An open letter to my trays...

My dearest invisalign trays,

I know I can be a bit rough sometimes. And I know you're working hard - I can see it in my midline and in how my bite has changed.

I need you to know though that I'm trying to make this work too. Every chance I get, I clean you with a denture brush and water and refrain from using anything harsher. I wear you as much as I humanly can, despite the fact that I'm trying desperately not to lose any weight in the mean while. I only ever drink water with you on, never ever any food or even juice. Heck, I even gave up coffee AND tea for you.

Why oh why oh why must tray 4 crack on me barely mid way through the two week mark then? This after tray 3 cracked on me after its first week. Oh I know what Dr. A's office will say but I'm not quite ready to part with you yet. It just seems too soon.

Well tray 4, I'm going to try to wear you for a few more days and then I'm going to have to move on to tray 5. I hope you'll last until then. And I do promise to be gentler with you, all of you, for the duration of my treatment. I hope I haven't come across too harsh, I'm just frustrated right now.

Yours truly,
STB

Snap, crackle, pop!

So I managed to do it again. I snapped my tray out (perhaps a bit too hard), it cracked a fair bit, and I called Dr. A's office before I popped from stressing out about what to do next. This is the second time I've had a top aligner crack on me (tray 1 did it too!) before it was time to be retired so I'll have to take extra care when removing it from now on, at least until my cross bite on the one side isn't as deep.

Anyhow, I was advised to move on to tray 4 a week early which I was surprised to hear. They seem to fit ok though. One thing I forgot to ask is if I should switch my bottom tray or finish wearing them for the full two weeks. Will have to bug them tomorrow I guess.

In other news, I saw my mom today. I haven't seen her in two weeks and she commented that my teeth had shifted and looked better. This without being asked! i happily retold the story to the fiance after he got home from work as it seems to be my favorite game ("hey, have my teeth moved???") with the fiance these days.

Actually when I think about it, long before I even met my fiance, my mom had always gently encouraged me to take care of my teeth. I really wish I had heeded her advice earlier on but in a way I'm kind of glad that I can afford to pay for them myself now and they're not an additional burden on her and my dad. Now that they're finally on, she's become one of my biggest cheerleaders.

I love love love my mom. She's the best.

Some pictures for your viewing enjoyment.

I take them off with the stealth...

So now that my attachments are on, I'm not able to pop my trays on and off the way I used to. There used to be a time when I'd pop them off at my work desk without even having to look at mirror. Those days are over now... I guess I never realized how good I had it.

These past couple of days, I have to curtail my sense of dread as lunch approaches and I pop into the women's washroom, reach in and pull off my tray tooth by tooth, hoping that no one will have to witness the unglamorous sight of me 'taking out my teeth' before lunch, drool dribbling off the side of my mouth, face red from the struggle to get them off. Fortunately, it doesn't take quite as long to put them back in.

So far I've managed to evade potential witnesses to my daily ordeal. Sometimes I pop into one of the stalls as someone enters, other times I just keep brushing my teeth until other people leave. Given that I work in an office building where there is a ratio of something like 60 women on the floor to 4 bathroom stalls I'm sure someday someone will catch me but for now I'll keep taking them off with the stealth...

(ps it's not that I'm that embarrassed about having braces, just not crazy being interrupted while I'm taking them on/off)

And the attachments are on!

I'm happy to report that I had 11 attachments placed on my teeth this morning and seem to be doing ok so far. They definitely make my braces more visible but still less so than a metal wire would have been. Dr. A's offered to take the attachments out for my wedding day (7 months into a 9 month treatment plan) so I'm not too concerned. In the mean time, the trays are pretty tight going and and out and feel kind of funny in mouth but I got a lot better after the first time and hopefully will get used to it soon.

One thing I have to say though is that while all of my questions have been answered (by the assistant) and i don't really have any burning questions I've been pretty disappointed by the amount of face time I've had with Dr. A. With the exception of the first couple of visits, he just seems to appear briefly during my visits and leaves the rest to his assistant. Is this normal practice for other dent/orthos, am I expecting too much?

Heh - I guess something kind of good came out of the mix up with my insurance claim though, they aren't processing the next claim until they've sorted the first one out which is a good thing since the christmas bills should be coming any minute now!

I'm kind of dreading dinner tonight. I'm supposed to go out for dinner for a friend's birthday and it's going to be a bit of a pain taking my trays on and off. Speaking of which, a couple of weeks ago I had lunch with some friends I hadn't seen in a while and one of them, K, noticed how often I was excusing myself. On our way out, she pulled me aside and asked "oh, so I was just wondering... are you expecting by any chance?" I could barely stop myself from bursting out laughing and explained about the braces. I guess some people might be offended by the comment but I'm a really tiny girl so I usually don't take comments implying that I've gained weight with any offense and my friend happens to be a physician and probably has this sort of thing on her mind more often than most.

Now that we're on the topic of weight. I find I've really lost my appetite in the last few days which is not good because I've been trying to offset that to begin with. On top of that, I've been eating more slowly than usual which is actually increasing my time spent without my trays. I guess I'll have to work on that. Really looking forward to getting some exercise machines so that I can work out again!

6 week pictures below. Honestly I never thought I'd be posting pictures of my teeth given how self conscious I've been of them all of my life but having viewed other people's blogs, I wanted to show others what I'm going through to get wherever I'll be approximately 6-7 months from now. I hope no one's scared off by pictures of my bad teeth!

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good:

-I'm finally getting my teeth straightened
-If all goes well they should look a lot better in time for my wedding
-I've got invisalign and so far, unless I've pointed it out, no one's noticed my trays.
-No major discomfort or pain (then again after having my 4 wisdom teeth (2 impacted) last fall, nothing really compares)
-My teeth have never been cleaner - I've been brushing, flossing and rinsing religiously after every meal

The Bad:

-Braces are expensive. Given that we just bought our first house and are furnishing it in addition to saving up for the upcoming wedding, that doesn't leave a lot to pay for the price of my vanity and oral health. Thank goodness I went for the enhanced dental coverage!
-Having to explain to guests/people I'm out with why I'm constantly going to the bathroom before and after eating. Was especially hard during the holiday season.

The Ugly:

-I just found out my claim for braces hasn't gone through yet! I hope they're just being slow but it looks like I'll have to follow up with them soon.
-Slightly odorous trays in the morning despite my OCD like cleaning of them (any suggestions?), the odd drop of unsightly blood in my trays, and not being able to snack as much as I'd like when I can't afford to lose any weight (I'm already tiny!)

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Well, all things considered, if this is the worst of it, things aren't all that bad. I guess I'll have to re-evaluate after I get my attachments on next Monday though.

Anyhow - happy new year everyone! Will post once the attachments and tray 3 goes in.