Invisalign part 2 - My Treatment & Initial Thoughts

My treatment:

I first got my Invisaligns in February 2012 and was told that my treatment should last around 7months.
Invisalign sent 14sets each to be worn for two weeks. but over the course of my treatment, in between finding time to visit the dentist and having to have an elastic to speed up the movement of one tooth, my treatment will be closer to 8 or 9 months.

so if you are getting it done, don't just divide the amount of retainers by two to get how many months you will have to wear them for. Add maybe 1-2 months to this time.

you can see the projected results of the treatment below.

Initial thoughts:

After my first set of aligners were put in, they felt so tight! not painfully tight but defiantly noticeable throughout the whole day, but this tightness goes away after about 2-3days after each change of aligners and when you start to get use to your aligners you may only feel this tightness for a day.

The first few times i changed my aligners, my teeth were 'tender' i guess yo could call it, not quite painful but i found it very difficult to eat hard foods, like nuts or apples.

The major problem I had with the aligners was getting them out!
I would definitely advise against eating out (or just taking them out in public) till you get completely use to them. The first few times i had to take them out were both painful and extremely difficult to do. you may experiencing some unintended drooling while removing them (hence the don't do this in public at first advice)

As the aligners are very tight when you first change them over they can be very difficult to remove. There is no easy way to get around this, other then practice! So i find they can be easier to remove if you pull the two outer back corners off then the two sides and then the front.

As they start to loosen you will be able to get them out in 2 clicks, back and then sides (the front tends to come off at the same time.

Speech impairments:

So like all dental work you will experience some speech impairment with the treatment, after all you do have something extra sitting in your mouth stopping you from speaking normally. but don't worry no drooling is involved, luckily!
My dentist told me it usually takes 3 days anywhere up to 2 weeks for your speech to return to 100% normal.

Unfortunately for me it took around 2 weeks for me to adjust, i think mainly because i had never had any dental work done before.

So if you are planning on getting invisaligns, a few tips:

• Don't plan any dates!
• Avoid meetings at work (if at all possible)
• stock up on smoothies and soups for when you change aligners, avoid hard items like nuts! ouchies!

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