Invisalign journey (part 1)

At the age of 36 years old, I decided to fulfill a wish in my bucket list to have straight teeth. I have an overbite, aka buck teeth, with misalignment in the molars behind. The front view of my wide grin looks almost fine but my teeth stick out in my side profile. The last straw came when our youngest kid kept hitting into my jaw/teeth and I have bleeding lips from her headbutts. 

Hence, the search began...

I want to eat anything I can, so no metal braces for me (unless I am unsuitable for clear aligners). I did the free online assessment with Zenyum and was assessed to be unsuitable for its treatment. Zenyum focuses on front 6 (or 8?) teeth only, which explains why their treatment fees are generally much lower than Invisalign. After googling a bit more, I decided to save time by skipping the other brands and heading straight to Invisalign.

Invisalign also offers a free online assessment and the Invisalign Concierge called me several times to follow up. They sent me a $200 discount voucher and names of several dental clinics within my preferred area. I googled the clinics and their dentists and orthodontists and finally chose the clinic which luckily was in the list of my insurance company. Casa Dental (AMK), here I come!

But the journey detoured on my first appointment with the orthodontist Dr Jasmine Lee. I needed to get my lower wisdom tooth extracted by the dental surgeon Dr Chan and my teeth checked and cleaned by dentist Dr Yong. [Both Dr Chan and Dr Yong were gentle and comforting. Thumbs up for them!] Dr Jasmine recommended that I have the (most expensive) Comprehensive package which includes unlimited sets of aligners and one set of retainers. The $7500 package covers all consultations with her henceforth but I will need to pay separately for the rubber bands to correct my jaw position. Oh yes, and if I had chosen to do metal braces, I would need to extract two more upper teeth. So yay for aligners again!

My second appointment (6 weeks after the first one) was to approve the treatment plan from the ClinCheck. I have 38 sets of aligners with 10 to 14 days in between them, so the entire treatment will be about 1.5 years. By the way, the next lower tier of the Invisalign package gives up to 26 aligners only, so my package was assessed accurately prior the results of this ClinCheck.

My aligners arrived 4 weeks later (2 weeks more than expected) and I collected them from the receptionist. H thought I should start treatment immediately, so I can ask questions at my third appointment, which is one week later. My third appointment was initially made to collect the aligners. Or else, the SOP for the next appointment was one month after treatment started.

Day 1

When I inserted the top aligner for the first time, my front 2 teeth hurt like I fell flat on my lips. The pain on the rest of the top and bottom teeth was almost unnoticeable in comparison. I looked into the mirror and was horrified that it was only the first morning. Oh man....

Surprisingly though, the pain subsided faster than I imagined and was quite bearable. And I feel 100% healthier already. I couldn't have snacks and sneaky attacked the fridge for my cold sweet drinks anytime I wanted. H said I should take my weight to compare 1.5 years later. Well, it hovers between 48 to 50 kg.

Days 2-4

The aligners can be inserted and removed more easily with each day. The pain while wearing the aligners has transitioned to a feeling of tightness. In fact, my teeth feel painful when I removed the aligners to eat. They are trying to move back! Grr... I try to eat quickly, so I can put the aligners back in fast too. But my gastric doesn't seem to agree with this new routine :( . Hope I get used to it soon...

J