invisalign update--4 weeks

hey all.  so it's been a little over 4 weeks of having invisalign.  i wanted to write an update on how it's going so far.

overall, it has been great.  i am actually really surprised at how well everything is going.  so i wear each tray for a week before i change to the next tray.  with each tray, my teeth move a tiny bit, a fraction of a millimeter, in order to avoid root damage.  i put the new trays in at night so that the majority of the uncomfortable time of getting used to the new tray is while i am asleep.  this has worked really well.  i haven't experienced a ridiculous amount of pain or tenderness that has woken me from sleep or anything like that.  by the morning, my teeth or pretty tender and sore, but again, nothing too unbearable.  by about the third day the tenderness is much less.  it is utterly impossible to bite things with my front teeth, like to bite into an apple or even something softer, like a burrito.  i have to cut things up and eat them that way.  it's not a big deal.  just different.

i have noticed that my teeth have moved.  not so much by looking at them.  if i compare pictures, i can see a tiny bit of change, but it is not super apparent.  but, how my teeth feel in my mouth is way different and that's how i can tell they have moved.  for example, many of my teeth have larger gaps in between them.  my upper back molars have lots of space between them.  when i checked my virtual treatment plan, i can see that the top molars move a bit forward and my front teeth move a bit back to straighten out and fill in the gaps from the pre-molars that were removed.  my bottom teeth in the front, about 6 across or so, have much more space in between them as well.  i can feel the difference with my tongue, but also when i floss, there is just so much more room!

the other thing i wanted to mention is that when wearing invisalign you are supposed to actually wear them!  for, like, 22 hours a day.  it seems intimidating at first.  but i have found it not to be very difficult.  probably because of my lifestyle; i am at home with the kids all day, and have access to all my dental accessories.  but i have found that when i wake up, i take about 45 minutes for breakfast (i like to eat and then have some tea or coffee and i don't gulp it down, so i take a little longer for breakfast), and then i usually don't snack between breakfast and lunch.  occasionally i do, but i try to eat a breakfast that has some healthy fats like a half an avocado, some carbs in the form of fruit, and protein--usually an egg and i add some flax in with the cut up fruit i eat.  that usually sustains me pretty well until lunch.  but i am definitely hungry at lunch time.  this is usually the quickest meal i eat, because it's also a busy time---feed the kids, cleaning stuff up and getting ava ready for nap.  i usually have a snack around 4pm, and that's quick--a smoothie or piece of fruit with some protein.  and then for dinner, i have my trays out for 45 minutes usually.  so i typically have my trays in for about 21.5 hours.  i think they say 22 hours is optimal, but 20-22 is fine.  over the 4th of july holiday we had a bbq and also Z's birthday celebrations so i'm sure i had my trays out for longer, so i might have averaged more like 20 hours.  i don't stress out about it because i want to be able to enjoy my time when we are lingering over dinner with friends/family, but all the other days i wear the trays the right amount of time.  but on a normal day, after dinner, i have some tea, and then brush teeth and trays and then put my trays in and usually don't take them out again until morning.  so that's a good 12 hours straight of wearing the trays.  it's helpful all around because i get a lot of consistent time in them from after dinner until morning, and i avoid snacking at night!  oh, and i do go out and about during the day with the kids, and have had to brush my teeth and trays in weird places (like my car or at the park), but it has been fine so far.

i know at some point i am going to have to wear elastics, which will help with my bite.  i am not sure when that will happen, but my ortho just sent me a message to make an appointment and come in so i wonder if it will happen soon.

i will post a few pictures, again, it's hard to see any changes visually, but here's a comparison (sorry about the close teeth shots, i know they are not nice to look at!!!):

ok so this was day 1

left is first week, right is 3 weeks

and again this is day 2

this was between week 3-4 (i don't have my trays in here)

this was taken a couple days ago, about 4 weeks in

this is a comparison--top is day 1, bottom is week 4, i can see that the bottom teeth are less overlapped than before

so invisalign shows you a "clin-check" video that is a simulation of what your teeth will look like at the end and at each tray along the way.  so you can see a time lapse video of your teeth moving, and you can also view it from one week to the next.  it's pretty cool.  this is what the end result will be, with some changes, per the dentist.  he said it will look a little different from this with refinements (where you wear trays to work on a few trouble spots that still need fixing) and the bite is not corrected here.