Invisalign (Day 34)

Since my teeth straightening is a long journey, I decided to catalog the posts better. I changed a date thing in my second post, so its published date updated too. 

From now on, I will include the total day number on the post title and individual aligner day count in the contents. I'm quite confused about my days counting actually because I am supposed to change it at night before I sleep. But I suppose in the grand scheme of journey, +/- 1 day for each aligner will not matter much, as long as my teeth move into the correct position before I change to the next set.

Set 2

The experience of first putting on the second set was not was dramatic as the first set. There was a tight feeling, which did not hurt as much. By the 5th or 6th day, it was hardly noticeable.

But I uncovered how bad my teeth clenching was. My teeth were sore throughout the day. I had to consciously shift my bite to the front teeth. It was a bad decision. There was a night when I had bitten tightly throughout my sleep and my front teeth hurt very badly for the whole of next day.

I visited the orthodontist on day 30. Her advice for teeth clenching was to massage the jaw muscles to release the tension and if possible, open my jaws slightly so I wouldn't feel the urge to clench. On the same visit, she put attachments on 20 out of the 28 teeth that I have, with one tooth having two attachments. The attachments are tiny triangular stones glued to the teeth to grip the aligners tighter. This was part of the programme, so the aligners have the corresponding dents on them as well. I was given sets 3 to 6.

I left the clinic without aligners in the mouth. The orthodontist wanted the first wear to be at least 8 hours. Hence, I will need to have dinner before I could wear my set 3. The attachments scratched my inner lips quite badly and I thought that the abrasion would leave me with ulcers. 

Set 3 (day 4)

Set 3 was much tighter than the first two sets. I was given a handy hook to remove my aligners. After experimenting in the first two days, I concluded that the hook works better on the inner side than the outer side of teeth. The angle just made more sense. 

By day 3, the tightness feeling was almost unnoticeable. Yay to shifted teeth!

And today, I realised that the abrasion from the attachments was healed. I did not have to eat as carefully and painfully as the first two days. Phew~

Invisalign journey (part 2)

(Set 1) Days 4-5

The feeling in the mouth is pretty much the same, with tightness in the teeth and not much pain. Here is the nitty-gritty of wearing the Invisalign:

1. Part of the treatment plan is to do a teeth exercise at least three times a day. You will need to bite on a tiny pool noodle, affectionately known as a Chewie, for five seconds on each pair of top-bottom teeth. Since I have breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks/supper, I will do the exercise right after I put my aligners into my mouth. As with all types of exercises, over working the muscles will lead to aches. :p

2. I hear myself sounding different, like a bit deflated, but H thinks it is mostly ok. I do make conscious effort to pronounce my words more clearly.

3. If you have a teeth clenching habit like I do, you will have very sore teeth with and without aligners. In fact, the latter felt worse, especially since you still need to chew your food. Apparently, the two layers of aligners between the teeth will amplify the usual clenching force and exacerbate the problem, so it is a good time to correct this bad habit. Instead of closing the jaws with the hind teeth, shift the closing position forward by keeping the front teeth in contact.

4. I secretly like to escape to the toilet for my 5min routine after each meal to have a quick break before running into the next storm of three kids. @.@ Thank you, H! Love you lots for holding the fort!

(Set 1) Day 9

My hind teeth don't feel sore anymore. Yay!

By the way, Dr Jasmine (Day 6) said that if the hind teeth soreness is really bad without the aligners, I can leave the aligners in my mouth while eating. I just need to avoid the strong colours like laksa and curry to prevent staining the aligners. 

Since nothing feels different, I will update again when I change to Set 2 on Day 15.

J

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