12

12

On Monday I had my attachments removed and I am finally finished for the most part! So the extra 14 trays I had on top of the original 20 are mostly finished with. They didn't move a massive amount more but I think I can tell a slight difference so I am glad I had the extra. I also had them filed slightly which has made a big difference to me.

I decided to go for the teeth whitening as I thought I may as well finish them off. This was discounted from £600 to £280 because I had the Invisalign treatment. I had moulds taken and then I will have an appointment to have the trays fitted for this. I use the trays for 2 weeks at home whilst undergoing a "white diet." This means no coffee......... I could actually cry. I then have another appointment at the dentist for an hour and a half whitening treatment and again need to have another 2 week white diet. A whole month of no coffee is actually going to destroy me! I apologise in advance to all my friends and family for how utterly miserable I am going to be!

Invisalign I am not fully done with however. I am going to be receiving my retainer trays, which are essentially just thicker trays like I have been using. I have to wear this every day and night for 6 months to basically fix and reinforce my teeth in to place. After this I then need to wear them every night forever. I wasn't aware about these trays until my Sister told me recently. I was kind of annoyed because I hadn't been told and I was really looking forward to not having to pull spitty trays out of mouth every time I want to eat but at least these new trays won't have the attachment bits on them so they will look even more "invisible." My appointment to get these retainers isn't until mid May which is ages away and I have to keep using my last Invisalign tray until then, so they are going to look pretty grim come May!


Below is my teeth now. It has been exactly a year and a few days since I received my first set of trays. I am so happy with the change and wish I had done it years ago!

 

11

11

I haven't written a post in ages because I have literally just been waiting. I wasn't able to get an appointment until mid November and all this was for was to show me the new ClinCheck. I was so surprised as I am really pleased with my teeth so far but the end results after these next trays just look amazing and I can't wait to finish. Invisalign have decided that I need 15 more trays on the top and 6 on the bottom to get them to this end finish. I was pretty shocked as I only had 20 to begin with and 20 changed a hell of a lot! But as I said before, for the amount I am paying I want them to be as perfect as can be. These extra trays are at no extra cost however and now it is a new try each week I will hopefully be totally finished by the end of March now.

I then couldn't get an appointment until last week to pick up my new trays. By this point I had had my old trays in for 3 months straight so you can imagine how discolored they were! It was gross and I really hated wearing them and got pretty lazy with them to be fair and would go a whole day sometimes at the weekend with not wearing them. Even in just that one day they did move slightly so it is really important that I get back on it now.

Last week I was given 5 sets which was great as I normally only get 3 and I also managed to get another appointment for exactly 5 weeks after that to get the next 5. At this appointment I also had some more attachments put on but not half as many as before. I have 4 attachments on the top set, 2 at the front, 1 at the side and 1 at the back and they aren't noticeable really. The bottom set I also  have 4 that are at the sides towards the back, so again not really noticeable.

The first set of trays of this new lot absolutely killed! I was in a lot of pain for about 36 hours as my teeth were moving again and I had spent 3 months with the old trays in. However I am now on the 2nd tray and no pain so hopefully it carries on this way. I am due to put my 3rd tray in on Christmas Day, however I may set it back a day as I don't want to risk not being able to enjoy all of the food!

10

10

I have now finished my intended lot of treatment! Woohoo. However I have requested more trays as I had predicted I would. I am really happy with the results but would like a few more trays to just push back one of my front teeth a little more as there is a slight step on it, so to me you can see the thickness of the whole tooth rather than it laying flat like the other one. You would probably only notice if you looked really closely. It is a significant improvement than when I started but for how much I am paying I am looking to get them as perfect as possible!

Last week he took the attachments off and oh my god it feels amazing. I have got used to all the lumps and bumps and to run my tongue along them and it be all smooth now is so good. He took some more impressions (which was so gross, I forgot how uncomfortable they were) and is sending them off, along with more pictures of my new smile, to Invisalign to see if they can do any more. I am hopeful they will be able to. It is likely I will need more attachment put back on but this doesn't bother me in the slightest really as I know how the feel and look now.

I am having to continue wearing tray 20 until the new set of trays arrive. This one has been in a month now and its not the nicest but I am pretty on top of cleaning them so it's not too bad.

The first picture below is what my teeth looked like before I started Invisalign. I have the thickened cap thing on my tooth, so although they look bad, they didn't really show how bad my teeth were.
The second picture is how they actually were once the cap was removed - horrendous. And the third picture is how they look now with all the attachments removed. So as you can see its a huge improvement.

1.2. 3.

Pictures 4 and 5 below are before and afters of my bottom set.

                           4.  5.

My family have all commented on how I seem to smile a lot more broadly now and I do feel a lot more confident about smiling face on in photos. 

9

9

I was able to get a cancellation so I received my final 3 trays before I went on holiday. Tomorrow I start my final trays 20/20! It has gone insanely fast when I think about it and the change is amazing. It's only really when I look back at pictures from the start and compare them do I really see how much they have changed. Below are some pictures for you to see from the first few trays to now. I am really sorry because they are horrendous pictures and I am so embarrassed about how bad they actually were.

I am not due to see my dentist now until October, again because of lack of appointments. I will need to continue wearing my last trays until then. He will then remove the attachments and look to see whether I am all finished or whether I will need refinements which basically means more trays. 3 weeks ago I would have said I wanted more but the last 2 have moved them so much that I will just have to wait and see what this final tray does. Once I am happy with them I will be having them whitened and filed down a little too.

8

8 

I haven't posted in ages and I am now on tray 14 so I am well over half way. I had another attachment put on to one of my teeth on the bottom set this week. This was planned from the start and I can't believe how quickly it's come round. It felt like I would be waiting ages.

Below is a little comparison of my bottom set. The top picture was taken with tray 1 and the bottom tray 13. I am so pleased with the difference so far and I still have 6 more trays to go! 

I haven't really had any problems. I occasionally get the tooth sensitivity I had a little while ago but nothing too major. I have had one of my wisdom teeth come through more and it has been cutting in to my cheek which hasn't been pleasant. I checked with my dentist about getting them removed as he had mentioned it before and said he would refer me but he seems to have changed his mind and said they will only take them out at the hospital if I keep getting problems. I was actually kind of looking forward to having them out because when they do cause me a problem it's really painful!

 The biggest challenge I have faced recently was trying to clean my trays on a hen do in Ibiza. I couldn't find a big enough cup and so attempted to soak them in the sink which was an absolute fail as it kept draining. So it was safe to say they were a little bit grim and ready for new trays to be put in when I got back! 

It's going to take a little longer than I had hoped until I am finished because of getting appointments for my next lot of trays has fallen around my dentists holidays and mine so I am not due to get my final 3 trays until mid September which is a right pain but stilll I guess it's better than December/January time like if originally was!

7

7

It's been a little while since I last wrote a post because I haven't really had anything else to say or update on as its all been going pretty smoothly. I went to the dentist on Tuesday as I had gone through all my trays he had given me and was due my next few. He gave me the best news ever!

Invisalign have changed the time scales now for wearing the aligners. So instead of wearing each one for 2 weeks, you now only have to wear them for 1! This means that I will be done by the beginning of September instead of like December/January! I am literally so excited as I am going to be bridesmaid for my friend and I really didn't want my teeth to look disgusting in the pictures. I know its not about me at all but still, no one wants to look back at awful pictures of themselves.

The dentist said they had done extensive research and patients teeth were moving in the first few days of a new set and a week was enough for the change as nothing more was really happening on the second week.

I am now on day 4 of my 6th set of 20 overall. I got a bit cocky and told the dentist I hadn't really had much pain at all and I was doing fine. Tray 6 though has been a little cowbag! Totally jinxed myself. Its starting to ease as the week goes on but its been pretty sore the last few days. That'll teach me! To be fair I had my trays out for too long yesterday and they were so tight when I put them back in so that was my own fault.

I have to go back in 4 weeks to get my next 4 trays. I am literally in and out of the chair so quick its unreal. I guess thats a good thing and everything is going ok and looking good. That or he just wants me out of there!

6

6

My problem is that I want things to have happened yesterday. I am so impatient and know that I am not going to see results overnight but it still doesn't stop me from taking millions of pictures of my teeth and comparing them to day 1.

Today I am 4 days in to my 3rd set of trays. I am really suprised on how little pain I have been in considering the stories I have read. I do still have quite a bit of sensitivity on my right side but nothing too unbearable. Maybe I'm not as big a wimp as I thought?! The first day or so the trays feel a bit tight but that to me is a good sign and means that my teeth are moving.

My last post I wrote was when I had my attachments put on and then most of them fell off by the next morning! Cue two more trips back to the Smile Boutique since then and my attachments haven't budged. It smelt like nail polisher remover being painted on my teeth when I had them redone so maybe he has used stronger stuff this time. Like I've said before, he's not much of a talker so I don't know what actually happened. He reassured me that attachments falling off are just one of them things and can happen and then got right on with putting new attachments on.

One thing I have learnt so far is that you really shouldn't drink anything but water when wearing the trays, especially alcohol. I know that's basic text book stuff but you think oh one time won't hurt..... On Saturday night we had a friends party and I didn't want to keep taking my trays out every 5 minutes to have a drink, never mind having to clean them every time after. But I really should have! They were totally gross the next day and no matter how much I cleaned them they still looked disgusting. Luckily my new ones were due to be put in on Tuesday - I did it Monday - as I just couldn't bear these ones much longer.

I some how managed to slightly crack tray 2 towards the end. I'm not entirely sure how but I feel like I clamp down on them at night time which I try to stop myself from doing but it is maybe due to how my bite is shifting.

I have plucked up the courage to show you a picture of some of my attachments. On the left shows how the attachments look on the side with the trays in and on the right without.

Although I much prefer the look of them without the trays in, I am so used to wearing them now that it feels weird not to have them in. Eating is also a bit of an issue with attachments. Anything you really have to bite in to, like a sandwich etc, just gets stuck in them! Its not pleasant and sort of takes the enjoyment out of food. I am a big foodie so this is a sad time.