1st day with Invisalign - problems eating

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#1 Post by **guibea** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 7:12 pm

Hi everyone! Today is my first day with Invisalign. I will have 18 upper, 21 lower. Today I had 10 attachments put on and 4 teeth shaved.

When I bite down, not all my teeth touch because the top teeth will touch the attachments. I had mac n cheese for supper and it took me 26 minutes to eat a small bowl, one noodle at a time. I can't imagine how I can bite down on anything or chew it normally. Did anyone else have this issue?

I'm also having a very difficult time removing the aligners, but it's the first night so I'm hoping that will get better.

#2 Post by **andrea26** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 11:27 pm

Welcome

Don't worry it will get better. Your mouth needs to get used to having the aligners .It does take couple of days. You will be able to eat properly soon.
Also removing of the aligners will get easier.
Good luck with your treatment

#3 Post by **ohioinvisguy** » Wed Sep 29, 2010 2:48 pm

It was hard for me to eat at first with the attachments on as well. I promise you your mouth will adjust quicker than you think! Soon you will be eating as normal again! Im not sure if the problem is also pain you have when biting into food. If so (and for anyone else reading this) that will get better too. The best advise I can give to get over the pain of getting accustomed to new aligners is don't baby your teeth. I found that when I just ate normal foods as I would before getting invisalign, the tenderness quickly subsided. It may not be the case for everyone.

As for getting the aligners off with attachments, at first I had to use a crochet hook to remove them. However by accident a few weeks ago I found that if I start on one of the very last molars and "peel" the aligner GENTLY off grasping from the back and working forward, it came off without much effort or pain. This of course will depend on where your attachments are located in your mouth.

Hang in there. It gets better the longer you wear the aligners!

#4 Post by **ptblogger** » Thu Sep 30, 2010 7:54 pm

I feel your pain. My back teeth don't meet, and I have a cross-bite tooth on top that is currently edge to edge with the bottom. I have to adjust my jaw to get a decent bite in the back, and I still am not able to chew as well as I'd like. It's just temporary, though so I'm not complaining.

My ortho's office recommended that I remove them by pulling both sides in the back down and working in toward the center, but I broke a tray that way. I decided to go by the book and start on one side and work my way around and it's working much better for me. As I'm pulling down, I'm also pressing the back side of the tray where the attachements are and that helps alot too.

Wed Oct 06, 2010 5:38 am

I have the same experience that ohioinvisguy had in that if I just stick to my regular meals I tend to recover from new aligners trays quicker than if I give in to the desire to live on soup and shakes for 3 days!

I find that chewing soft gum before I brush my teeth and put the aligners back in helps - seems to take the soreness away quicker.

#6 Post by **Hollybee** » Thu Oct 07, 2010 4:10 pm

I feel your pain - literally! I just started Invisalign today with my first trays out of 25. It took me a couple years to committ to the process but i finally did...basically the short of it was that i had traditional braces when i was 10-12 years old as i had very crooked front teeth. I guess my dentist at the time said he would do it and my parents agreed because the cost was quite low, but now i am doubting how much experience he had with ortho, because while he did straighten my teeth i guess he did it by compromising a lot of things... 10-12 years later my new dentist recommended me to see an orthodontist to look at my bottom teeth, i guess when they were straightened they were also leaned forward to meet my top teeth (lower jaw is shorter than top), and now there is a risk of bone decay and gum problems due to the lean they are on. Basically he said its just a matter of time before i have problems and potentially lose my teeth. The other problems i am having is with my jaw, which is been quite sore for many years and also very limited range of motion. At first my Ortho thought i may need jaw surgery and then ortho to bring my jaw forward first...and yes i ran out of there and didnt look back for 6 months. Then i finally went and got my records done and it was determined that if they removed 4 teeth (2 upper 2 lower), and went with invisalign they could fix the issues with my bottom teeth and also my jaw would come to sit back in it's proper position. craziness. While i totally didnt want to go through with ortho for the second time, i really had no choice from a medical prespective.

Probably the worst part so far has been having the teeth extracted...it feels so weird and its so sore, and i've only had 2 days since the extraction before the invisalign started and it feels extra uncomfortable trying to get used to two new things. I know it'll probably all be better in a few weeks..but for right now i am so down in the dumps and just want the whole thing to be over...

Fri Oct 08, 2010 12:25 am

Hollybee, I felt like that for the first few days (and I didn't even have to have extractions). It gets so much better though, and you'll suddenly realise one day soon that it feels normal.