Penultimate trays - 17

Almost done now. My next blog will hopefully be my last with Invisalign but I need to head back to the dentist to talk about retainers. The cost is £350 and bearing in mind the movement of my teeth when I lost my trays, I think they are completely necessary.

I haven't seen that much movement between these trays and number 16 and had to look hard to ring the changes in the pictures but my former crossbite tooth has emerged quite a bit when you look closely so hopefully it will be impossible to tell which was which after I'm done with my next set.

Picture for you!

Trays 16!

Here I am at trays 16 and I can hardly believe that I've got just two sets to go. This week I saw a few people that I hadn't seen for a couple of months and they were astounded by the difference which was really encouraging.

I'm really pleased with how the top set are coming along but I don't think that the bottom front row will ever match up in a straight line across the top because I had one of them taken out when I was a child meaning a piece of the jigsaw is missing. In fact I had about three 'adult' teeth taken out due to overcrowding which I understand now is never the solution. It means that I can never achieve that wide American smile and really I should have had braces as a kid. Still, you live and learn.

Whatever, I'm so much happier with my smile now and can't wait to see the alignment after trays 18.

Three trays to go - Trays 15 and the home stretch

Well so much for the critical stage. I cleverly managed to lose the bottom sets of first trays 13 and then trays 14. The earliest appointment I could get with the dentist was a week later during which time I noticed that my teeth moved back considerably. To anyone who's been through the early stages of Invisalign, the discomfort involved in putting bottom trays 15 in was like the pain of trays one and two.

The dentist did tell me though that I was the fourth person after the Christmas break to confess to having lost a tray so it must be something to do with eating at parties and drinking which was how I lost one of the sets.

Between all these mishaps I didn't blog at all, though maybe I should have taken a picture of how the bottom teeth moved back.

I've now just got three more sets of trays to wear after which I'm going to look into getting a home teeth whitening set which I can use with the trays. And after the movement I saw during the week of lost trays I will definitely need to get a retainer. I've already got trays 16, 17 and 18 at home so I can see what the end results will be and it looks pretty good to me. The main areas of concern will be getting the left lateral incisor in line with the teeth on either side and straightening out that bottom front row.

Now for the picture!

End of trays 12 - Long time no see

Hi there,

Sorry it's been a long time since my last post. I've had way too much going on but as there is no evidence that anybody actually reads this I'm not going to beat myself up too much.

I'm almost at the end of my 12th sets and I think it's been about six weeks since my last progress picture so it might be nice to see the changes since then.

As I mentioned in my last blog, this is quite a crucial stage in terms of the overbite aligning properly and I've really noticed with sets 11 and 12 that if feels as though the front top teeth move back considerably each time I take them out for a meal. (Out of my mouth, not out on the town).

As this is 12 of 18 sets, this means that two thirds of the treatment is now complete and I really CANNOT wait until I don't have to wear these things 24/7, visit the dentist every six weeks or so, take endless visits to the ladies room each time I eat out so as not to scare the other guests by removing my dentures and so on.

Here's where I'm at now!

Trays ten and future gazing

I went for my final tooth shaving on Wednesday. I asked my dentist for four sets this time as I didn't want to have to head back over Christmas but he said I should take five instead! I also saw my Clincheck imaging and it all seemed to match up with what was going on in my mouth up until now. Apparently the next few sets are crucial in terms of how the teeth are aligning so if anything starts not to fit or work in the next few weeks, I should head back to the dentist for an appointment straight away. The most exciting part about taking the five sets away was being able to see the alignment of my teeth two and a half months from now. See the picture below for a comparison of my 1st (right) and 14th (left) top trays and just how far my crossbite tooth has moved.

Half way there - trays 9!

I'm now at the end of my ninth trays and the results are below. I flip between being delighted with the progress and being frustrated by the length of time it's taking. I'm now pretty over the wearing and endless brushing of the trays.

I'm pleased this set didn't break like the last two sets. I was getting a bit worried it was down to lack of movement on the part of my teeth and the dreadful tongue sores I got with my eighth trays didn't appear at all during this set.

I'm due to visit the dentist on Wednesday for my last ever shaving so I can expect to be gappy again in the next few weeks but it's incredible how quickly these close up. I'll also ask my dentist to show me my clincheck and what that thinks my teeth should look like at this stage of the treatment. I will try and get that for you but now sure I'll be able to. Anyway here is the latest picture of my teeth.

Here's the difference between my teeth after set one (below) and set nine (above) for the purposes of comparison.

Until next time!

Trays eight and tongueburn

So here I am, one tray off half way through the treatment. This eighth set have been quite problematic. As I said, I put them in early as and then they split almost immediately, as well as that, these one gave me terrible mouth sores and scraped my tongue so much I had problems speaking! Because I was in Munich for a few days and eating acidic saurkraut and drinking beer it was making the stinging worse and not talking wasn't an option if I didn't want to appear completely unsociable so I ended up not wearing the sets that much. I've tried to make up for it since coming back and won't put number nines in until 17 days after putting these in. My crossbite tooth is about half a millimeter over the front of the bottom teeth so it's not technically a cross bite anymore! Still, I want it to line up with the other teeth before I start celebrating.