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.