second day with aligners

[paramed1]

Hi Everyone,
I'm new to the board and Invisalign... this is my second day with the aligners, and so far so good! I'm not lisping and no one has noticed that they're in!

Here are a couple of questions I have... 1) Are chaped lips common? I feel like I put on chapstick every twenty minutes!
2) does the dry mouth ever go away?
3) The plan is for 5 aligners on the top and 15 on the bottom... will I keep wearing my last top aligner until the bottom catches up? wont it get gross and discolored?
4) I'm supposed to have attachments put on in a month on the top teeth, but the top teeth are nearly perfect... do they ever put attachments on to move the bottom teeth?

thanks so much for the help!

[John37]

My lips get a little drier, but not so bad that I have to use chapstick every 20 minutes. I haven't had a problem with my mouth being dry.

You will probably keep wearing the 5th aligner on top while the bottom catches up. I can ask about things you can use to clean it. I think the dentist one time used some sort of device to clean mine. I'm not sure if it was a UV sanitizer or what.

When I had to wear my last set of aligners while waiting for refinements, they seemed clean, but I would get bad breath more often, so I suspect they were harboring something nasty that I couldn't see. I cleaned them the best I could.

They put attachments on the bottom and top. If they are putting them on then you probably need them to make sure the teeth move correctly. My upper lateral incisor was supposed to rotate, but it moved up instead of rotating completely. With my refinements now I have an attachment on that tooth and it is coming back down and rotating into the correct place. It would have been better to have had the attachment all along.

Good luck!

[Realme2008]

I thought you had to wear ur last set until you got the refinement aligners? Am I under the wrong impression? Oh, and don't worry ur mouth will start to become less dry in about week or so. I had the same dry mouth problem you were having and it went away.

[myhollywoodsmile]

Hi there,

Firstly, I got chapped lips at first-in fact my ortho hands out chapstick with your aligners. It disappeared within a week though.

The dry mouth also gets better, I'm not sure whether that is just because your body gets used to it, but mine is fine now.

I think that you wear either your last aligner until the others catch up, or you move onto whatever you will wear as a retainer.

I have 17 top and 34 bottom so I will have this problem for a loooong time. I can't imagine that I will be able to wear set 17 of my tops for 34 more weeks- although I'm not sure!!

[anastasia]

My upper lateral incisor was supposed to rotate, but it moved up instead of rotating completely. With my refinements now I have an attachment on that tooth and it is coming back down and rotating into the correct place. It would have been better to have had the attachment all along.

Uh oh. I think that's happening with one of my teeth. I'm over halfway and it has definitely rotated, but it does seem to have moved up a bit too. Eek.

I had really dry mouth and lips too, but it went away. I still use a chapstick quite often, but I've always been doing that.

[Wireless]

I've found I can keep my lips from chapping as much by wiping the toothpaste off my lips after brushing. This stuff can cause problems if not wiped off, now that you're probably brushing your teeth a dozen times a day.

I've found I've had less problem after the first month or so. I tend to take my aligners out less now and am down to brushing only three or four times a day.

Regarding the attachments, I have upper and lower.

I also have different aligner counts - 14 upper and 21 lower, so I'll have at least 14 weeks for the bottom to catch up. This seems to be the question every has but doesn't want to ask their ortho. In my case, my ortho is also planning to use partial lower trays at the end of my treatment to extrude my rear teeth. My case is not normal for Invisalign so I'm probably not a good person to ask about this.

[John37]

Uh oh. I think that's happening with one of my teeth. I'm over halfway and it has definitely rotated, but it does seem to have moved up a bit too. Eek.

I thought someone else here had the same problem. I think it's because the upper lateral incisor is wedge shaped on the back (at least mine is). For the tooth to fit into the new aligner it can either rotate or go up into the gum. The wedge shape of the tooth kind of redirects the force upward. Getting an attachment on the refinements works. If it is moving too far up they may need to stop early and do refinements.