So now I’m on my third set of trays. Very much still an Invisalign newbie, but the routine has become fairly consistent now.
Breakfast time – I make my cereal and pop/wrench (depending if I’m at the beginning of a new set of trays 🙂 my trays out. Absolutely definately every time I remove my trays I rinse under cold running water. Leave them on the side while I eat my brekkie. 20 minutes later I grab my trays and go brush my teeth; I have two toothbrushes, a firm one that I do a regular brush with, and a soft one that I use to get the bits out of the gaps that the ortho filed away. Yuk! Then a rinse of mouthwash. Man I’ve used more mouthwash in the last couple of months than I have in my entire life! So far topping the table of ok mouthwash is Listerine Total Care – it blows your mouth wide open but it tastes ok. Bottom of the table is regular Listerine – blows your mouth open *and* tastes nasty. Last time I go for the buy-one-get-one-free trick. Colgate mouthwashes are really mild, to the extent I’m not sure they do anything 🙂 After sorting my teeth out, I use my toothbrush to clean my trays – no toothpaste just under running water. Have to look in the gaps and crevices on the trays to make sure I’ve got it all clean. The whole routine probably takes 5 mins. Then I pop them back in – they’ve probably been out for half an hour.
Usually I only take out the trays for breakfast, lunch and dinner. So each time I repeat that routine described above. I now have very healthy gums! I can understand why some people have said they get cavities whilst doing Invisalign – I’m sure if you didn’t pay much attention to cleaning your teeth and trays you would get into trouble fairly quickly.
The worst time during the day is when I am hungry. Then I tend to gnash down on my trays and you really notice they are there. Not sure why – guess it’s just the combination of hunger and having something stuck in your mouth… As it is such a bore doing the routine every time I take out my trays I make sure I eat a decent meal so I don’t get hungry in between mealtimes. Then I don’t have to keep taking them in and out, which would only contribute to them cracking early like they did last time. Luckily I don’t have a snacking habit – and I only drink water anyway, so it isn’t too much of a hardship for me.
Until next time…