Invisalign Trays 10!

20 Saturday Jun 2015

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Liz. Invisalign Trays 10/53. New trays popped in this morning after my now normal 24 hour ritual of pre soaking them in water and listerine to ensure there is nothing left on them from the factory that might irritate me. I can definately feel the pressure on the bottom front 4 teeth, as all of them are being pushed forward slowly to allow for IPR to take place, before they can be pushed back again all neat and tidy. I am a little concerned that whilst my “Nanny McPhee” front tooth is possibly a little neater (its not really THAT bad honestly) now the trays have moved my lower LH canine out to the extent that very soon I will have a new “Mutley” look if it actually causes me an overbite……….oh how lovely. I have certainly got used them now even when the first few days there are no ill fitting – but my friends keep reminding that – that IS the point!

mutley

Invisalign Trays 9!

15 Monday Jun 2015

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Liz. Invisalign Trays 9/52. I went to see my dentist last Saturday and was “allowed” to change to new trays a day early – wheyhey! He was a little concerned that my upper molars that have become so badly squashed inwards were wedged and that he might need to do some shaving off but then reviewed the Clincheck model and it seemed to show the trays pushing all the teeth together so decided not to. I look so hard to see any progress but quite honestly it is still really hard to see a difference and I am nearly at Trays 10/52, so I would love to see something! So patience needed. I admit to being a bit sloppy recently on the hours of wear a day, but try and make up for it on other days. Nearly 20% through however – so slowly slowly…..

Invisalign Trays 7!

10 Sunday May 2015

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Liz Invisalign Trays No 7. I am getting into the routine now. My changeover to new trays is done in the morning and not at night as most people seem to do, as I do not as yet suffer much discomfort.  I can still not notice any real change which is somewhat frustrating for all this effort. I have noticed one of my front bottom teeth projecting out more and my bottom canine being pushed out to the point the top tooth will soon be behind it which won’t be very good at all, but my dentist tells me that if I have my trays in then that should not matter as the teeth all have to shift at different times. So will I have to put up with potentially my teeth being moved into positions that could look worse before they begin to look better? I am now 3 months into my 2 years! It is a long haul, and I will be pleased to get to the 6 month mark as then I will expect to notice some change. Photos will be published as soon as I can see some movement to show!

Invisalign Trays No 6!

04 Monday May 2015

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Liz. Invisalign Trays No 6. Well I am actually half way through the 2 weeks of Trays no 6, and these have been the tightest yet, I have had a few short head aches but nothing lasting. After 7 days there still feel ill fitting and tight so I hope that these are starting to have some affect now. After a couple of sloppy days when I had them out for a few hours at lunchtime, I am trying to be more disciplined again….after all what is the point in spending a few thousand on these little bits of plastic if I am not going to wear them – stupid! I do now drink white wine with them in, so will have to see what the hygienist has to say when I see her in a couple of weeks. I still cannot see ANY visible change after 11 weeks of wearing these things, so can’t wait to get to Trays no 10 when I read that this is when it is likely that some progress should be seen. I envy those who have a quick fix but mine have a lot to do. I have compared Trays no 2 with Trays no 8 that I have been given already, and measure about a 1mm widening to the upper arch – a bit disappointing but must be patient.

Invisalign Trays No 5!

15 Wednesday Apr 2015

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Liz Invisalign…. OK well I have already lost count of the days now so that is positive….I think it is time to start measuring by tray progress. I am now on Trays No 5 – yeh!, and four days in. They definitely seem tighter than the previous 4 trays which is good, and I am more than happy to have a little tenderness when I take them out to eat. I am unable to see any change however which is somewhat disappointing but from what I have read it may not become apparent until Trays No 10….so patience. I confess that I have become more relaxed about having the odd slurp of tea with them still in, I do not drink coffee and my tea is like dish water so I do not think it will have much affect on staining the aligners. However what I MUST stop doing, is snacking and putting them back in without a proper brush. I do brush them 3 times a day, morning, noon and night but I tend to snack mid morning and mid afternoon. I have become a bit obsessed about researching others progress, as I do want to feel that I am progressing as I should. My invisalign have a lot of hard work to do, with rotating, pulling one lower molar up, and widening the arch, so I do wonder if it is all rather ambitious. I do enjoy freaking out colleagues with putting my “teeth” in a glass of water at my desk when eating lunch….but otherwise no one seems to notice them or they are too polite to say anything which I think is more likely as I do have a significant number of attachments. My dentist saw me last week and said that the aligners seem to be fitting well, but I am a little disappointed that after asking him to check all the attachments were in place, noticed the next day that one was actually missing. It is the second one I will have had to had re attached after only 8 weeks of wear. I assume I am swallowing them…gulp?!

Second time lucky?

08 Sunday Mar 2015

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Liz. Invisalign Attempt 2…Day 8. Finally after a course of antibiotics and no signs left of the cough it seemed time to try the new trays (Set 2) provided by Invisalign, treated in a “different way”. That is all the information I have. Day 3 I was getting a nasty bitter taste with the trays in but drank plenty of water and it seemed to pass, and I am  now rinsing the trays every 2 days in a mixture of water and Listerine to keep them fresh. I am not going to go anywhere near the Retainer Brite product again that contains persulphates. Drinking what seems enormous amounts of water throughout the day seems to prevent the trays feeling big and stratchy, and second time around I am having the odd sip of tea followed by a slosh of water as cannot go completely tea less….impossible.  I dread the thought of 2 years of these things but do take comfort in my friend’s fantastic results, and have to remind myself of the end goal. I look forward to “Tray Change Day”, I will have 50 more of these!

Replacement Aligners……nearly nearly

18 Wednesday Feb 2015

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Liz. Invisalign. Day – lost count right now…..Back to the dentists yesterday and pleased to say I have been given 3 sets of replacement trays treated in a different product, or in a “different way”…. I am not told more than that so don’t really understand exactly what Invisalign have done but I am keen to try. The lack of information from them is frustrating. My cough has nearly gone but I am left with acute pain on coughing or sneezing so back and forth to the doctors where yesterday I was given a course of antibiotics and sent off for a chest x ray. I won’t try the new trays until the course of antibiotics is finished and the x ray comes back all clear.  I just want to get on with the process now. I did ask my dentist if I cannot tolerate the new trays what my options are, and was surprised how he really pressed the invisalign as being the best treatment for me…..I had always understood that I was in some way compromising an optimal treatment plan because of my desire to want to have an invisable system, and the freedom to take them out of my mouth when I wanted. He stated that the ability of the Invisalign to expand the jaw (is that right?) was why Invisalign had an advantage over traditional railway tracks. He agreed I would probably struggle with lingual but needs might lead me to a hybrid solution. So for now I will wait another week then back to Tray Set No 2 treated in the new product (ugh going backwards) but NO Retainer Brite this time around either. In the meantime I am enjoying my cups of tea, diet coke and snacking galore whilst I can before the Invisalign diet is upon me once again.

A new way forward?

23 Friday Jan 2015

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Liz. Invisalign Day 31. Well trays still out so very disappointing and I still have a sore throat but hopefully the last of a cough. The good news in that my Dentist has come back to say that Invisalign will send 3 new sets of trays treated “in a different way” – there is no more information than that available so no ways of knowing what chemicals they are using in this treatment for future reference.  They release no information on their website either. Neither my dentist or I know if it was the trays or the use of retainer brite that triggered the sore throat or cough but I think it a strong possibility knowing my level of sensitivity to products. So I am now playing a waiting game for new aligners to arrive and throat to settle down.  Part of me wants to get on with the treatment but I also dread the thought of the trays in my mouth again after it feeling so unpleasant recently. So far no progress – argghhhhhh! Not even a score on the board yet.

No teeth or tennis today or a very healthy competition…..

18 Sunday Jan 2015

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Liz. Invisalign still out. Day 26.  Coughed through the night and left exhausted so no teeth or tennis for me today. I did however meet the tennis girls for lunch and review our teeth progress, at the moment we are quite obsessive on our subject. I am feeling quite demoralized when I see the excellent progress being made around me and I am getting nowhere.  I am wondering if this is allergy, sensitivity or infection or a combination of them all.  I am seriously wondering if I could stomach lingual braces, and what the duration of that would be compared to Invisalign. Hopefully tomorrow my dentist will have had a response back from America. My doctor said to go and see her if no improvement by tomorrow and so I may go and see what she thinks.

Invisalign – It does what it says it does on the tin – well almost.

17 Saturday Jan 2015

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Janice – Invisalign.

22 months in and I should have been finished in 16 months.

And if I wasn’t so damned particular and wanted all of my teeth straightened I would probably have been finished in the 16 months original quoted.

But having spent 3 years researching, having consultations, considering and generally procrastinating, I am that difficult patient that actually wants all of my teeth straightened and not just most of them.

I should say at this point that most of what has been promised has been delivered, painlessly and effortlessly.   All the problems I had read about with Invisalign; mostly pain and difficulty in removing the aligners haven’t been my experience at all.   The bulk buying of pain killers before I started wasn’t necessary,  not even a twinge of pain at any time, just the mildest of sensitivity on a few of the teeth a few times.  Nothing  to complain about at all.  The aligners  go in and come out easily, the special Invisalign ‘Outies’ I bought on-line to help you to remove them have not been used.

The results overall  are amazing.  Over bite, under bite, open bite all corrected and now I have the perfect bite.  All teeth (bar one) are lined up like soldiers and apart from the obvious aesthetic improvement my mouth feels a lot more comfortable than it did before.

The problem for me is just one tooth, centre front at the bottom,  which was set back from the rest due to overcrowding.  It is still not perfectly aligned despite three re-moulds and three  completely new sets of aligners over 22 months just because of this one problem.

There simply was not enough space for all my teeth on the bottom.  I addressed this point with the dentist right at the beginning and was assured that Invisalign could manage this with some filing down to create the much needed space.

Filing down was done but after 8 months the first batch of braces started failing to move the one tooth, the offending  tooth beat the aligner.

So more moulds were taken and 4 weeks down the line the first set of  what  Invisalign call ‘Refinements’ arrived.  I was confident that they would have addressed the problem with this new set.  After all you can’t expect them to get everything completely right first go, can you?

More filing down was done and off I went having mentally calculated the all important end date after another 18 aligners.

Another five   months down the line and there was the same problem.  There was no more space for the same tooth to move.

So back to the dentist  for more new moulds to be taken.  Negotiating  with the dentist on the simple need for more space to be created by more filing down resulted in blank stares and silence.

Which brings me to the next problem with  Invisalign.  Your dentist has no input into your treatment.  They just supply the aligners , put the attachments on when they are told to and do exactly the amount of fling down they are told to.  If Invisalign doesn’t say to do any more filing, your dentist will not be doing any, irrespective of obvious need.

Any attempt at discussing or reasoning is futile.  You are dealing with a computer in California which doesn’t respond to questions.  It is a one way street of communication.  Invisalign tells you what will be and you don’t question.  Unfortunately that is an approach that has never quite worked for me.

‘Refinement’ set number 2 inevitably failed for the same reason so here I am after 22 months with ‘Refinement’ set number 3 of aligners all because of one single tooth.  Another six months of 19 aligners which will make it 2 years and 4 months, a whole year more than I was original quoted.  And that is if they actually work this time.  Fourth time lucky?    Maybe, but  I’m not holding my breath.