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Why Your Invisalign Dentist Provides A Free Case…

October 29, 2009 by admin 14 Comments

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.


Filed Under: cleaning invisalign, invisalign cases, invisalign dentist, travelling with invisalign Tagged With: aligner cases, braces cases, cleaning invisalign, denture cleaner, invisalign braces, invisalign case, invisalign cleaning, invisalign cost, invisalign prices, invisible braces, lost invisalign, orthodontist, steradent invisalign, sterilising invisalign

Sets 12 & 13 Of My Invisalign Braces

June 23, 2009 by admin 5 Comments

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…..

Filed Under: Invisalign updates Tagged With: aligner cases, aligners, cleaning invisalign, crohn's disease, invisalign attachments, invisalign braces, invisalign cases, invisalign cleaning, invisalign headaches, invisalign migraines, invisalign painkillers, invisalign removal, invisalign split, invisalign tight, invisalign wobbly teeth, invisible braces

Set 5 of my Invisalign braces and an Invisalign sore throat

February 24, 2009 by admin 7 Comments

I almost decided not to switch to these Invisalign trays on the basis that I have a seriously sore throat. But. But. But. The ever nagging little voice in my head that thinks that my teeth will end up going back 5 stages if I don’t complete this thing properly keeps telling me that I need to follow all the instructions exactly to the letter, so switch I did. I figured that the panadol would probably help my throat too, right?

Invisalign Sore Throat

Invisalign Sore Throat

I can’t quite determine whether the Invisalign and the sore throat are related. I do have the sense that my throat gets a little more sore since I’ve had Invisalign but searching around the internet I see very little on Invisalign sore throats, so who knows?

However, I have read all over the invisalign braces forums that you should switch your aligners at night. The reasoning behind this is that by morning the pressure on your teeth will be reduced, and that they will be easier to remove.
For me, though, there are two reasons why this doesn’t work. Firstly, I actually like the pressure- somehow it makes it real that my teeth are moving and that this isn’t just some crazy torture device that I am inflicting on myself. Secondly, and yes, I know this is sad, I like having 2 days a fortnight where I can’t snack! As a confirmed snack addict Lord knows my body needs this regular reduction in calories, so I see it as a positive that getting my trays out is something of an ordeal for the first couple of days.
I had the usual excitement taking these aligners out of the packet. I’m not sure what it is that I am expecting when I unwrap them- that these will be the ones that will suddenly transform my teeth?- but I always get that tragic little flutter. I also got my set #1 braces out, and have taken some pictures to compare. Personally I’m not sure that there is any visible difference, maybe it is too soon, but if you can see any please let me know. I feel that there should be some simply because on 5/17 my top arch is almost a third of the way through treatment.
I have looked at my clincheck videos which definitely show some movement by this point, but on the aligners and on my teeth I just can’t spot it. Perhaps it is like watching your children grow. You don’t see it happening at the time, it is only later looking back at old pictures that you can see the difference.
Even if there is nothing to actually see I can definitely feel the movement happening. The majority of it is in my two front teeth and in the area where the stray tooth is growing over the bottom of my mouth. It is certainly pressure as opposed to pain though.
These are my comparison pictures. I have noticed that set #1 have started to discolour (and whiff!)  in storage so from now on I am sterilising all my old aligners before putting them away.

The left aligner is number one, the right is number 5. Please let me know if you can see anything different about them!
Oh, and if you have any tips on how to cure an Invisalign sore throat I’d love to hear them!

Filed Under: Invisalign blog, Invisalign blogs, invisalign pictures, Invisalign updates Tagged With: adult braces, aligners, braces pictures, cleaning in, cleaning invisalign, clincheck, invisalign, invisalign braces, invisalign cleaning, invisalign pictures, losing weight, sore throat, sterilising invisalign

Cleaning Invisalign Aligners

January 20, 2009 by admin 6 Comments

I am happy to endure a lot in pursuit of my Hollywood smile, but one thing that I’m not prepared to suffer is bad breath. I have begged my husband to tell me if he smells even the slightest whiff, but honestly, I think he is too kind to bring it up. My daughters, however, are another story and would gleefully revel in letting me know, so it’s them I am relying on as an early warning system. Nonetheless I’m absolutely pedantic about keeping my aligners clean and have scoured the internet for tips on cleaning Invisalign.

Cleaning Invisalign - toothbrushes

Cleaning Invisalign – Use A Soft Toothbrush

My orthodontist’s suggestions for cleaning Invisalign involved cleaning them with a soft toothbrush and water (but no toothpaste) and soaking them daily in a solution of 1/10 parts bleach and water. However, I am squeamish about chemicals, and more importantly I suffer from Crohn’s disease, so the last thing I would ever do is put something in my mouth that might trigger a flare up of my illness. Not only that, I think the bleachy smell alone is enough to put me off- I don’t want to give myself excuses not to wear them.

Consequently, I have developed my own little Invisalign cleaning system, and am happy to report that three weeks in, both sets of aligners have stayed crystal clear and odour free.

Firstly, and I think this is crucial, I don’t ever eat or drink anything except water whilst wearing my aligners. I am also absolutely fastidious about rinsing them under running water after I remove them from my mouth. Believe me, this is important -if you forget to do it by the time you come to reinsert them they are less than fragrant.

Cleaning Invisalign - a glass of water

Cleaning Invisalign – Never eat or drink anything other than water whilst wearing Invisalign

Secondly, before I put them back in I do the full brush, floss, rinse routine, almost without exception. The only times I haven’t been able to do this because I have forgotten my toothbrush I have at least flushed my mouth thoroughly with water before putting them back in, and then taken them out and brushed as soon as I get the chance. I do notice when I do this that they have a very slight smell- personally, I don’t think it is ideal, even though my ortho’s assistant says she does it all the time. As well as brushing and flossing my teeth I also give the aligners a quick going over with the toothbrush before I re-insert them. There’s nothing worse than not cleaning Invisalign before you put them in your mouth. I have read of people using pre-pasted disposable toothbrushes for when they are out and about. I haven’t tried them, but you can find them here. 

Cleaning Invisalign - polident

Cleaning Invisalign – Regularly use a cleaning product like steradent or polident to keep your aligners clean.

Lastly, when I clean and floss for the last time at night I soak them in a denture bath (a small plastic tub) with water and a Polident tablet. This gives them a slight pinky tinge, which rinses off under running water, but definitely makes them seem fresher. I should point out that Invisalign expressly recommend against this, although it was suggested to me by my orthodontist’s assistant as the way she cleans hers.. I wouldn’t want to lead anyone astray…

Filed Under: aligners, clean, clean invisalign, cleaning invisalign, Invisalign blog, Invisalign blog aligners, invisalign clean, prepasted brushes, toothbrush, toothpaste Tagged With: adult braces, aligners, bad breath, cleaning invisalign, hollywood smile., invisalign, invisalign braces, invisalign cleaning, steradent, sterilising invisalign

2nd set of Invisalign aligners

January 14, 2009 by admin 7 Comments

It’s not that I’m a masochist, don’t get me wrong, but I am almost disappointed by the lack of pressure or pain these second aligners have caused me.
I had psyched myself up, if not for pain exactly, then at least a level of discomfort comparable with my first set, but- nothing. Well, perhaps not nothing exactly, but the discomfort has really been minimal, more a too tight pair of trousers than early childbirth. I think the disappointment stems from a fear that if I can’t feel pain then my teeth aren’t moving any closer to their shiny, new, improved postitions, which I’m sure the orthodontist would tell me is simply not the truth.
So, something of an anti-climax. On Tuesday morning I excitedly snipped the seal on the Invisalign plastic bag that contained my new set of aligners, and placed them side by side with set 1, scrutinising them,  hoping to be able to spot some difference, however small. But, nothing. Nada. To my eyes they look identical in every respect. Every respect except one that is. The section that covers the wayward tooth that grows across the bottom of my mouth (see the pictures of the tooth here, or the clincheck here) is much larger than it was for the first set where it simply slotted over the top part of the tooth. In the second set, it encloses the whole tooth, and horror of horror, on removing it from the pack I could see that the aligner had a small crack up the side of that tooth.
This caused me a minor panic as there was no way I wanted to wait the 4-6 weeks for a new set. I called my orthodontist planning to beg for an immediate solution, but, thankfully no begging required.  He was no keener than I on any delays and decided that as the aligner isn’t moving that tooth and won’t interfere with my treatment, as long as it isn’t causing me discomfort, I can just wear it. Yay.


(set 1 are at the top and set 2 are at the bottom in each picture)
Another thing that I noticed about the new set was that they weren’t as clear as set #1, which is a little odd considering I have been wearing set #1 for 2 weeks. I have been absolutely scrupulous about hygiene, so they were looking pretty spotless, but the new set looking so cloudy, even before I had worn them, bothered me. As a precaution I gave them a quick scrub with a soft toothbrush and a rinse and they came up just as clear as the first set. I’m not sure what it was that was making them look cloudy, but I’m glad it went down the plughole rather than in my mouth. I will be cleaning them all in future before inserting them for the first time.
Once clean I put them in with almost no trouble. The stray bottom tooth makes it a little complicated in that I have to insert the lower set and then separately pop that section onto the side tooth. It seems to work ok though despite the split. I am removing them slightly more gingerly than the last set, just in case they are more fragile.
For the first couple of minutes there was some pressure, but nothing when compared to the first set. To what extent it was simply me getting used to the sensation of having a foreign plastic object in my mouth the first time around, however, is hard to say. They were a little difficult to remove for the first day, but again, nothing like at the beginning of the first set, which I’m sure is almost certainly down to improved technique. For the first 12 hours I had very slight root sensitivity on my front teeth, but certainly no pain.
So, all in all a successful beginning to set 2. Would it be tempting fate to hope that the rest of the sets go as smoothly?

Filed Under: 2nd set aligners, cleaning, Invisalign blog, Invisalign blog aligners, invisalign pictures, Invisalign updates, perfect teeth Tagged With: adult braces, aligners, clincheck, invisalign, invisalign braces, invisalign cleaning, invisalign pain, invisalign pictures, orthodontist

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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