The pain is making me so sour...

[BracedSurgeryStudent]

Hey thanks that helps that there are other people out there that want to motivate me to success, thanks a bunch I CAN do it nad I will MAKE a way for it to happen I shall never give up on my goals. No matter how gross human bodies are, they're pretty awesome I just disected a brain yesterday. Pretty awesome if you ask me.

[ChicagoB]

Aditi,
I know how you feel, but try to stick with the program. I understand you're in a lot of pain, but it's not going to be permanent. I started mine in January and I'm almost at the end of the first phase - I want to get refinements.
The reason I stuck with it is it's not permanent - a few months of discomfort is worth the future benefit. I had a HUGE gap between my 2 front teeth and I always felt like a freak show. I hate pictures and my teeth make be very self-conscious at work, with people, etc.

When I started this treatment, my aligners were very visible because I had a piece of plastic between the gap - not so invisible then. What a difference a year makes - most people can't even tell I have braces even though I have attachments. You have to have the right attitude and figure out a way to manage the pain.

You found a good solution - water. Keep drinking that ice water - it's good for you anyway . If you can, take tylenol once in a while - I don't want you to get dependent on this and cause other problems.

Just remember the reason you started this process in the first place.

The first day I was in so much pain I thought I was going to scream. Some aligners were so uncomfortable I would lightly bite down on the finger (in lieu of chewies). Some days, I would not even feel like eating because I did not want to deal with the discomfort of taking them off and putting them back on. But it does get easier. Stick with it.

[Aditi]

Hello ChicagoB, really nice to meet you. Your words have certainly inspired me. Especially today! I needed to hear what you have to say because this morning I switched to a new aligner (#10 of 20). Halfway there, but this morning the pain was really intense. You are right though, it is worth it to suffer for a bit to have these teeth fixed. Anyhow I took a percocet so right now am feeling no pain. Yes, I guess it gets easier, or if not that certainly one gets more used to it. Thank you again for your kind words that have made me feel better, I appreciate them very much. I wish you much success with your own braces! I am very glad to hear it is working for you, that is awesome!

[BracedSurgeryStudent]

Yeah that was me last night. These elastics I tell you. So I got these super thin elastics the day I got my braces on and she sent me home in them and the said after that only wear them at night until I came back. So I out the other one on in the office and said "These aren't so bad I really honestly don't see why people complain. That was an understatement. I now have to wear thick ones after a one month no elastics period. I wear thicker smaller ones every day 24 hours a day and they KILL and it's making me in a bad horrible mood Im soo moody with these things in, But I know its only for 6 weeks Thank the Lord. But anywho so yeah that's my newest experience of emotionality in braces pain.

[Aditi]

I get moody too. Up and down, up and down. Moody and irritable.

So I woke up early because of the pain from this new set of aligners, set #10 of 20. I am in tears and...I took another percocet. I only have 4 left now. I have 9 more aligners to go. Dentist has already given me 2 bottles of percocet (one of 40 and then one of 20), so that is 54 percocet over the span of my first 5 priot to my midline correction and now these 10. So lets see, that is 54/15 is 3.6 percocet for every aligner change. I have 4 pills left so I can do aligner 11 but what about aligner 12? He says he does not want to make me a percocet addict. I am totally in tears. How can I move on to the rest of the aligners WHENT IT FREAKING HURTS SO BAD??? I have HAD it, I am calling him tommorw and this is it. FORGET IT. I want my bottom tooth that is now sticking out put back like it was and FORGET IT. I can't take it, it hurts too bad.

You all that write to me that it will get better, that the final product is worth this transient agony, that is great, but when I am NOT under the influence of some pain mitigating agent (and I don't mean tylenol which DOES NOT WORK), I do appreciate and get inspired by your words, but none of you know what I am going through personally...you just have no idea. I feel like I should be like you, all happy and encouraging and getting through this and whatever but I am not. I am so depressed and in pain and this has been the single most WORST year of my life and I still have 20 more weeks of it to go. It's not worth it. I can't take it anymore. If I did not have this one bottom tooth that now has a huge gap because they are spinning it around into a different place I would quit right now.

[ChicagoB]

Aditi,
It sounds like you have a lower pain threshold which makes the process seem unbearable. I'm not very good with pain either until you mentioned percocet, I forgot about the percocet I took a couple times (I got them following the wisdom teeth removal and frenectomy I had while waiting for my aligners to come in). I know what you went through because there were some days I was in so much pain I had second thoughts about this process.

I even had a love/hate relationship with Saturdays. I switch my aligners on Friday nights and would love Saturdays because that meant a new aligner but would also curse it because the pain on some days could be intense. At some point, I would even think my teeth were going to crack or something.

Telling someone to have the right attitude and stick with it may seem dismissive, but it's not. We don't experience the same level of pain/discomfort, but we've experienced the tough days.

My primary reason for sticking with this is I knew how self-conscious my teeth made me especially for the past few years. I had a choice - either stick with invisalign and ride it out or go back to feeling bad about my teeth. Remember the last days with each aligner - you know the pain subsides so just look forward to those days.

If you don't believe how bad my teeth were before, take a look at my clincheck images. My teeth were so bad I even expected invisalign to reject my treatment.

Start:
https://picasaweb.google.com/1179924030 ... 4360938178

Current:
https://picasaweb.google.com/1179924030 ... 5749039858

[tennesseeditto]

Aditi,

I am so sorry to hear about this continual pain experience. Tylenol does not work for me either. I take Aleve every 12 hours. I also use zilactin-B to numb my gums, swab it in with a q-tip, let them go numb and then put the aligners back on. I also use a heating pad and give myself permission to sleep as long as I want/need to the day after I turn my arch expanders.

I don't think anyone here is trying to tell you to "just endure it" but rather keep your eyes on the goal. At least that was/is my intent.

Blessings to you and all of us who are going through so much to have better teeth/mouth hygiene.

[Aditi]

Hi there I feel better now. Sorry for shouting, I did not realize my type font would be so big. Maybe I will edit it to be smaller again.

@Chicago - I used to switch on Friday nights but I decided with the pain I was feeling with set #9 that I should wait for Sat (yesterday) morning after I had slept all night in my old set and switch right in the morning when my teeth would be most favorable. I wish I could see your teeth pictures but the links are not working for me. Thanks again for your patience and kind words, I really do read every word and to know that you sometimes have the same experiences as me (though I wish you did not) is comforting in as much as it makes me realize I am not alone and this is not terribly abnormal.

@Tennessee - I can try aleve but that is like ibuprofen and I think it would upset my stomach but I will try it. Also, I will look for zilactin-B, that sounds very helpful actually. I really appreciate you commenting in my thread, you guys make all of this agony tolerable.

Thank you again. It is good to know I can come here and pour out my heart and know that there are people who understand. Thank you both for your encouraging remarks because I was going (at the time) to just quit. Now I will try to endure. But I will call my dentist and I will demand my 3.6 percocet per aligner set and he'll just have to write the scripts. I'm not going to suffer and I'm not going to become dependent on percocet by taking 3 of them every other weekend for intractable tooth pain, give me a break.

[tennesseeditto]

You are so very welcome.
You are so right; this is a good place to come to complain AND to receive comfort. I am so glad I found this forum too.

I forgot to tell you that zilactin-B does not take a prescription but you will need to ask the pharmacist to order it for you. Mine came the next day and it is definitely worth the ~$7.

Another thing I forgot to suggest is to exercise to get though feel good endorphins pumping does helps. I am a busy old lady (62 is old compared to most people on this forum) but walking a mile on a treadmill gets me to feeling better.

So glad to hear you are going to talk to your dentist and gonna hang in there.

Hey, allow me to edit that statement a few of us wrote, "Hang in there it will get better AFTER you are out of these things and you have that beautiful smile you've always wanted.".

[Aditi]

Thank you for the tip about the zilactin! And yes, exercise and endophins, that is seriously a good suggestion. I guess I get to feeling so depressed I just sit and work on my projects but really some activity might be a good idea, I am pretty sedentary. Thanks again!

[tennesseeditto]

You are welcome!

Keep us updated please.

[Aditi]

Today is Tuesday, Day # 4 of the new set and things are better. Ugh, it is just getting through the first few days that drive me bonkers and to the point of wanting to rip my teeth out. I still have the chewing issue which actually gets worse the looser the aligners get but I will take the annoying chewing any day over the pain. So...yeah...better. *whew*

[tennesseeditto]

So glad that you have some relief; that IS good news. Hang in there--all of us will have nicer smiles and better oral hygiene soon.