End of tray four and seeing no movement

Well here's the latest for what it's worth. I don't really feel that I've seen much movement with these babies which is a bit demotivating and I'm itching to get my fifth set on. I saw a really cool blog which documented what happens when Invisalign doesn't work. Check out Dawna's blog on the Useful Links section to the right. For my part, I'm hoping for some major tombstone alignment come set five.

Tray four and dental confusion

Am now on tray four. I visited my dentist and was a little bemused by a couple of points. Firstly, he tried to give me my seventh trays until I pointed out that I was currently wearing my third trays and then he felt that where he shaved a gap between my two front teeth four weeks ago, the gap had closed at the top but not the bottom so he shaved a little more for good measure. Now, I hope this works and he doesn't have to keep shaving, otherwise this will be the most expensive way to have my two front teeth removed.



The picture shows the new gap. He also shaved between my cross-bite tooth and the one next to that so I expect it to start steaming through to the front anytime soon!



As for the bottom teeth, there hasn't really been too much change in the photos. I think this is because teeth at the back need to move first to create a bit of space for them so I will have to live with the crookedness in this set for a while yet. I have four attachments on my lower teeth and two of the molars need twisting by almost 90 degrees to reach their correct position. These are the teeth that my dentist feels will be the most challenging - not my crossbite. When I wake up in the mornings with a new set, these are the teeth that feel most tender so I guess it's working!

Final thought: There are a few other Invisalign blogs out there but what I find incredibly baffling is that the majority of them don't feature photographs! Why is this? Surely charting the visible difference is the most valuable thing you can do for fellow Invisaligners out there. However, I've found a couple of good'ens in my web searches which I've posted in the 'Useful links' list to the right of the page.

Tray three - Ringing the changes

I'm on tray three. I confess I put them in a couple of days before the full fortnight of tray two was up but I felt ready.


The best news about this is that I felt minimum pain when moving across to these trays and I've not had any soreness on the tongue this time. BF reckons that my teeth must be getting used to moving and I guess my tongue must be getting used to being sandpapered every fortnight.


I will say that more than a few people have spotted that I am wearing trays. I explain that I'm wearing braces and though I'm happy with Invisalign now, wearing them makes me realise that I probably would have been ok to wear traditional ceramic after all. Having said that the difference in price between ceramics and Invisalign wasn't so great that I feel regretful.


I didn't need to go back to the dentist for this set. The last time I went my dentist gave me two sets of trays so my next appointment's not for another two weeks.


Anyway, as there's not really too much to say on the change over, I will let the photo doing the talking. Though I've still got the visual representation of a graveyard after an earthquake in my mouth, I'm pleased that I'm starting to see some real movement. Firstly, the gap drilled between my two front teeth has almost completely closed up now and my left lateral incisor is slowly emerging from behind my left front tooth.


I still have 8 months and 15 trays to get through after these ones but being able to spot a visible (if small) difference has renewed my resolve. What's more, I'm so used to wearing the trays now I barely notice them anymore and the more they hurt, the more I know that they are aligning my teeth how I would like them. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that I can't wait for the fourth trays!

After tray two

Tray two, week two - Gagging for it

I never really explained why I wanted to write this blog. It was only ever for people thinking about going for Invisalign who wanted to see the results unfold, get an unbiased view and then decide whether it was for them.


So, tray two, week two. Having started fresh with a new tray I remembered some of the more problematic aspects of having a new tray. First and foremost for me was the sensation of having an unfamiliar and large plastic object in my mouth makes my gag reflex kick in. This lasted only a few hours on the first day of trays one and two. But never pleasant. The second was that the sharp edge of the trays rub against the sides of your tongue and make it sore. Your tongue gets over it in a matter of a few days but it makes eating anything vaguely acidic something of a challenge for those days. I've read that some people like to file the sides down with a nail file but it's not something that I want to do so I've chosen to suck it up, however uncomfortable.

This last week, I've been to see a friend in Rome. This posed way more problems for me than I thought it would. Firstly, my friend is living a bit of a studenty existance at the moment, so grabs food on the run, such as a slice of pizza rather than doing the sitdown thing. This and the inevitable Italian gelato meant that I found myself doing the unthinkable: eating with the trays in. It's really not very pleasant or satisfying, but when you find yourself sat on the Spanish steps with an ice cream, it was easier to just do it and find a place to brush my teeth and clean the aligners as soon after as possible. The only thing you're supposed to consume with the aligners in is clear water. I certainly don't drink coffee or red wine with them in as they could stain, but I have resorted to white wine drinking with the aligners in. I've also been told that trapping sugar or anything near your teeth with the aligners in increases the risk of tooth decay. I hold my hands up here. I'm not a good example to follow but I guess everybody has to find a way to fit the aligners around their own lifestyle. If it's any consolation the receptionist at the dentist where I got these fitted wears them and admits drinking coffee in them!


Anyway, I wanted to post an update picture here and show you what my teeth look like with the aligners in and you can see this above. This one's come out quite blurry but I sometimes feel they look better! In any case I hope you'll agree that the gap made by the dentist between my two front teeth is stating to close.

Halfway through tray two