getting there is only half the battle

[gwyn_r]

Started off week 3 of the exercise effort with a trip to the gym with mlyn to help me figure out how to work the elliptical machine. I got brave last week and tried it out, but it was excruciating and left my thighs a burning mass of rubber. A bunch of people barked at me this weekend about how I needed less resistance and a lower level, but I hit

Comments

[mackiemesser]

Well, having only recently gone through Invisalign teeth-straightening (I had 'em in for a bit under 2 years and am on the retainers now) I can give you my impressions:

--Don't worry so much about the brushing & flossing after everything. I was fanatical about that for a few months, but it ended up being impossible to maintain when I wanted to drink something other than water at the office. Mostly, if you don't brush after every bit of food/non-water drink all the time, the aligners can get a little icky. The easiest way to deal with that is to brush them in the morning before you put them back in after eating and then brush them again at night before going to sleep. Some days you can just bush them with water or toothpaste, but as they get older and the surfaces get a little scuffed, brushing with Listerine cleans them up really well.

--You will stop grazing. Trust me on this: they cured me of it pretty thoroughly. It becomes way too much of a pain to be taking the damn things out all the time (this was especially true when in public or at work coz popping them out is kinda gross). Your teeth will be really sensitive/a bit sore the first few days after each new set of aligners (since that's when they're shoving your teeth around the most and the fit will be tightest) and popping them on an off will be a little uncomfortable so you probably won't want to do that very often.

--It is important to keep them in as much as you can. If you leave them off for a while (and I mean more than a day, because, yes, there were a couple times when I had a cold that I'd forget to put them back in at night) then your teeth move back out of shape and you have to get the impressions done again and the company has to make up a new series of aligners and the process takes even longer. (I am kind of/totally compulsive about these things and so never left them out for very long; the orthodontist would exclaim over how well it was going every time I saw him and told me about how so many Invisalign users leave the aligners out and have to start all over!)

--An emery board is your best friend. No, seriously. Because the aligners are plastic molds, they have some sharp edges and uncomfortable spots. Put the aligner in for an hour or two so you can feel for any spots that might poke you or an edge that might cut into your tongue or cheek a little. Then take them out and use the emery board to file the sharp edges down. This will vastly improve your comfort and make it a lot easier to keep wearing them all the damn time.

The awesome part is that very few people ever notice you're wearing them. And I'm really happy with how my teeth turned out.

If you have any questions, let me know and I'll do my best to answer!

[gwyn_r]

This is all extremely helpful. Much as I love the interwebz, there are a lot of people out there saying stuff that does not always help when one needs it -- I keep reading all these horror stories about people's experiences with them. And since most of them seem illiterate, it's hard to know what to really expect; you get either stupid pissed off cretins or marketing stuff that's clearly done by people who want to sell them to others.

I am absolutely OCD about my teeth. My parents had terrible teeth and suffered so much all my life with teeth problems, and so every time I go to the dentist, even after a long time, they talk about my impeccable dental hygiene. It won't be hard for me to keep those things clean because I can't stand even the slightest fuzzy feeling on my teeth.

I didn't know about the emery board. That is really good to know since my freakishly sensitive skin seems to include the inside of my mouth as well. I'm really down about the whole thing, but I know it's a necessary evil. I think that's going to be the hardest part for me, to be honest; not pain or inconvenience or starvation, but just doing this at all, again, and with a whole new set of troubles. None of my buddies seem remotely concerned or interested and I am sure they won't want to listen to me talk about them, and that would help. So I really appreciate you taking the time to tell me this, it helps a lot.

[mackiemesser]

Well, like I said, my orthodontist would constantly call me his "star Invisalign patient" because I wore them enough that they actually worked the way they were supposed to. I can imagine if you have to keep starting over it would be a complete nightmare!

Oh! The other thing about them: coz you've got something over your teeth it's hard to enunciate clearly and you can even sound like you have a slight lisp. You wouldn't think a thin layer of plastic would cause that, but it can--especially right after you switch aligners. The mouth is a weird place, man...

The emery board thing is a trick I figured out around my third set of alingers (I was changing them out about every 2.5 weeks). My tongue was sore enough that I was beginning to wonder how I was going to make 18 weeks, let alone 18 months (and it ended up running a couple of months over that), with that level of discomfort and then I just thought "You idiot: file the edge down!" Instant improvement.

After I got used to them, I did tend to...not forget I had them on, but stop noticing. It was pretty amazing to see my teeth progressively straightening when I would take them out to brush. I also tend to clench my jaw at night, so I found the aligners and the retainers to be helpful for that, too. I really didn't find them to be much bother once I got into the habit of them being part of the daily dental routine; I don't know if that eases your mind or not.

I don't mind talking about it at all--I just tend not to since I haven't wanted to bore anyone! But I know I would have appreciated some tips when I got started, so I'm glad if any info is useful.