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My Invisalign Braces Experience

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Fillings With Invisalign – My Broken Tooth

April 10, 2011 by admin 5 Comments

There’s a little rigmarole I have gone through with every dentist I have ever visited. After they have completed my numerous fillings (there always seems to be something that needs fixing up in my mouth…) they ask me the dreaded question about “how often I floss.”

In most of my life I pride myself on being a truthful and honest person. I would rather eat my own arm than steal, I never ever lie to my husband (except maybe a teeny, tiny one about the price of my shoes, but that doesn’t count, right?!) and I am generally truthful and honest in everything I do. But somehow, before Invisalign, I was terrified to admit the truth to my dentist, that I rarely, if ever, flossed.

Fillings with Invisalign - a dentist's syringe

Are fillings with Invisalign possible?

So I would cast my eyes down, feigning a quick mental calculation, and come up with a hesitant “once a week, maybe?” whilst he would consider my face with a dubious expression and tell me how I needed to floss every day without fail. I would look concerned and nod my agreement and then go home to continue on my merry path of rarely flossing.

That is, until Invisalign. The moment I started wearing Invisalign, my ticket to a new, improved me, I diligently followed my orthodontist’s instructions to floss, if not every time I ate, then at least two or three times a day. So much so, that my ten year old daughter, in all her tween wit, has dubbed me a “flossing freakazoid”

All of this flossing has had its benefits. Since getting Invisalign I have had the least fillings of any two year period of my life. Namely none. My teeth look whiter and healthier and when my (very happy) dentist puts his camera in my mouth and shows me my teeth up on the screen I can literally see the difference. In fact, last time I saw him he asked me to thank my orthodontist for getting me to do what he had never been able to.

So my failure to floss has been cured, and everyone is happy.

That is until the other night.

There I was, virtuously flossing, smug and safe in the knowledge of my superior oral hygiene, when I felt a small crack and a tug, and felt something on my tongue. Fishing the ‘something’ from my mouth with the tip of my finger I could see not only that it wasn’t a piece of food, but that it was actually, gulp, a piece of my tooth. Not a large piece, more of a small sliver of one of my back molars. Fatter than a fish bone and worryingly black on one side.

One of the best things about Invisalign is that it is uniquely moulded to the shape of your teeth. However, at times, like when you are foolish enough to break a tooth with over-vigorous flossing, that can be a disadvantage too. I was filled with terror that fixing my tooth would mean that my upper aligner would no longer fit. I didn’t know how long it would take to mould and fit a new one and had visions that before it could be done my teeth would happily rearrange themselves.

Could fillings with Invisalign make my teeth go from this:

Mar ’11

to this:

2008 – Before Invisalign

It was Friday night when this happened, and with my husband out of town and my children safe in bed I thought that there was nothing I could do until Monday. Except that by the next morning it hurt.

So it was with a little fear that I walked gingerly into an emergency dental clinic first thing Saturday morning, two children in tow, each of them a little more thrilled than the other at the idea of watching the dentist giving me a “huge” injection in my mouth. I was also, truth be told, more than a little afraid of the cost; crowns aren’t cheap, and I was dreading being given bad news.

So imagine my joy when the dentist told me that although the ‘something’ (which I handed him, carefully wrapped in tissue paper, and secreted inside an Invisalign case) was a piece of my tooth as I feared, he thought he could fix it with a filling and that he hoped he could do it in such a way that my Invisalign would still fit.

Twenty minutes later, face numb and with my mouth vaguely dribbling, it was time to try and refit my upper Invisalign. The dentist offered to do it for me and after 30 seconds of his rubber gloved fingers vainly scurrying around my mouth, pushing and pulling at my aligner he handed it to me in defeat. Vaguely panicked and without a mirror or any sensation in my numbed cheek I immediately and joyfully popped it into my mouth, slotting it into place at the first attempt. Bingo.

So, all is not lost if you need a filling with Invisalign, and to the joy of my dentist, the flossing can continue. Just a little more gently this time….

Filed Under: Invisalign broken tooth, Uncategorized Tagged With: Broken teeth, flossing, invisalign, invisalign braces, Invisalign filling, Invisalign orthodontist

What It’s Like To Wear Invisalign Braces- A day In The life

August 13, 2009 by admin 59 Comments

I thought it might be interesting to keep a diary for a single day of my braces; how often I remove them, number of times I floss, brush etc. Of course, having written it I can see that it really isn’t that interesting at all- yes, my life really is this boring!

However, it might be useful for people considering braces to see what it’s like to wear Invisalign – how often you have to remove them etc.  It has also been useful to me, in showing me that I am really not achieving the twenty two hours a day wear that I should. I would love to tell you that ordinarily I am much more compliant but the sad truth is I think this is probably fairly indicative of the amount of hours that I manage to wear these things. Must do better…..

What It's Like to Wear Invisalign - clock

What It’s Like To Wear Invisalign – A Day In the Life

  • 6am Alarm, get up and shower. Braces stay in.
  • 6.30 Go downstairs. Remove Invisalign and toss them on the kitchen bench on paper towel-yick! Have breakfast then spend 40 minutes chivvying children and brushing hair.
  • 7.30 Children leave for school and husband and I grab a quick coffee on our back deck.
  • 7.50 Brush teeth, floss and give braces quick clean before putting them back in. Yikes. 1 hr 20 minutes out. I think I would have convinced myself it was about 30 minutes if I hadn’t checked.
  • 8.10 Check emails and do some work on my computer.
  • 9.15 Get peckish and remember box of Cadbury’s Favourites in the pantry. Braces out and on the kitchen bench (new paper towel!)
  • 10.15 Box of chocolates almost finished and braces still out. Realise and panic. Dash upstairs to brush/floss and put braces back in. Another hour. Whoops. Total time out so far 2hrs 20 minutes
  • 10.40 Glass of water- Aligners can stay in.Yay!
  • 12.20 Lunchtime. Sandwich, crackers and a banana. Eat it on my deck in front of my laptop. Brush, but don’t floss.
  • 12.37 Aligners back in. Total time out so far 2 hrs 37 minutes
  • 4.00 Arrive home from kids after school activities. Remove aligners and throw them on the kitchen bench. Grab a snack.
  • 4.24 Realise aligners still out, swear loudly, do rudimentary brush and throw them back in. Total time out of mouth 3 hrs 1 minute. Gulp
  • 5.54 Husband arrives home and I serve dinner. Take aligners out- you guessed it, paper towel on the kitchen bench. Eat dinner fast as have to go out.
  • 6.27 Brush and put aligners back in. Total time out. 3 hrs 35 minutes
  • What It's Like to Wear Invisalign

    What It’s Like To Wear Invisalign – A Quick Stop For Champagne

  • 9.00 Out watching Midsummer Night’s Dream. Grab a glass of champagne in the interval. Hide in a corner of the room and remove my aligners. Put them in case in my handbag.
  • 9.15 Queue for the toilets too long so can’t brush or would miss second act. Put aligners back in. Total time out of mouth 3 hrs 50 minutes.
  • 10.45 At home. Take aligners out and put them in Steradent solution whilst I brush and floss.
  • 10.52 Aligners back in. Go to Bed. Total time out of mouth during whole day. 3 hours 57 minutes.

 

As a quick summary what I can see is that I brushed 6 times during the day but only flossed 3 times. Whoops. That my aligners were in my mouth for 20 hours and 10 minutes. Just. Also that I really, really need to wear my aligners more. But you knew that already.

Filed Under: day in life invisalign Tagged With: adult braces, aligners, brushing, flossing, invisalign braces, invisalign braces day in the life, invisalign compliance, invisible braces, orthodontist, removing invisalign, steradent, steradent invisalign, sterilising invisalign

Invisalign Braces Pictures – Set 7

March 30, 2009 by admin 9 Comments

I’m beginning to feel that my Invisalign braces and I are a bit like an old married couple. We muddle along through life quite happily with each other, they irritate me every now and then, but generally I  just ignore them and they don’t bother me too much. The only problem is that I probably neglect them a little these days, and don’t shower them with attention as I did in those first few heady weeks.
Invisalign Pictures - Cup of coffee

No more lingering over coffee …

At the beginning of this experience I used to read on the various Invisalign forums of people who didn’t brush their teeth after meals, sometimes left their braces out for a whole evening and generally didn’t follow their orthodontists advice. I would post my self righteous responses, recommending they wear them more, brush and floss more, generally be more diligent in their care of their teeth. Then one day last week I realised that I was now one of those people. How the mighty are fallen!
The analogy of the old relationship is true. I didn’t mean to, and I’m not even sure exactly when it started but I can feel myself sliding into bad habits. So this week, starting tomorrow (when else!) will be braces boot camp. No more lingering over long coffees. No more taking them out for breakfast and not putting them back in before I leave the house an hour later for the school run. I need to get this relationship back on track before it goes rotten. Before my teeth are filled with cavities and my aligners are filled with air where my teeth haven’t moved where they were supposed to.
Despite my lax attitude over the last week or so the impact on my teeth as far as I can tell has been minimal as you can hopefully see from the Invisalign pictures below. I did find the first time I went to insert the bottom aligner that it was almost impossible- in fact I took it out to check the numbering because it was so difficult. Once in however, they felt tight for a few minutes but then were completely comfortable. They weren’t even difficult to remove (although they were a little difficult to insert for the whole first 2 days) Now though, just about a week in, they are as comfortable as an old, much loved pair of trainers.
I have posted Invisalign pictures below so that you can see the progress from my first to seventh set of aligners. The visible changes are still very minor, although I can probably see them more easily in my mouth. The relationship between my top front teeth and my incisors next to them shows the most change. Also, although you can’t see it in the pictures a gap is starting to open up that my crazy bottom tooth can move into.
The other great event this week has been the much longed for arrival of my mother in law. All I can say is that she has done an admirable job of restraining herself- not a word has been said about my braces, and it must have been so very tempting for her! My father in law, however, took me aside 2 minutes after his arrival and asked me whether I had “new teeth” So much for the invisibility that we all pay so much for! He was probably the only person I know that would be forthright enough to actually ask, so I suppose they must really be fairly visible, at least to people that already know you and how your teeth look.
Still, even if people I know can tell the difference I still think the Invisalignare worth it. I would rather have less visible braces now and my teeth slightly less perfect later, than have metal braces now and have perfect teeth. Isn’t vanity a funny old thing?

Invisalign Braces Pictures Sets 1-7

Invisalign Braces set 1
Invisalign braces pictures

Invisalign Pictures – set 1

Invisalign Pictures - Set 7

Invisalign Pictures – Set 7

Invisalign Pictures - Set 1

Invisalign Pictures – Set 1

Invisalign Pictures - Set 7

Invisalign Pictures – Set 7


Apologies for the lack of focus.

Filed Under: Invisalign blog, invisalign pictures, Invisalign updates Tagged With: adult braces, aligners, braces pictures, brushing, flossing, invisalign, invisalign before and after, invisalign braces, invisalign cavities, invisalign pictures

Diet coke, flouride and Invisalign braces…

February 5, 2009 by admin 3 Comments

I’m not sure whether I have been living under a rock all my life, or whether I just don’t watch enough TV but it seems that I have missed out on something fairly important when it comes to this braces thing.
Since I had children I have got rid of almost all the vices in my life- smoking, staying out all night partying, you know the kind of stuff. So much so, that lately I have been considering the possibility of cultivating some new ones…  One habit that I haven’t managed to kick though, is a serious diet coke habit. Before you say it, yes I know it is the devil’s drink and probably carcinogenic and all that stuff, I understand and appreciate all of it, but the problem is…it tastes gooooood. So, Invisalign braces or not, I have kept to my several glasses a day routine, taking my aligners out, glugging down a quick hit, brushing (not always flossing because it is only a drink, right?) and then putting my aligners straight back in. Bad. Bad. Bad.

However, yesterday, thanks to the good people on a braces forum, it has come to my attention that I am probably seriously damaging my teeth. ( I mean more than I thought I was by drinking the brown stuff)  Apparently, there is a Tv advert at the moment that tells you that after fizzy drinks you shouldn’t brush for 30 minutes as you may actually remove enamel from your teeth. Instead, it is far better to swish with water, wait 30 minutes and then brush.

How did I miss this? I’m a busy mother with a pretty hectic life, and I’ve never been a daytime tv kind of gal, but I can’t believe that I have missed it completely. Apparently, asking around, it seems that it is common knowledge though, so maybe I’m just not as well informed as I thought about all matters dental.

Every child is proffered dire warnings by their parents and holds forever in their mind the urban myth of a tooth dissolving in a glass of coke overnight, so I can believe that drinking it could soften the enamel- it sounds plausible. So what happens if I don’t brush for half an hour? Should I put my aligners back in and effectively create the glass/tooth circumstances within my aligners? Should I keep the aligners out for half an hour after every drink? Should I just. Gulp. Give it up?
So, what to do? I think, on balance, my Crohns disease in mind, I’m just going to have to bite the bullet and go cold turkey, or at the VERY least limit my consumption to meal times. Having recently given up coffee the lack of caffeine is going to be a serious problem, but I’ll ease myself in with a gentle weaning program and let you know how I go…
If anybody has any alternative suggestions that might allow me to keep drinking the bad stuff please let me know…I don’t have much fun left!
On a brighter note, it was also suggested to me that I should use a flouride rinse whilst using Invisalign. I have bought one, and will use it for the next month until I see my orthodontist, when I will question him on the pros and cons. He certainly didn’t suggest it, but it seems other people’s ortho’s have, so I’m willing to give it a go.

Filed Under: Invisalign blog, Invisalign blogs, Invisalign updates Tagged With: adult braces, aligners, brushing, coffee, diet coke, flossing, flouride mouthwash, invisalign, invisalign braces, invisalign dentist, orthodontist, removing enamel, tv

2 days in Invisalign braces..and counting…

January 1, 2009 by admin 3 Comments

I didn’t get the chance to post yesterday, and in hindsight that is probably a good thing as I was ready to throw my Invisalign trays in the bin at one point. However after almost 48 hours they are definitely getting easier. The biggest challenge from my point of view has been getting them in and out. Frankly, it’s a bitch.

Invisalign braces

Ready To Throw My Invisalign In The Bin

I have read other blogs of people “popping” them in and out, but that seems pretty far off at the moment. However, I must confess I have found them slightly more manageable this morning, which is probably partly improved technique and partly the fact that they are definitely loosening slightly as my teeth move.
Yesterday was New Year’s Eve, and we spent the day at Wet ‘n’ Wild theme park on the Gold Coast, probably not advisable for one of your your first days in braces. One of the things that they told me at my fitting appointment was that you need to remove them for swimming. Depending where you live in the world, this may or may not be a huge inconvenience. As I live in Queensland, Australia, where the temperature was 29 degrees celcius at 10pm last night this is something of a pain as we spend half the summer in our pool trying to cool down.

Invisalign braces

Even our cat Pearl needs to cool down!

I was nonetheless able to wear them for most of the day- I took them out for 15 minutes for breakfast, managed to keep them in on all the water slides at wet ‘n’ wild, simply by choosing the more sedate ones that don’t throw you underwater at the end. Lunchtime was something of a challenge and I ended up trying to surreptitiously get them out in the corner of one of the outdoor eating areas as the queue for the toilets was about 100 deep. I managed it after a few frustrating minutes, although to say it was a struggle would be something of an understatement.

In the evening we went to watch the 8.30pm firework display at South Bank Parklands in Brisbane. There was a huge party in the beach area, with everyone in the water dancing and swimming. Ordinarily it would have looked fun, but I wasn’t up for trying to take my braces out in the dark on a public beach, so we watched the fireworks and went home about 9. By that time they had been in all day, and I actually managed to get them out relatively easily, so we could jump in the pool and begin drinking Champagne. I kept them out for a couple of hours so I could be social and drink through the evening, but about 11pm I got in a panic that my teeth would have shifted back, so I went through the whole brushing, flossing rigmarole and got them back in to toast the New year in with a glass of water….the things I do for vanity! At least I am hangover free today though..

It did occur to me that as I have rather overindulged over the Christmas period and managed to gain 7 pounds in about 4 weeks, it might actually be a good thing if I continue to find taking the trays in and out an ordeal. I have already lost 1 pound in the first 48 hours, so if this continues it would be a very welcome side effect. If they could somehow also help me build muscle tone too…

The Invisalign lisp…

I just wanted to write something about how they are affecting my speech- or rather- how they are not affecting my speech. For the first 2 minutes of wearing Invisalign I felt very slightly lispy, and each time I put them back in after eating it takes me a minute to readjust, but other than that, I have not noticed myself lisping at all. I have quizzed my husband on this and he says he can hear no difference whatsoever in my speech, so that is reassuring. All this from the man who declared on the way to my fitting appointment
“Just what every man has always dreamed of.. a wife with braces”
He was joking, but I haven’t quite let him forget it yet!

However, I do think this does depend – a male neighbour of mine got Invisalign but never wore them as he said they made him lisp too much- so who knows? Maybe I’m just lucky that the Invisalign lisp has passed me by…

Filed Under: braces, braces review, cost invisalign braces., Invisalign blog, Invisalign blogs, Invisalign updates, new Invisalign Tagged With: adult braces, aligners, braces, brushing, drinking, eating, flossing, invisalign, invisalign braces, invisalign removal, lisp, removing aligner, removing invisalign, water

About Me

Ex model, mother, English & Australian. 2 daughters, 1 dog, 2 cats, 2 rabbits, a horribly expensive beauty habit and an obsession with straight teeth.

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