of you (yes really) that have read this blog over the last year. Your comments, helpful suggestions and support have been much appreciated.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Keep smiling…

Why Your Invisalign Dentist Provides A Free Case…

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Invisalign case

Invisalign Case

This is a story of something that really happened on my holiday in the UK and why you should always carry your Invisalign case (If you’ve lost your Invisalign case find a new one here!). (Incidentally, the slightly squeamish amongst you may wish to stop reading this post at this point; skip merrily to the next entry– trust me on this.)
When I picked up my aligners for the first time my orthodontist was very clear about one thing. That you should never, ever, whatever else you do, wrap your aligners in paper tissues or napkins when you take them out to eat. I looked at him earnestly, nodded my understanding and then promptly went on my way to set about doing exactly that.

Until recently it hadn’t been too much of a problem. There had been a couple of close calls, a few chases across restaurants as the waiter cleared my plate, snatching aligners from the jaws of waste disposal units, but nothing too serious. I have always known that I am useless at remembering to take my aligner cases with me, but it didn’t seem like a big enough problem that I should actually change my behaviour. Until now.

I took my children to a petting farm whilst on holiday. One of those places where little people get to hand feed lambs, watch a cow being milked, climb a few hay bales, torment terrified chickens- I’m sure you’ve seen the kind of places. After a couple of hours we were all starving so we trudged along to the “restaurant” – a marvel of formica, polystyrene and plastic chairs with just a whiff of manure still lingering in the air, all set in an old metal milking shed. It was a counter service place, so after washing our hands we loaded a tray with some sandwiches and drinks and sat down. My children were tired and tetchy by this point so there was much bribing and cajoling to get them to sit in their seats and eat their food. As ever I had forgotten my Invisalign case, so I happily whipped out my braces behind my hand and wrapped them in one of those white paper napkins that such places have. By the end of the meal my children were desperate to go and jump on the adventure playground that had been beckoning to them through the open door all mealtime, so I swiftly wiped their grubby faces, picked up the tray and placed it in a tray rack over by the exit.
It was about 10 minutes before the empty feeling in my mouth alerted me to the fact that my aligners were now- somewhere. I didn’t like to think too much where. So, leaving my children with my mother I sprinted (believe me, not something you will see very often) back to the restaurant to find my discarded tray. Of course it was gone. Long ago cleared by the very efficient lady who took the trays and deposited the waste from everyone’s meals into the huge black dustbins at the back of the restaurant.




At this point I knew that my braces were gone. There was no way I would would be either willing or able to find them amongst the half eaten scraps of so many meals. Except there was just one tiny problem. I was in the UK in the depths of country Dorset, 28 hours flight from my home in Australia and 3 hours drive from my only other set of aligners in the UK. Those only spares (my next set, not due to be worn for 5 more days) were sitting in my spare Invisalign case in my husband’s suitcase somewhere north of London where he had gone to work. For some crazy reason I had thought that him keeping the spares would be a safer idea. Consequently, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to get to the spare set for at least four days, and to any other set for four weeks. Not good. Not good at all.
I had a choice to make. Abandon the braces there and then and be braceless for the best part of a week, having completely eliminated the possibility of finding them. Or, forage through the bins, arm deep in other peoples half eaten meals, find the aligners and then figure out whether or not to actually wear them. So forage I did. The very nice lady who cleared the tables looked at me in a very bemused manner but kindly gave me a pair of rubber gloves and I in return told her the little white lie that my eight year old had removed her braces and left them on the tray, and that I needed to find them because they cost $5000. I know you shouldn’t blame your children for your mistakes, but I am putting this one down as karma for all the times that my daughter has embarrassed me.I’m not sure why but I just couldn’t bring myself to give the lady a truthful explanation of the whole sorry, humiliating tale.
There were two bins that they tipped scraps into. Each of them larger than a household bin, just above waist high, but wide; wide enough that it was a stretch to lean across them. They were three quarters full of food scraps, balled up napkins, half finished drinks- you name it, it was in there. Very carefully I set about lifting every paper napkin and delicately squishing it to feel whether my aligners were inside. It took about 10 stomach churning minutes of bending over the enormous bin, backside high in the air as I went on tiptoes to reach far enough into the bin to get to everything. 10 long minutes of rooting amongst the detrius, the sandwiches with a single bite taken, the yoghurt coated chips, the large wet splodges of cold baked beans that seemed to have attached themselves to every other piece of rubbish, before I finally found them; still nestled safely inside the napkin, wrapped tight and unsullied, a little wetter than when I left them- but there.
I couldn’t face putting them in though. Even after sterilising them thoroughly, brushing them, soaking them for twice the recommended time in denture cleaner. Even though I knew that they had stayed wrapped in the napkin and were probably just as clean as when I had lost them. I still couldn’t bring myself to actually put them into my mouth. I don’t know if it was the dustbin, or the half eaten food, or the proximity of so many animals that put me off, but I just couldn’t do it.
So I set about a series of frantic phone calls: to my husband, my mother in law and my brother. Somehow from the jaws of disaster, and after no more than 40 minutes of pure unadulterated begging, pleading and negotiating, my dear, dear, slightly bemused brother came up trumps. He was coming to Dorset anyway to see me the next day, and via a series of complicated 25 mile detours would meet up with my husband on the way and deliver my spare, fresh, sparkling new aligners to me. I would have to wait more than 12 hours to get them, but I figured it would be worth it just to avoid having to choose between 5 brace free days and the inevitable alignment problems that would cause and wearing “bin braces” and the potential revulsion/sickness that would cause.
I’d love to be able to say that since this whole sorry episode I have been ever diligent about putting my Invisalign case in my bag whenever I leave the house, but somehow, although less forgetful than before, I am still not perfect at remembering. So if any of you have any tips as to how to remember these things or can even reassure me that I am not alone in my stupidity I would love to hear from you via the comments section.


Sets 12 & 13 Of My Invisalign Braces

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I had reached a point with my Invisalign braces somewhere around set 10 where I felt so comfortable with the whole process that I was almost coasting through to the end of my first run of 17 aligners for my upper arch. I felt that I knew what was to be expected with each set, I had mastered the whole insertion/removal/cleaning palaver, and I wasn’t anticipating any surprises.

Then came set 12. Like some of my earlier aligners these were extremely difficult to insert the first time, particularly on the bottom arch. However, usually with each new set I have half an hour or so of minor discomfort, then a gentle pressure for the next 12-24 hours, and then they feel like an old comfortable pair of trainers. But not these babies. 5 days after first inserting them they were still tight despite 21+ hours of wear per day. It felt like being back in the early days of set 1. Not only were they tight, but I was able to feel exactly which teeth they were moving. My upper arches are definitely being expanded outwards and the my right front tooth is being pushed backwards into the correct alignment, as is the ugly old crown next to it. In fact, my crown has become slightly wobbly over the last couple of weeks.

This isn’t as alarming as it sounds as I don’t think the crown itself will fall off and leave me gappy and toothless(but watch this space!); rather, the root feels like it is moving around inside the gum due to the pressure. Looking at my clincheck I can see that this tooth has undergone some fairly significant shifting in the last 6 months so I’m not altogether surprised that it has some movement; it does feel slightly odd nonetheless. It reminds me of being six years old and the temptation to worry it with my tongue and try and increase the wobbliness is almost overwhelming!

Set 13 have also been difficult. In fact they are so hard to remove that they have developed a fairly major split where my bottom stray tooth is. When previous sets have done this (although to a much lesser extent) my orthodontist has been fairly relaxed and just advised that I keep wearing them as long as they are able to be worn, so that is my policy with this set. I can still feel them putting pressure on my teeth so hopefully they are doing what they are meant to. I’m sure I’ll find out when I try and insert the next set!

I’d be the first to admit to my hypochondria- in fact I almost certainly have several life threatening conditions as we speak- but I am coming to the conclusion that Invisalign may be giving me migraines. It’s not that I have headaches on a daily basis, but with the tighter sets I seem to get fairly serious headaches for the first couple of days. I have read elsewhere that other people take a couple of painkillers on the first day of each set of new aligners as a matter of course. Due to my crohn’s disease (and my hypochondria) I’m not fond of painkillers so I’ve never done that- perhaps that would have solved the problem. I’d be interested to know whether other people have found this though, or whether it is just the product of my overactive imagination.

One of the dire warnings that my orthodontist gave me at the beginning of this process was to always put my aligners straight into their case as soon as I take them out of my mouth so that they don’t get lost or accidently thrown away. Of course, if I could consistently remember to take my cases with me wherever I went this would be exactly what I would do. The problem is that I constantly forget them, so my aligners end up deposited in the most sanitary place I can find. Usually this will be inside a paper napkin, and there have been several times where I have had to chase waiters across a restaurant or cafe to root through the remnants of a meal looking for the discarded napkin that contains my braces. Classy. Last week though I surpassed myself. I had taken my daughter to soccer practice at 8am and in all the confusion of lost shoes and unbrushed hair had made it out of the door without any breakfast. Luckily soccer practice is near a bakery so I bought myself a cheese croissant, merrily tucked my aligners into the brown paper bag it came in and ate my food.

You can guess the rest. I offloaded my rubbish to my husband who immediately screwed the brown paper bag into a tight ball and shoved it into his back pocket. It wasn’t until about 20 minutes later that it suddenly dawned on me that my braces were now not only wrapped, but scrunched up. I’m not saying that that necessarily has anything to do with the huge crack in set 13….

One thing that is starting to worry me is that my teeth look SO much better with my aligners in. Not only do they look straighter, they look whiter too. My whole arch looks bigger and seems to fill my mouth more with my aligners in, so I wonder whether I’ll ever manage to be happy with my natural teeth at the end of this. Much as I haven’t minded my aligners through this process I was hoping to be rid of them at some point in the future…during the days at least. Hopefully as I have only 4 sets left on my uppers they will transform in the next 8 weeks and I’ll feel differently. I think taking the attachments off will help.

I’ll post more pictures in the next couple of days. My teeth are looking much better from straight on, but my bottom teeth are still a long way back so my overbite is still pretty huge. Only 21 more trays for that arch…..