6 more to go

Tonight, I picked up ray 17 of 22... I only have 6 to go.  Eeeek!  I'm so excited.

With respect to the invisalign, there isn't much to report.  It's the same basic idea every two weeks:  Put them in, they're sore for a day, teeth move and I'm good for 13 days.  Repeat.

The newest thing is that we started talking about the next step.  My invisalign is going to create a gap in between two of my teeth that will need to be filled in. There are a couple choices on how to do it and a range of prices.  Bonding would be the least expensive, but also the least permanent.  Vaneers would be the longest lasting, but also nearly $1,000 per tooth (and they're recommending 9 be done).  I'm going to make an appointment with my regular dentist tomorrow.  He's also a cosmetic dentist fellow, and I think that he'll be more conservative and better for me in the long run.

100 Days!

I have 100 days left until the end of my treatment!!

I can really feel where my teeth are moving around to.  The only weird part is that they had to fix a cross bite in front, so there's been a couple teeth in front that are directly on top of each other.  So, I can bite together in front, but not in back at the moment.  They said that the last few will fix that, but it's been weird in the mean time that I can't bite together.

DOUBLE DIGITS!!!

I started my 10th aligner tonight.  That's double digits.  And, since I have 22 in total, it's nearly halfway there.  I can't believe that my next one is the halfway point.  Wow.

In general, things are going pretty well.  They did the 2nd set of IPR during my last appointment.  They had to make room on the top, so they added spaces between my upper front teeth.  I feel like there's a horrible gap between my two front teeth, but everyone says that it's not that bad.  At least it's not noticeable with the trays in.

I should really take more pictures and post them.  The thing is that I don't see that much improvement yet.  I know that there's been movement since my back teeth don't bite together at the moment, but up front, you can't tell.

Somehow skipped a week

Last night was the weirdest thing.  Whenever I have to go to my ortho., I try to schedule the appointments so that they fall on the Wednesdays that I need to change trays.  That way, I can get the next set of trays on time and don't have to wait to start my next tray.  I was originally supposed to change my trays next Wednesday, but because of how the weeks fell, I wasn't able to get in next week.  So, I scheduled my appointment early for this week.  I figured that I'd get the next batch of trays, and then I could swap them out next week on schedule.

Instead, she did the IPR stuff that she needed to, and then snapped in the next set of trays.  Apparently because she did the IPR and created the spaces, I needed the next aligner that's designed to accomodate the gaps.  So, I basically skipped a week of tray 8 and moved right into tray 9.  I'm not complaining since it doesn't really hurt any more than normal, and it already feels like my teeth have largely moved into their new spots.  Yay for getting done a whole week earlier!

In other news, the new gaps are between all of my front, top teeth.  I think that they're REALLY noticeable.  I asked one of my coworkers though, and he swears that it looks fine.  Of course, I think he knows better than to answer those type of questions negatively. :)  Here's hoping though.  I have a first date next week, and I'm crossing my fingers on this one.

Chewies

After seeing a bunch of posts online about aligner chewies, I decided to order them and give them a shot. I really do think that they make the trays fit on better. Sometimes, I would bite down on paper towel because it was soft and help them seat better. The chewies accomplish the same thing, but you can chew on them for a bit.

Not much is new with my trays. My second IPR session is on Wed. Not looking forward to it... Not because it hurts or anything, but because food gets caught in the space until the teeth move together there. I also have a teeth cleaning on Tuesday. With how much I've been brushing and flossing since I got Invisalign, I'm hoping for a really clean check up. :)

The count down begins!

200 days left until I'm done!  It's gone surprisingly fast actually.  This really is so much better than metal braces.

Shaving... Part 2

This week, I've learned that teeth shaving means that any and all food gets in the gaps. I've had to be especially diligent about flossing after each meal before I put the tays back in. I've also noticed that mouthwash is particularly helpful now to get the last little tidbits out. At least my next cleaning should be a breeze with all this brushing and flossing. :)