First comes love, then comes marriage...

I hate to be presumptuous but please don't congratulate me yet, there is no bun in this oven as far as I know.

I have been thinking a lot lately about what it might be like to have to be expecting and undergoing invisalign treatment at the same time though. A year ago when I started this journey, I was hoping to be finished with my trays by now or at the very least by the time we go away in February. Given that I'm only on my 4/23U, 4/13L 1st refinement, it will be a while yet and any illusions I had of honeymooning on retainer time are long gone.

I haven't yet given up hope though that if and when we have children, I'll be brace free. At this point it's hard to say whether or not I'll need a second round of refinements but I think it's a definite possibility with so many refinement trays. And I suppose one could adapt to anything but based others' experience of morning sickness, munchie cravings and the like, I would think pregnancy could make invisalign compliance somewhat of a challenge to say the least.

Anyhow, if anyone out there has gone through the experience, I'd love to hear from you. As for me, I'm happy report that married life has been good for me thus far and I guess I'll just take one thing and tray at a time for now.

Refinement tray 4 pictures coming soon though I can tell you in advance that they're not particularly earth shattering but do stay tuned...

(I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas. Enjoy the rest of the holidays!)

Refinement clincheck!

It took some effort but the nice people at Dr. A's office uploaded my refinement clincheck finally.

Here it is:

Front view

Upper view

Lower view

At first I found the change in the front view a bit disappointing but then I took a closer look at the upper view and it looks like my next round of trays should address my remaining issues. My top arch looks like it will finally round out! Either way, I'm pretty unphased at this point. I'm too far in to give up and I've gotten so used to the trays, I don't mind them at all.

End of refinement tray 2 pictures and attachments

Sorry I haven't been updating as much, my last couple of trays have been pretty uneventful. They were both without attachments and aside from my front tooth being pretty sensitive, I barely noticed that I had them on. I was a bit annoyed because I wanted to talk to Dr. A about this (tooth sensitivity) when I came into his office on Wednesday but he just popped in briefly while the hygienist was working on my mouth and was nowhere to be found when I was finished.

It's been so long though, I forgot how attachments felt but lucky for me I've got 8 of them now! Fortunately, I had also cut the side of my lip flossing so it made the struggle of trying to get my new tray (3) out even more fun. It's been a couple of days now though so I've gotten used to having attachments in. I'm supposed to get more (on my front teeth) but not until tray 13 so it won't be for a while yet.

Pictures:

natural smile

my new attachments

Ah, so this is why there are 23 more trays...

I've decided that given that my teeth won't be changing as much from tray to tray anymore, I'll probably just post pictures of every second tray from here on in. After a couple of weeks in my first set of refinement trays, I've gotten back into the swing of things again and to be honest I barely notice them. What I did notice however as I was taking a few pictures last night prior to starting my new trays this morning is just how much my right front tooth needs to rotate to get in line with the others. It makes me a little sad after all that time and effort but at the same time I'm glad some of my major concerns are finally going to be addressed and I'm looking forward to some nicely rounded arches by the end of this round.

Some pictures:

Eek - no wonder I need so many more trays!

The left tray is my last tray from my first set, right is my first refinement tray. Notice the subtle differences between the two? New trays are also a much better fit.

With my new refinements trays in.

Refinements! (I must have been a bad girl)

It's been 2 days now. 2 days since the office manager at Dr. A's office called to let me know that my refinements were in. I suppose I could have just let it be a surprise but I couldn't suppress the urge to ask how many trays there would be.

There are 23U/13L.

In case you are not familiar with my story I had 20U/21L initially.

I thanked her and tried to put on a brave face as I told my husband and a close friend. 23 more but perhaps I won't need to wear them for the full 2 weeks? Or won't need attachments? Or...

Well I went in this morning for my appointment (which was also 15 minutes lately despite me leaving before 7 to get there on time but that's a whole other matter) and it looks like none of the above.

There are 23 trays. To be worn 2 weeks each. There will be attachments (not until tray 3). Lots of them. Including my front teeth. Apparently this was a bit of a surprise to Dr. A as well although he did mention that the movements will be smaller and more precise. He also thinks my bite will feel a lot better after this round. It's still a bit of an unpleasant surprise after my first round of trays though. Having said, I do appreciate that I don't have to wear my months old trays anymore and that the new ones fit so much more snugly.

My teeth will hopefully be nice and straight by the end of this round (although it's likely that after 23 trays I will need at least another round of refinements) but for now I think I'm just going to mope and pout to my husband for a bit longer. heh. le sigh.

Confessions to my dentist

If you've been following my blog you'll know that I have a history of dental issues that I finally started taking seriously a few months prior to my starting my invisalign treatment. Those dental issues led me to my current regular dentist, Dr. H, a little over a year ago. We have a pretty good relationship which probably due in part to her being quite informative without being paternalistic, about my age and easy for me to relate to. Prior to the summer 2008, I was a quite overdue in terms of seeing a dentist (to say the least!) but quite intent on having things looked at and hopefully having my teeth straightened before the wedding. After a few grueling sessions of deep scaling, xrays, surgical removal of my wisdom teeth (the last was done by her practice partner as my bottom ones were impacted), I finally made my way to a number of different orthos and dentists for consultations.

As it turned out, none of the orthos she had referred me to offered invisalign which I had my heart set on and while I might have considered metal/ceramic braces, the cost for taking them off for the day of the wedding just seemed a bit atrocious to me (upwards of $700 CDN). So in the end, I went with Dr. A, who is a dentist and premier invisalign provider and I haven't seen Dr. H since I began treatment. It wasn't intentional, it just sort of happened given that there were a couple of instances where it was suggested that I have my teeth cleaned at various points in my treatment and it was more convenient to arrange it with Dr. A's office and another instance where my insurance (after having my teeth cleaned about 4 times in the same year) ran out and I decided to pay out of pocket at the local university.

Needless to say, I've been a bit anxious and embarrassed about not keeping Dr. H in the loop and was a bit sheepish when I saw her this morning. She must have gone through her notes because she seemed to remember me quite clearly despite the long absence. I also explained about the invisalign treatment and where I was in treatment and she seemed to be pretty impressed with how my teeth had moved since she last saw me. Also commented on the fact that it was so much easier to clean my teeth now that they're so much straighter and that they seem to be in great shape. It doesn't look like I have any new cavities, however, there do seem a couple of spots I seem to have some trouble cleaning in the back of my teeth and gums have receded a bit. We also talked about retainers a bit and she did suggest that with my history of gum disease, it might be better for me to have removable retainers after I'm finished which makes sense. I might mention that to Dr. A if I get a chance to speak with him at my next appointment.

All in all, it was a pretty good appointment. After seeing Dr. H, I realize how I miss having dental professional who I can spend some time talking to and asking questions of. Dr. A while very efficient just doesn't spend the time. I don't know if this is the difference between going to a dentist for invisalign or just his style but if I had to do all of this over again and had all the time in the world, I'm not sure if I would have gone with an invisalign dentist but then again, I probably didn't do as much research as I should of in terms of understanding that the dental professional can play a very large role in determining the course of treatment.

Anyhow, these are just my musings on a Friday morning off. I'm not unhappy with my treatment, I'm just wondering if it might have been approached different had I decided to go with a different dental professional. Having said that, given that a little over year ago, I was dealing with all sorts of dental issues and today I got out of a dental cleaning and checkup in just over an hour with lots of positive comments from my dentist plus have reasonably straight teeth in my wedding pictures, I'm a pretty happy camper.

Refinement moulds and a split!

Sorry I've been meaning to write this post for a while and am finally getting around to it now. I blame it on the turkey that we had the weekend before I went in my moulds last Tuesday. It was our first time cooking and hosting Thanksgiving dinner and it turned out surprising good is I do say so myself! So as I dragged myself in after the long weekend early in the morning, I figured it would be a pretty straightforward appointment and that I'd be at work within the hour. I sure wish that had been then case!

First the not so great but expected guesstimate. It looks like I'll need another 10+ trays according to Dr. A and a preliminary scan of my teeth. This was a bit disappointing but I had sort of expected it given that my teeth were still pretty wonky looking to me (and also how not-so-straight my teeth were to begin with).

After that they took off my attachments which wasn't too bad since I've been through it once before (when I had them off for wedding) and polished my teeth (which triggered a mental note to myself to book a cleaning). Then Dr. A stepped out and one of his assistants took some molds of my bottom teeth and then she redid them and then she redid them again. I was pretty relieved when she took the third set and checked in with Dr. A to confirm that they were ok.

At this point I figured I'd be into work about 15 minutes late than expected. Little did I know that I would also have to have my top ones done at least 7 times by 4 different people. Yes, that is correct - seven, I was keeping track. Apparently the room was too warm or the moulding material a bit old (not sure what to make of that). I was so glad when the last assistant finally got it right on her first attempt. She literally applied some of the clear moulding material (not the purple goop) directly to my teeth. Not sure if this is proper invisalign technique but I'm just thankful I didn't spend my entire day getting moulds done.

While I did get most of my questions answered during the appointment I was hoping to have more of a conversation with Dr. A regarding the rest of my course of treatment but had to be satisfied with peppering the assistants with questions instead. It sounds like it will take up to another 2 weeks for them (not including past week since I had moulds done) to arrive so in the mean time, I've booked some time with my regular dentist who I haven't seen since I started treatment (I have had my teeth cleaned multiple times though) so I'll be interested in what she has to say. I'm also going to use the last little bit of whitening stuff I have to brighten my teeth a bit!

A couple of pictures:

My teeth after twenty trays and removal of attachments. Never noticed it that much before but I think my smile is a bit lopsided.

It doesn't show up very well here but there is a little crack between the last tooth with an attachment and the next tooth. Surprisingly this tray has lasted me since me in its current state for over 3 weeks now as it cracked part way through week 2 and I had one more lower than upper tray (plus one week since moulds). Good thing because it's my last one and it will be a little while longer before I receive my refinements! Funny how they always told me to move on to the next tray before this and really, you would think that I would have learned not to split my trays by now!

More pictures and thoughts pre refinement

So after 20U/21L, my teeth are a lot straighter but I think that there's probably a bit more tweaking that can be done with my teeth during the refinement process. I can't believe it - but despite going in just humbly wanting straighter teeth, I can't seem to embrace my teeth just as they are at the moment.

I'd really love some feedback on what sorts of things I might want to discuss with my doc when I see him next week. I'd like to come in as prepared as possible so that I can properly articulate the final changes I'd like to see.

Anyhow here's my list so far:

- can the top front right incisor be rotated a little further to the right and right lateral incisor brought out (or both)?

- can something be done with my top right lateral incisor that seems to be at an angle (not perpendicular to the gumline?

- will my top and lower finally meet again?

- will my attachments be coming off? when? what can be done about the staining?

- would it be possible to get both fixed and removable retainers for top and bottom? (he recommends, top removable and bottom fixed I think)

- can my teeth be shaved a bit? it seem like one incisor is longer than the other...

- is there anything that can be done about my uneven gumline?

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End of my first round of 20U/21L

So here I am, at the end of my first round of invisalign... waiting until my appointment next Tuesday to discuss refinements with Dr. A. My teeth really haven't moved very much with the last tray but I thought it'd be interesting to show you every fifth tray since I started, starting from my most recent photo (prob makes more sense if you scroll from the last picture first but I forgot about that when I uploaded the photos).

tray 20 - midline is almost straight and my top and bottom teeth are almost touching, it looks like my own front tooth is longer than the other though

tray 15 - my little crossbite tooth finally sees the light of day!

tray 10 - gappy!

tray 5 - in my gangly stage, it must get worse before it gets better!

pre-invisalign

So, as you can see, there's still a lot of room for improvement but my teeth have changed a lot since I first started. I'd still like to see right front tooth rotate some more and canine come in a bit. I'll update next week after I hear what Dr. A has to say!

If you've been sitting on the fence...

I've been debating this for a little, wondering if I should... and I'm feeling a bit daring tonight so I thought I'd post some then and now pictures. I know I've posted lots of pictures of my teeth in the last little while, but like another invisalign blogger noted - it makes such a big difference when you actually see full face photos.

You see, I've always been pretty self conscious about smiling with my teeth showing and so I've always smiled a bit awkwardly. But I've noticed since I decided to get braces that I don't just smile with my teeth showing more often, I smile with a lot more confidence.

I know I've been a bit whiny lately about my last few trays but trust me, I am so glad I did this and kick myself all the time (while checking out my teeth in the mirror) for not going through with it earlier.

Before:

Here's my typical closed mouth smile/smirk - this is what most of my pre-braces pictures look like.

Here's a side profile picture - one thing I really didn't like about my side profile before was how my bottom lip jutted out because my crooked front top tooth came so far out. it almost looks like I had an underbite when in reality, I had an overbite and overjet.

This photo is one the main reasons why I rarely smiled in photos. I just never liked looking at them afterward because they reminded me of how crooked my teeth were.

This photo was taken late at night and the resolution is pretty poor - but... you can still make out my little cross bite tooth even in this photo.

During (around tray 14 out of 20U/21L)

this was from the wedding - you can see a bit of the sharp edge of my cuspid here but nothing our photographer can't touch up later.

This was right after the wedding. Never mind the dorky expression and hair in my eyes - I don't think I've ever seen my teeth look so straight in a picture. it may just be because you can only the tops of my teeth. haha... the vanity of it all.

This was taken after one of my makeup trials for the wedding and closer to how I've been smiling lately. Even my husband commented recently on how I'm showing so much more teeth these days. On days like that and most other days, I thank the makers of Invisalign and Dr. A for what they've done for me... so far.

So yeah - if you've been thinking of getting braces for a while (like I did), please do yourself a favor and at least book an initial consult. :)

(Pictures removed Sept 2020)

End of tray 19 update with pics

This will be a pretty short update. Actually I can probably even write it up in the form of a haiku.

front right tooth, same old

top teeth - nothing changed, bottoms

as if same trays used

Picture here:

Don't get me wrong I'm not unhappy with my teeth. I just know I'm going to need refinements so I'm getting a bit impatient to get started. In the mean time I'll be finished my top trays in a little over a week and on my last bottom tray after that.

Tray 18 update with pics and dirrrty teeth

These last couple of trays have left me with really sore and sensitive teeth. I think tray 18 has rotated my right front tooth in the right direction but it doesn't look like it's quite where it should be. I just want these next few trays to hurry up and go go go because I'm anxious to move on to refinements which I am pretty sure I will need. I'd also like to do a thorough cleaning of my teeth. Years of overlapping teeth have revealed stains in my teeth that my hygienist couldn't reach with her professional equipment let alone me with my little electric tooth brush.

slightly less overlap in the front??

yuck - i find the attachments make it harder to clean my teeth. that combined with the overlapping sections of teeth finally seeing the light of day makes for a pretty gross set of chompers!

my bite seems a bit off to me still...

it looks like the back of snaggy has kept my front right incisor from rotating any further.

Tray 17 update with pics

So I had a pretty quick visit with Dr. A today but a few important things were discussed albeit pretty briefly.  It looks like I'll be going through all of my over correction trays (18-20U and 19-21L) and will likely need refinements (he thinks it would probably just be a few but was hesitant to commit).  I'll also be getting a permanent retainer on the bottom and a clear essix type retainer on top.  Finally, he explained that my over correction trays will only bring my teeth together more tightly rather than continue to rotate my teeth into the correct position.  My next visit if all goes well is in 2 months.

I really wish I had had written down all of my questions for him in advance but I was in such a rush to make my 7:30am appointment this morning I didn't have a chance to compose myself and ended up rushing through the appointment.  What I would have asked and may still ask via email was when my attachments were coming off (so I can book a cleaning), if my next appointment would involve molds, if the shooting pains in my front tooth were normal, if refinements would fix my bite (molars still aren't touching) if it doesn't feel normal again by the end of this set, my angled bottom tooth, the excess attachment material on my teeth etc...

Oh well.  I'm onto tray 18 now and my teeth are really sore.  I may just give in and take something for it.  I can see that front tooth moved a bit with the last tray though so I am sort of ok with it for now - no pain, no gain!

Pictures!

Almost there, my mutant extra long canine and uneven gumline kind of spoil the effect.

Snaggy's almost in line...

funny how this canine seems to be at such a weird angle

I think my front tooth is finally starting to slide into place!  The letter must have helped.  

A letter to my wayward tooth

Dear right front tooth,  

We've been through a lot together and I appreciate everything you do for me. If not for you, I wouldn't be able to chew my food properly, enunciate my words, and would look pretty funny in pictures. I know that lately I've been asking a lot of you with my invisalign treatment - all 17 trays to date of them. I also know that it's taking a lot out of you as I realized when I foudn you were the slightest bit loose at lunch time. I have to admit, sometimes I can be a bit negative with respect to how slowly you've been moving and I know that you're a bit sensitive about it; I can feel it whenever I drink something particularly cold.  

I do hope though that we can make this work - we've been through so much and I look forward to many more decades together with you helming my smile, saying hello to the world and looking great while you're at it.  

Yours truly,  

Me  

(ps... you've come so far already, please turn just a little bit more to the right)

tray 16 update with pics

It's funny I've always wondered if my friends (and others) in the dental profession were fixated on teeth in general and noticed how crooked my teeth were.  People have always been polite in general about them and the only comments I had ever gotten  prior to getting braces were from my family and for the most they were out of kindness (ie. my mom really encouraged me to straighten them to improve my dental health).  Having said that, since getting my braces, they've really come out of the woodwork and commented on my teeth and even perfect strangers (dental assistants, hygienists and dentists alike) have asked about them.  It's like the hone in on my teeth, what's going on with them and immediately recognize the invisalign where others might just notice that something is different.

So here I am, just finished tray 16, ready to move on to tray 17 on Monday and wondering how much movement can take place in one tray as it will be the last of my first round of regular trays (in addition to listening to Metric's new album - love love them).  After that I have 3 over correction trays before moving on to refinements if needed.  This is going quite quickly!

Natural smile, still some overlap between my right front incisor and next tooth

some bad lighting here, but notice how my midline isn't quite lined up and uneven gumline.

here's my top arch - you can see where the incisors aren't quite straight more clearly here.

bottom teeth are mostly straight but not quite.  sorry my fillings are kind of gross

looks a lot better than before but i am hoping to shaving that canine down a bit after i'm finished.

here's my other big issue, my teeth aren't quite lining up with each other anymore whereas they did before.  my molars don't touch either although they didn't to begin with.  will wait until i'm through with my over-correction trays and see how they look then.

Anyhow my next appointment with Dr. A is in 2 weeks and I will update again then!

Tray 15 update with pics

So tray 15 ended rather abruptly as they had split on day 11 of my wearing the tray.  I'm not too down about it though because I managed to move my next appointment up a bit.  I still don't know how I can be potentially done in two trays but I'll wait and see.  

Wedding day update with pics (limited time only!)

I could be wrong but I think I've finally recovered from my wedding day festivities as evident from my desire to do laundry, organize our house and getting around to writing up this post.

The wedding itself went surprisingly smoothly.  While there were a few glitches in the morning, it got better and better as the day went on.  And what a long day it was.  The girls and I started getting ready at about 6:30 am, the tea ceremony started just after 9:00am, followed by a buddhist ceremony at 11:00am, vegetarian lunch and then formal photos until cocktail hour at 5:30pm, reception at 6:30pm and a dance that went from about 10pm until sometime in the wee hours in the morning.  

I had my aligners out all day.  To make matters worse -  I forgot them at my mom's house and didn't get them back until the next day so in total I probably had them out for upwards of 36 hours or so.  I was so glad when I finally put them in that they still fit although my teeth were supersore after having them out for such a long time.  We took some friends from out of town to see the Canadian rockies for a few days after that so my teeth had a chance to readjust to tray 14 before I went in to get my attachments reattached.

Getting my attachments back was pretty non-eventful.  One thing I did notice is that is there considerable more bonding left around the attachments on my teeth this time but I didn't notice that until I left Dr. A's office.  I have to say, my teeth look a lot more crooked now that the attachments are back on and it took my teeth a few days to get used to having them on again.  

It probably wasn't a bad thing to have them reattached at this stage though as my aligners seem to be a better fit again and hopefully will line up nicely with these last few aligners.  Speaking of which, I found out from the assistant during my visit that I actually only 3 aligners left instead of 6!  Yes, you read that correctly.  My first round of aligners ends at tray 17U and not 20U as I originally thought.  Dr. A had a few over-correction trays ordered just in case my teeth haven't moved as planned by the end of tray 17 (mid-August!!).  

While my teeth still look a little ways from being done, I'll reserve my judgment until I've finished tray 17 at least.  Having said that, I'm glad I have a couple of options to address any remaining issues (over correction or refinement).  Tray 15 which I switched to last Wednesday, left me pretty sore for a few days;  whether it was because of having attachments again or there was a lot movement involved, I'm not sure.  It seems though that there might be some hope to be finished sooner rather than later yet.

I wish I was able to capture the whitening process somehow but I wasn't able to get the same lighting or positioning more than once.  I did notice that my teeth were noticeably whiter in my wedding pictures though and you'll have to let me know if they seem whiter to you.

Anyhow - a few pics from the wedding.  I'll just leave them on here for a few days.  After that, just send me (lemon_tree) a note on bracesreview.com or archwired.com if you've missed the cutoff!

Post wedding thoughts...

Total cost of my wedding $$$$$

Cost of my photographer $$$$

Cost of invisalign treatment $$$$

Cost of whitening gel: $$

Being to smile confidently in my pictures and all day long: priceless

So glad I decided to go through with it.

Will post pictures when I get a chance.

Tray 14, attachments off and whitening

Considering how sore I was after tray 14, it didn't really result in much movement.

For the most part, Dr. A seemed to be pleased with how things were progressing with my teeth.  The one sore point was that I was hoping to move on to tray 15 by the wedding but given that I wanted to do some whitening (take home kit to be used with my trays) before the wedding and was getting my attachments off in between, he suggested I keep tray 14 on.  I have to admit I was a bit disappointed.  

The removal of the attachments was less painful than I expected though a bit uncomfortable.  It took less than 15 minutes.  While removing my attachments my dentist noticed some plaque build up and suggested that I get my teeth cleaned prior to whitening to increase its effectiveness.  I was kind of hoping to wait until July 1st when my benefits would be renewed to have them cleaned but at this point what's the full cost of another cleaning?  Having said that, I'm kind of glad I did get them cleaned...

Notice the staining around my attachments?  yuck

more of the same

Some staining around my molars too!

So given all the staining that was going on and that Dr A's hygienist had a cancellation, they were able to fit me in and I agreed to it.  It was one of the most uncomfortable cleanings I've had in a while (ever 3 mos for the past year!).  I'm not sure if it was because my teeth were more sensitive after having my attachments taken off or her technique or some combination fo the two.  I have to say, given how much time I've been dedicating to keeping my teeth clean, I'm disappointed I'm still needing such frequent cleanings.  I'll have to talk my regular dentist about this when I see her next.

My schedule for the next couple of weeks looks something like this, 2x daily in tray teeth whitening for a .5 hour each time, 2x daily rinsing with a special mouth wash, same trays until wednesday after my wedding (July 4th).  On the flip side, it's been kind of nice to have a break from wearing the trays as much as possible all the time.  I figure since I've already them on for 2 weeks plus, taking the odd long lunch, or evening out (wedding tomorrow) shouldn't hurt too much.

My teeth after my attachments were taken off

My teeth after 4 days of whitening - i don't really see a difference yet.

my fiance's teeth were a bit jealous mine were getting so much attention so they tried to sneak into a side shot.  silly teeth but so so straight for being post braces 15+ years.  someone's been really good with their retainers.