OMG it’s almost over…
But no... I forget myself, no, even though I'm coming to the end of the treatment that my dentist set me up with, I'll have to wear the retainers every night. Yes, many people have pointed out my foolishness in not realising that, or not doing the research, and yes, perhaps they are right.
In the interests of blogging my progress though, I ought to take another picture to show how the front teeth have come along. It's a bit dark here now so I'll do it at the weekend. It's been over a year now that I've been wearing these things, every day, most hours, and the results are good. It's incredible to think that not a day has gone by in the last year and a half when I've been wearing these plastic trays. It's going to be odd not having them in (during the day).
Until the weekend then, when a photo will emerge...
Am I going to sue the dentist?
No I'm not going to sue the dentist. Eh? What? This is in response to this comment on my last post (Mis-sold Invisalign):
Oh, please. Give the world a break. You’re going to sue the dentist? I have Invisaligns and understand what’s involved. You didn’t research what YOU got yourself into. Let this be a lesson to you to. It’s your body. Understand what is being done to it. If you’d have spent a few minutes online researching the process you would have learned that your teeth can shift after treatment and you could have saved your money. Face this fact. You were born pre-disposed to have crooked teeth. You forced your teeth from crooked to straight with Invisalign and if your brain wants straight teeth and your body doesn’t, then you’ll have to make them stay put with something. (posted by someone calling themselves 'Unlike You'). I'm quite glad they are unlike me.
Clearly we'll have to beg to differ here. I'm a firm believer in what the internet has to offer, but when it comes to advice about anything be it medical, technical or whatever - you should always get professional advice. And that was what failed here. When a product is being sold to you all the key facts should be disclosed in order to protect the interests of any ignorant fool that hasn't done any other research! There is plenty of case-law around mis-described products and the rights a consumer has when sold a product in such a way. The dentist was wrong to leave out key information in their bid to secure $$$'s that comes with each Invisalign case. You're right that I could have done some more research and asked the questions, but the point is that one shouldn't have to.
I'm very happy with the results from the Invisalign treatment. I'm just unhappy to have discovered that I have to wear retainers after the treatment, something my dentist should have told me. Am I wrong?
Mis-sold Invisalign…
It's been a couple of months (doesn't time fly) and now looking back at those pictures in March I think there has been a fair amount of movement in my top teeth now. The chipped one has moved back and somehow the chip isn't as noticeable as the lower edge of the tooth is not too different from the other one. I'll have to post a pic I know.
Some news since last time - my wife who is having the same treatment has now finished both uppers and lowers, and went into the dentist to get her attachments removed. At which point the dentist revealed that my wife will have to wear her aligners top and bottom during the night, every night, for ever!!! How mad is that. We both went into this (and paid god knows how many thousands of pounds) thinking that after the course of treatment which was long enough at 1+ years, that would be it. Wearing those damned pieces of plastic every night for ever? No way! I'm sure if we wanted to we could sue the dentist for mis-selling us Invisalign because at no point when she was selling it to us was there any mention of having to wear these things for evverrrrrrr. I don't think I would have gone through with it had I known that this was for life. Actually, the dentist didn't even want to remove my wife's attachments (she had to insist) because she said it would help keep the teeth aligned. WE DIDN'T DO THIS TO KEEP STUBBY ATTACHMENTS AND PLASTIC THINGS IN OUR MOUTHS FOR EVER!!!
Me, when my course has finished and I've had my attachments removed I'm probably going to stop wearing the aligners full stop. Maybe my teeth will slowly start moving back to how they were before - but heck I'm not going to wear these aligners forever. I can keep going with it at the moment because I know (or thought) there was an end to it. And there will be. At least there will be something to post on this blog every so often - pictures of my teeth moving back again after my course has finished and I stop wearing them. What a nightmare... Dentist are you reading this?
Lower teeth finished now after 36 weeks
Well that's it for the lower teeth folks - we're at the end of the set of trays and my teeth have travelled a long way in the meantime. Still have another 10+ trays to go for my upper teeth, so I have to keep in my last set of trays for my lower teeth for now. It isn't too much hassle - after all it has been almost a year with these things now and they are just part of life now. Well here are the pictures you've been waiting for 
Lower teeth finished now after 18 trays!
Week 14 of Invisalign - lower teeth are coming into alignment...
Teeth, week 1, no Invisalign trays...
Does Invisalign speed up time?
Well it seems like it. As someone pointed out I haven't posted any updates since early October! Sorry bout that. Teeth-wise things have been going well. I'm now on trays 15 - which only leaves two more trays for my lowers! So you might be thinking that with only two trays to go, my lower teeth must be getting there - surely? I'll pull the camera out later and we'll have a look. My upper teeth still have a long way to go - 15/32, so I'm almost half way. I still have an overbite and there has only been very small movement in my upper teeth - I'm hoping that we'll be looking at a lot more movement over the second half of the treatment.
Have I learned anything new in the last couple of months? I suppose there are a couple of things that I might have said before that I'd like to reinforce now. Mouthwash. Throughout the treatment so far I've brushed three times a day after meals, very rarely snacked and only drank water with my trays in. After each brushing I use Listerine Total Care mouthwash. Sometimes after I run out of mouthwash it might be a few days before I get the chance to buy some more - and in those few days there is a far greater build-up of plaque etc that need cleaning from the trays. So if you want an easy life (in terms of cleaning your trays) use mouthwash after brushing (and before putting your trays back in).
The other thing that has happened is a result of me biting my lower lip accidentally early on during the treatment - it flared up like a split lip but then took ages to heal. It still hasn't properly - it's healed over but there is a lump there, and I've been referred to the hospital dentist to get it sorted out. It is just adjacent to a tooth that has an attachment on it and I think it must be a position that is easily caught if I'm not careful. It's more annoying than anything else.
Like I said I'll put up the latest progress pictures later on, and you'll see that my lower teeth are lining up nicely. It has made a huge difference to the way I eat - if I were to eat a bacon sandwich previously I would be half biting, half ripping the sandwich apart and probably pulling out a rasher of bacon at the same time because my teeth weren't able to bite through it properly. Now I can bite through things properly!! No more eating like a rabid wolf
Ok - pictures next...
Is Invisalign worth it?
I had a message today from Nicola who is thinking about starting Invisalign to sort out her overbite. She's doing some research which I cannot stress enough is really important - not just because it costs a lot of money, but because the chances are your dentist might just play down a few aspects of the treatment so they get the sale. Not that I'm cynical or anything.
Nicola said:
I am seriously considering going for invisalign, as I have a slight overbite, and some crowding and crookedness that my dentist said invisalign would be ok for. However, I am reluctant because I really am not sure I can take wearing the aligners for that length of time. Can you speak ok? Are they really uncomfortable, or only mildly so? Do you think it is worth the outlay?
Any honest feedback would be greatly appreciated
I might be cynical but I can be honest too.
The short answer...
Firstly, the short answer for me is yes, it is worth it for me.
The slightly more comprehensive answer...
I've been wearing these things for over 20 weeks now, and I'm about a third of the way through my treatment. By now I'm sure I've got used to wearing them as much as I'm ever going to, and I've probably experienced many of the issues that people face wearing them.
The worst aspect of Invisalign
The worst time is definately changeover day. Every two weeks you change the trays, and putting them in and taking them out (for me) causes mild/moderate discomfort for about 5-10 mins. Then after about 10 mins for the first day or two in a new set of trays it is mildly uncomfortable, but not so bad that it is on your mind the whole time. It is never so bad that I think about taking a pain killer; I don't even know if that would work. Some sets of trays are worse than others. The ones I've got in at the moment were a breeze - they hardly hurt at all. So far about half of them have been mildly painful in the first couple of days. Every set of trays I've been through, after day 2 or 3, there is no discomfort.
I wear you long time
Nicola mentioned wearing them for a long time. I'm guessing here she means the length of the treatment, which for some people can be over a year. The other way she might mean this is that you have to wear them for at least 21 hours a day. That's three hours off a day for all your meals, snacks etc (because you need to take them out to eat). Lets take the first instance - wearing them for a year. Once you are used to the routine of taking them out to eat and changing the trays every two weeks, it isn't a problem for me. Yes, it is annoying to have to remove them every time you want to eat but again, you get used to it. After seeing the movement in my teeth that was more than enough to spur me on. Moving on to wearing them for 21+ hours a day - well, you're asleep for almost half of it, and the rest of the time - once you are used to it - you don't notice it. So not a big issue for me either.
Wath waz that you jush shed?
Speaking is fine. The very first day I had them in it was odd, and I thought I was speaking funny. With a slight lisp. But after a couple of days it went away. So no worries there.
What the dentist might not have talked about yet...
Many people need to have gaps filed between their teeth if there is a lot of movement needed. This is obviously so that there is enough room for teeth to move around. I have had at least 14 gaps created between various teeth at several stages in the last 20 weeks. This procedure doesn't hurt and the only annoyance is that food gets stuck between the gaps - so you have to spend time getting the food out before you replace your trays. It doesn't hurt having these gaps created and it is actually motivational to notice the gaps getting smaller as your teeth move into the desired positions.
The other thing is the 'attachments' - the composite dental blobs that get fixed to some of your teeth - these are to help the aligners get sufficient pressure on specific teeth. Some people need lots of these attachments - I think I have 8 of them. I know that some people that have many of these attachments report it is more difficult to get the trays out - I guess that makes sense.
Taking out the trays is a knack that you pick up after a few weeks. To start with it might be a little scary when you cannot get your tray out - you might break a nail in the process
But after a few weeks you find a technique that works for you and it becomes second nature.
Finally the dentist will talk about the number of trays required to complete the treatment, but they might not talk about the 'refinements' that some people have after the end of the course. These can last months. So ask about those. I know that my lower teeth, that only require 17 trays, are going to need the final set of trays kept in until my top trays (32 of them) are finished. So even though my lower teeth finish in half the time, I still need to wear the lower trays for the whole time. I bet that my dentist will then say I need to keep my top trays in for a while after the top course is finished as well. I was annoyed that my dentist hadn't told me about refinements and wearing the trays beyond the treatment time.
That's about it, and I still think Invisalign is worth it
Off the top of my head that's about all I can think of that I would have wanted to know before I started my treatment. Hope it helps!!!
Tray 10 Invisalign
Well I'm into double digit trays now - that must mean I'm not a newbie anymore! Just for those people reading that don't know what Invisalign trays are - they are clear plastic teeth aligners that snap around your teeth and apply pressure to certain teeth and over time move them to the desired position. You change trays every two weeks, and with each new tray comes the unknown of whether it's going to hurt like hell or not!!! My particular treatment consists of 32 trays (64 weeks) for my upper teeth, and 17 trays (34 weeks) for my lower teeth.
Tray 10 did not disappoint. My last picture shows that the lower middle teeth are beginning to move into alignment, and tray 10 is really ramming it home. I swapped over from tray 9 to tray 10 in the evening after dinner, so that I went all through the night before I had to take them off again. This is in order to give the teeth some time to move before having to remove the trays. Breakfast time came and with it much pain - after hooking up one side of the lower tray and then the other side, the pressure on the middle lower teeth was excruciating. It's worst when the pressure is concentrated on just one or two teeth - that happens sometimes. A few days into tray 10 and my teeth have moved enough that it isn't painful anymore - but the first couple of days of a new tray (especially a tray-from-hell tray) is always uncomfortable.
As I write this I'm sure there are people considering Invisalign thinking twice now about whether to go ahead with their treatment. However, I'd like to point out two things.
1. I'm a bloke, and a bit of a wimp when it comes to tooth pain. I never get headaches and I rarely get ill, and my wife will tell you that when I do get ill or suffer any kind of pain that I don't cope that well.
2. You kind of get used to it, despite it hurting like a mother.
3. (I know I said two things, but hey) I can rationalise it and I know that in comparison to a child in Africa with no food and no parents, it's *nothing*
Hmm. Child in Africa with no food and no parents. And here's me straightening my teeth. Who feels silly now.
Teeth pictures after week 14 of Invisalign
So, 14 weeks, 6 sets of trays and here is the first picture that we can compare to the ones taken in week 1. I've tried to crop it the same to make it easy to compare. I think that most of the movement is in the lower middle teeth - there is one tooth that is stuck behind the others and the trays have been pulling it forwards and it's neighbours are moving sideways to make room.
Week 14 of Invisalign - lower teeth are coming into alignment...
Teeth, week 1, not wearing Invisalign trays...
I think it is possible to see that the middle lower tooth back in week 1 was set behind the other teeth, and now at week 14 we can see almost the whole tooth. It is still behind, but it has made some progress forwards into the gap. This is probably a good interval to show pictures, so I'll aim to do another one at around week 30, or whenever there is further noticable movement.
Thanks for reading and keep those comments coming!
No Invisalign trays left!
It's my fault I wasn't organised and didn't arrange a visit to the ortho to pick up my next trays. So when I got home from a week in Greece and tried to make an appointment for the next day I guess I wasn't surprised that they could only fit me in five days later. It's only five days, but it's an extra five days for my treatment. And now I'm sitting here wearing tray 6 when I should be on 7 and it's really frustrating. All the little two-weekly dots I put on my calendar to remind me when tray-change-day is have to all be crossed out as my tray-change-day is now going to be Mondays. So not only will I have to wake up for another fun week of work, I have to do it with new trays and the glorious and unique pain that Invisalign trays create.
It's all in a good cause though, isn't it... (but I'll make sure I get the trays on time in future)
Popped in tray 6
Well that went quickly. Tray 6 is in now and I'm beginning to wonder if my last couple of posts about how it was getting more hardcore is actually coming to be. Tray 6 in comparison to 4 and 5 has been a breeze, they go in fairly easily and I don't have any problem taking them out. Compared to 4 and 5, where for the first couple of days I had to really battle to get them out, 6 is a doddle. No broken nails, no scream-wrenching, no problem. Some people on Invisalign have reported that after a while (not sure how long a 'while' is) that the trays become easy to pop out and some people can even do it one handed. I just hope I haven't got my Invisalign packets mixed up and I've mistakenly got them in the wrong order...
Probably what is happening is that Tray 6 has decided to focus on moving other teeth, as the teeth moved during 4 and 5 settle in to their new homes.
I'm still getting on ok with the harp floss things, and I'm chugging through the Listerine, and noticing that it is taking quite a long time to brush, floss, mouthwash and brush the trays. Maybe I'm spending about 6 minutes for the whole routine which doesn't sound long, but for someone that is used to brushing for a minute or two and then racing out it seems like an age. But my teeth and gums are all the healthier for it, and it's routine now.
Ciao for now...