Metal Mouth Message Board

i hope this turns out to be a success story, as i've read quite a few stories about some unhappy people who decided on invisalign treatment.

i'm going to try to update this thread every once and awhile, so here goes with the first post....

i started my 1st aligner wear on thurs. feb. 15. i have 25 uppers and 11 lowers. my treatment is supposed to be fairly simple (or at least thats what im told) because my molars are staying put. just the other teeth are being moved.

so, i have 8 rectangular attachments. unfortunetly, i have 2 on the front teeth, which makes the alingers a lot more noticable. the IPR was some wacky stuff. first, they take some diamond sandpaper between your teeth. then, they use a small power drill to sand inbetween your teeth. then, they use a little vibrating polisher inbetween the same places. crazy stuff. it wasnt fun at all, but it also wasnt the most horrible thing ive experienced.

i felt a little bit of pressure on the teeth when they first went in, and when putting them in after eating for about the first 3 days. i had a little bit of pain when eating during those days, but not much at all. also, i had to file down some of the edges on the lower tray because it was scraping the bottom of my tongue. i took a nail file to it a few times and its a lot better now.

taking them out for the first time was quite an adventure. the lower ones snap out quite easily. however, the uppers take a bit more work. now, ive pretty much figured out how to get them out within 30 secs or so. the attachments make it more difficult. you kind of have to get a feel for what you're doing when you are prying them off and push and pull in the right directions. i do it by poping them off of each molar first then working around on one side towards the front until they pop off.

i've kind of been a little bad with them. i went out drinking the other night and left them in. was out for about 4 hours drinking beer. but, i made sure i took them out and brushed as soon as i got home.

my first aligner stays in for 3 weeks and the rest are in for 2 weeks at a time. im only on day 5 of this whole experience, and so far so good. im hoping things progress on schedule.

i'll probobly update this thread when its time to put in the next tray....

I got my first aligners last Thursday too!

I don't get the speedbumps til March 5 - four of them straight across my top front teeth.

So far things have been fine. Minor discomfort, a little lisping and slurring, but no complaints for the most part.

Well, good luck! Maybe we can compare notes as the process goes along.

Iggie

cool, inkogal. if you're worried about the speedbumps, don't. it takes no time at all to do. there is no pain involved either. just pressure applied while they shine that spam spam light on them.

how many trays do you have?

wow, I am really surprised that most of the new people have speedbumps on their front teeth (I started invisalign a little over two weeks ago). I have 12 rectangular attachments, 6 being on the upper six front teeth. Perhaps front teeth attachments are more standard than I orignally thought? Someone said they help the aligners stay on better. Maybe invisalign puts these on as a precautionary measure so its less likely to do refinements. This is my new theory. I have another question, do these speedbumps show up in pictures??

I have 6 speedbumps in total but thankfully none of them are on my front teeth. Looks like we all got the first tray around the same time.

Oh and I hated the IPR! I don't have to have any more done for a while though.

i was told that the attachments are essential for moving the teeth in certain ways. if one ever falls off, i have to get in to have one re-attached asap.

ya, the IPR sucks. i was pretty sensitive to the power sander near my gums. and that vibrating polisher was noisy, annoying, and just uncomfortable. but, that part wasn't painful, neither was the manually sanding. just when that power sander got close to my gums....man it stung!

i have to do another round as well around aligner 11 for my uppers.

I started my treatment recently, too (Feb. 3) and got the stupid attachments placed on my front teeth two days ago. I'm REALLY not feeling these things.

Pearlie, that was a good theory about why Invisalign seems to be prescribing all of these front attachments. That move is going to backfire on them though if people start complaining and causing others to not want to do it. I certainly wouldn't have done this if I had known the attachments would be so obvious.

Dale, That is odd that your first aligner didnt have attachments, but then you had to go back in two weeks and get them. I totally understand how you feel. I got invisalign for the invisible effect. As I have said before, it looks like I have braces, but am too ashamed to get 'real' braces. If I would have known about the attachments (which my ortho obviously never told me about), I would probably not have gotten braces at all. I left my ortho a nasty message on monday, about how I was dissappointed that he didnt go over my treatment plan and tell me about these speedbumps. I also asked what these two attachments were accomplishing (I know they werent rotating my teeth, were they intruding, extruding) and also what my options were if I didnt like them. He has not returned my call and it is Thursday. I mean, I paid $6000 for these things (which I think I got ripped off, since he said he charged for the length of treatment and he estimated 2 years. The invisalign came back and said 20U, 22L, which is 44 weeks. I should be paying half.) Anyway, I havent had any IPR done, which I should probably ask about. For all I know he will just start sanding my teeth down without telling me. Also, have any of you got copies of your clinchek? I want one but they wont give it to me.

Hi pearlie

Sorry to hear about your ortho issues! I hope he calls you back. My ortho told me about the attachments when I went for the first appointment, he was really unfront about them even though I don't have any on my front teeth. I think I would be annoyed if he hadn't of mentioned them and then put them on the front teeth! I can hardly see my speedbumps so I guess I am lucky.


I didn't get a copy of the clincheck but I haven't asked yet. I can see it whenever I go to his office if I need to. I know a lot of people have received a copy of their clinchecks though so it must be possible, I hope you get one.

while the bumps make the trays more noticable, i think they aren't as noticable as you guys think. when we look in the mirror, the first things we STARE at are our teeth. when other looks at you, the first thing they look at is your eyes.

if you look at yourself in pictures or on a webcam, you can barely see the bumps. it's really not that bad. don't get me wrong, i wish i didn't have them at all, but things could be worse.

i really do think that i prefer this over braces. i think when i see some real process with my teeth moving, i will care even less about the bumps.

so, it been exactly 2 weeks since i've started my 1st aligner. now, the trays fit really well. sometimes, when i put them in after eating, they fit a little snug. but, it doesn't take very long for them to loosen up. in fact, it's usually just a few minutes of snugness.

i've been somewhat paranoid about my attachments. it seems, however i'm only guessing, that a small fraction of the bonding my have come off. but, i am not really sure because the buttons blend in so well with my teeth now. they might be a bit smoother, but i'm not sure. anyone else experience this? as long as the attachments are still there, i don't think it's a problem. in fact, i'm not even sure if they are smoother, or it might just be that i'm more used to them, or it might be that the aligners fit differently than when i first started. i guess i'll ask about it at my next appointment. now that i think about it, i might make a call to my ortho right now. instead of wondering about it until my appointment....

can't wait until aligner 2 next week!!!

update: my ortho says the buttons can smooth out a little due to the repeated removal and insertion of the aligners. and, as long as they are still there, it is fine.

So things were going well for me until today! my new lower tray really hurts. I have been doing everying as instructed, wearing them for the required amount of time etc. I knew there would be pressure but this is worse than I expected, it all seems to be pushing on one tooth. It's the tooth that seems to have moved quite a bit since I started treatment. I'm hoping that some of the pressure goes away soon! I might give my ortho a call in the morning. I have a high tolerance for pain but this really hurts!

I know where you are coming from about all of the pressure seeming like it is on one tooth. That is how I feel about one of mine. None of the other pressure bothers me but the one. It has a some twisting to do, so I guess that I should be saying to "bring on the pressure!" but there is no denying that it hurts.

Thanks for sharing. I was beginning to wonder if it was just from the way that I was taking the aligners out but I don't think so anymore.

i've now been on tray 2 for very close to a week. after about 4 days, the aligners seemed to fit very well. almost as well as tray 1, but not quite. when i first put them in, the pressure was pretty intense. but, overall, it was not painful. with that being said, i did feel some intense pain on one specific area around my lower teeth. i couldn't really pin point which tooth it was because when i put pressure with my fingers on each tooth, i didn't really feel any pain. although, when putting the lower aligner in or when taking it out, i feel a really sharp pain in that area. it was tolerable and was only really painful for a second or two. after about 3 days from starting the 2nd aligners, it went away.

the people here are definitely right about looking forward to the pain/pressure of the new trays. when the feeling of pressure isn't there, it just feels like you're at a stand still in your treatment. whereas, when the pressure is on, it feels as though things are really happening.

Funny! Well, not funny. Yesterday (my first day) I had sensitivity on one specific tooth on my lower and now it's switched to another tooth on the lower. Talk about musical pain.

I do know what you're talking about Pimp, when I remove my lower tray, I get some intense pain that lasted for a second or two -same when I return it. Gawd, I feel like I'm removing my own teeth!! Also, looking at your sig line, Pimp, it appears as though you have a better understanding of your time frame for both your uppers and lowers than I do. That's next on my list of questions when I go in 2 weeks.